Experience Arkansas Agriculture Conference
Agriculture is Arkansas’ largest industry, adding around $16 billion to the state’s economy annually. The bulk being focused on rice, soybeans, cotton, poultry, feed grains, and growing in the Arkansas River Valley, East and Southern parts of the state. Timber/forestry is also an aspect of agriculture in Arkansas with a significant impact.
While the primary focus within the state is on commodities, a vast opportunity lies in the specialty crop sectors and value-added.
Logistics, transportation, marketing, and retail must take a cut to be profitable endeavors in their right. Another opportunity lies in shorting the food chain and promoting purchasing directly from farmers and farmers’ markets.
I’m Logan Duvall.
Me & McGee Market is my family’s business. On any given day, visitors to our market will more than likely see the smiling faces of several members of our multi-generational family milling about. We proudly represent four generations in a business that has stayed in our family since it was started by my grandparents many years ago. I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of a family business.
We are committed to focusing primarily on Arkansas-made and grown products. Through that dedication, we have seen first-hand the positive ripple effect of buying local from our home state vendors.
My mother, Neva, began utilizing social media almost a decade ago. By posting pictures of the story of the market, they quickly expanded the customer base, and in a short time.
Growing up in Atkins, Arkansas, both my grandfathers were in agriculture. While my paternal grandfather, Gary, a roofer, raised broiler chickens for Tyson.
My maternal step-grandfather Bud was a welder, even working on constructing Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville. Later in his life, he raised cattle and cut hay.
Working around cattle and agriculture my whole life, I’ve definitely done a lot of hard work, but looking back, I have nothing but great memories of the incredible things I got to experience, I will always remember what it was like to ride the old green John Deere, watching endless bales of hay pop out and hit the ground. To this day, the smell of dried, spilled coffee in my grandpa’s old Dodge dually, floods back precious memories.
Agriculture has countless faces, therefore countless stories to be told.
One aspect of agriculture is the fact that it is a business. The farmers and ranchers have products, and they make their money by selling their products. Over time, to make the most of their efforts and to sweeten the profits, they’ve learned to utilize marketing and branding. As with any process a business undertakes to engage its target customers, marketing and branding can be difficult and expensive. Yet when executed effectively, it pays massive dividends.
When I joined the family business, I recognized the significant impact my mom’s boosting of Me and McGee Market’s social media presence through Facebook and Instagram had on our company’s exposure. She had been the pioneer, and it didn’t take me long to realize that with ever-present technological advancements, I had a great platform to build a strong marketing plan going forward.
The power of social media was just beginning to shine through in those days, and I started to devour all the resources I could to improve our presence on the different platforms.
With all the strategies, tricks, and hacks, I kept finding myself going back to the old truths. One popular, long-standing, and time tested resource is the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It is the most significant business and marketing book I have ever read.
The physical business and social media go hand-in-hand. To be successful, both must be exceptional. By all indicators, the future will be even more important.
My years of self-education, and a brief stint in real estate, equipped me with the skills to establish a mentorship in business and marketing.
Applying what I’ve learned with mom’s photography helped take our market presence and customer following to another level.
The extra attention we gave to marketing led us to many opportunities; one with lasting implications.
Allen Smith came to our market to film a segment for his television show. Getting to know Allen and his crew led to meeting other people in the industry, and developing more relationships, one being Emmy winning producer Patrick Green.
Life continued, and after being featured in a few more segments with Allen, we received more behind the scenes exposure, which had many beneficial effects.
Around that time, my world was rocked with a devastating cancer diagnosis of my then five year old son, Lander. Everything changed for me in that time frame. Overcoming cancer became my priority and I immediately embarked on a massive focus on health and diet.
Another opportunity, due to the increased exposure, has been speaking and being a part of panels. One such engagement led me to meet Dr. Ron Rainey. Again, another chance event that would lead to things in the future.
Government departments, Universities, Associations, and individual businesses are all working to raise the tide for all but, in many ways, can be redundant and ineffective.
There is a certain degree of technical ability and skill in utilizing marketing practices for the likes of social media and software. The cost of production and distribution incurred can be high and in most cases cost-prohibitive, especially for small businesses.
Looking at the previous campaign shows we have figured out a solution between Ron, Patrick, and myself combining forces.
Through diverse expertise and multidisciplinary approaches, we’ve been able to make a massive impact that connects with views, ultimately consumers, and supporters.
This is Experience Arkansas Agriculture and what’s been accomplished in less than a year.
Another opportunity, due to the increased exposure, has been speaking and being a part of panels. One such engagement led me to meet Dr. Ron Rainey. Again, another chance event that would lead to things in the future.
Government departments, Universities, Associations, and individual businesses are all working to raise the tide for all but, in many ways, can be redundant and ineffective.
There is a certain degree of technical ability and skill in utilizing marketing practices for the likes of social media and software. The cost of production and distribution incurred can be high and in most cases cost-prohibitive, especially for small businesses.
Looking at the previous campaign shows we have figured out a solution between Ron, Patrick, and myself combining forces.
Through diverse expertise and multidisciplinary approaches, we’ve been able to make a massive impact that connects with views, ultimately consumers, and supporters.
This is Experience Arkansas Agriculture and what’s been accomplished in less than a year.
We are going to cover more in-depth the impact and future goals of the Experience Arkansas Agriculture Campaign on September 16th. To attend, join the link below at 9 am.
https://uada.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUode2hrj0oHNwU4vWoH1VETNAePodAxyEm
To see amazing people sound the state impacting the state, follow the Experience Arkansas Agriculture Facebook page or Me and McGee Market’s Youtube
Contact Information
Logan Duvall
meandmcgeemarket@gmail.com
479-857-4799
Ron Rainey
rrainey@uada.edu
501-671-2175