There is an agricultural practice farmers use called “fallow field farming.” It is the method of planting nothing at all to allow fields time to replenish, rejuvenate, and regain fertility. I got to thinking… this practice of waiting a season to allow for replenishment is exactly what some businesses could use…
Fallow Field Branding
This is the business practice of growing nothing at all to give the company an opportunity to replenish, rejuvenate, and regain fertility.
Rapid growth expectations are thrust upon a business by Wall Street and company shareholders.
If you were to order a brand autopsy to determine the cause of death of products or whole companies, more times than not the marketing pathologist would diagnose: over extending product lines (over planting/soil exhaustion), excessive employee churn (over-tilling), and over stretching the brand (over harvesting) until to the point of ruining their own fertility.
What about the notion of letting the business rest for a season to allow it to rejuvenate?
Instead of aggressively building new stores or launching new products – why not let that part of the business go fallow?
I’ll use Starbucks as an example, but there are plenty of businesses – maybe your own – that could use the opportunity.
What if they could stop planting new stores for a season and instead allow rejuvenation? A replenishment of their nutrients. A few benefits would include…
- Provide an opportunity for the product teams to weed out products that aren’t the highest quality or exceeding customer expectations.
- Ability for human resource teams to further train existing employees as well as better train new hires.
- Opportunity for store managers to focus on their current customers – learn names and drink preferences.
- Opportunity store managers to participate more in their community.
Should shareholders allow fallow field branding? Isn’t the short-term pause worth the long-term yield? What do you think? Is this idea genius or a bunch of manure?
Background
It is believed that the practice of leaving fields fallow originated because some cultures were forced to return to their old fields, and found that the infertile fields they left behind had become more productive.
This led to the establishment of a rotation system where each growing season certain fields would be left alone or tilled but not planted, extending the useful production life of a set number of fields. sometimes the fallow fields were used for pasturage for animals, which had the incidental benefit of fertilizing the soil.
It was later found that certain plants, thought useless except perhaps for animal fodder, were beneficial to a field’s productivity, and seeds for these plants were planted in fallow fields.[1]
I learned about fallow field farming working at the Land Pavilion at EPCOT Center. As a Disney cast member, I started as the host at the movie “Symbiosis” – a documentary about human interaction with the land. Fallow field farming was one of the various land management systems presented. And now you know.
Source:
[1]Definition from the Rice University School of Science and Technology website.
Photo by tico_bassie via Flickr
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Hi,
the Link to rice.edu would not work.
By Gerald
Worked for me, Gerald. Try again.
Paul, a sound idea, but perhaps impractical with demanding shareholders. A similar and maybe more palatable approach would be to work in some “slack” on the production, new product introduction schedule for a respite to refocus.
This strategy, of course, would assume you run a tight ship to begin with and can afford a little bit of slack. Thoughts?
I agree wholeheartedly with your proposal and its potential value–you are definitely low on the manure quotient, approaching genius.
Sadly, in the rush to GROW MORE, DO MORE, GO-GO-GO, we end up mistaking activity for progress. My take on this: the farmer who leaves a field fallow is applying LONG-TERM thinking. Sadly, in my 25+ years in business, I have found precious little long-term thinking, and likewise little attention to sustainability.
Perhaps we need a semantic shift? If bosses/shareholders are reluctant to provide “slack,” “downtime,” or a “fallow season,” would they be more open to a “restorative period” or a “revitalization event”?? Let’s find a snappy brand name for the recharging process, and then maybe it will catch on!
A very interesting thought … fallow farming for business/marketing. Not sure how stockholders would react, or how a small business owner would survive during the fallow period, but a great concept to encourage long-term thinking.
Here’s another possibility: Hire an outside consultant to “serve fallow time” for you. The consultant would think the big thoughts, plan for the future, assess what’s working and what’s not, and generally provide the same benefits that the fallow period would provide, while allowing the company to keep on keepin’ on.
I’ve had a number of clients use our services this way, and we have a nice portfolio of success stories as a result.
Thanks for a very interesting metaphor. As I learned working on an Ag product, there is a lot of wisdom embedded in farming. This is another great example of that.
Another farming thing I have heard is “make hay while the sun shines,” which I think applies to business.
I think it means that when you can work hard because you have the opportunity, do it!
Rain will come soon enough…
The concept of fallow farming is fairly easy to understand….but then again I come from a family of farmers. The point of long-term thinking is well noted but not necessarily real in this application.
I don’t know of one CMO who would go to his CEO and say “Hey, let’s lay low for a year.”
Also, Starbucks is one of the most aggressive growth companies in the world. Howard Shultz (CEO/Starbucks) is willing to build stores across the street from each other just so the customer has ease of entry. In addition, starbucks has been able to weed out undesirable products, train employees, focus on customer needs, and be involved with their communities quite effectively.
This is a great idea that can be extended to advertising, at least certain advertising.
I was writing about the new campaign for the Zune music player when I realized that they were better off taking time out. Let consumers forget that you are second best while spending the ad money on product innovation. When you have something good to sell, and your field isn’t fallow, then tell the advertising story.
http://dailybiz.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/fallow-field-advertising/
I love this idea, and I think it can be applied both to large and smaller-scale businesses. I started my studio at the beginning of last year and spent the first twelve months in GROW GROW GROW mode, and then hit a really hard crash at the beginning of this year.
Devastated and convinced that I was in the toilet, I instead took the time to rebuild, refocus my energies, define my market, and get myself back out there, and I’ve actually seen really strong growth as a result.
While my story is not quite the same as a Starbucks, I think there’s a lot of value in just stopping for a bit to reassess and get rid of what no longer serves you. When you’re stuck in the GROW GROW GROW, you can end up bringing with you a lot of excess baggage that is ultimately going to weigh you down.
I agree, and think that these principles can be applied to small businesses just as easily as larger ones. While it’s certainly tempting to keep your “eyes on the prize,” so to speak, and you certainly shouldn’t lay low for TOO long, stopping to reassess and refocus is important to identify areas of your business that are lagging, not working, or otherwise just draining. Once those things are shifted, you can move forward on better footing. This was something that I had to do at the beginning of this year after a few disappointments, and I have never been more satisfied with my business.
tq for ur info…it’s very interesting…..