Heather Thompson, Executive Director of enterprise marketing at Growmark, shares the details behind the new campaign for the FS brand—Start to Finish.
“FS is the flagship brand that farmers have a close relationship with and a rich experience with,” says Thompson. “We want to invest in the FS brand and help to build awareness of what a farmer can expect when they’re doing business with FS and the benefits of working with their local FS cooperative.”
Growmark is the wholesale agricultural supply cooperative with more than 40 FS branded retail companies from South Dakota to the east coast and Ontario, Canada.
The tagline, “Start to Finish” highlights the opportunities in every season all season long for products and services offered by FS retail locations.
“We think ‘Start to Finish’ really embodies who FS is as a retail cooperative. Farmers can count on FS to provide all of the products they need from seed to fertilizer, to fuel to the lubricants for their tractors. So truly, from start to finish, FS has it all,” Thompson says.
The advertising campaign starts July 1. It’s the first brand campaign promoting FS in 10 years.
“So much has changed in the industry in that 10 years,” Thompson says. “It felt really important that we could talk to growers about what they can expect from FS, the benefit of working with their local cooperative, and also that trusted relationship that they’ve always known us for.”
One of the biggest trends in that time has also been in the increase in technology in the industry, used by the cooperative, and used by the farmers themselves. Thompson points to the propriety mobile app used by FS, myFS Agonomy, which gives in-season agronomic insights at the field level.
“We hope to start seeing an easier opportunity to have conversations about the whole package that FS brings to growers,” she says. “And we hope that it’s a great opportunity to start connecting the dots even within the co-op to those customers, to make sure that we’re truly delivering on that start to finish.”
