Famers Markets, or Green Markets, are one of the fastest growing phenomenons of the last ten years, jumping, according to the USDA’s last count, from 1,700 to nearly 5,000 nationwide.

Fresh food, quality food, supporting the local farmer, reduced carbon footprints, pleasant atmosphere…farmers markets have so much to offer, on the rational and sensual level, that we might forget to pay attention to the emotional and archetypal power of the Farmers Market.

Farmer’s Markets are resetting the standard for the one thing has always made every mass food and beverage brand so valuable.

Trust.

We trust the farmers we are buying from.  This allows us to drop our guard. As a result we more deeply enjoy the atmosphere and get excited about eating our purchases.  Our smiles when we greet our neighbors reveal a level of playfulness that we can’t experience at a regular food store.

In the background of all this is nostalgia for a simpler time when nobody was trying to get us to sign up for a shopper card or “upgrade” us to a bigger purchase.

Farmers Markets activate the archetype of the Innocent: the longing for a playful, trusting, and carefree life. 

Remember the scene in You’ve Got Mail when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan finally come together? It’s no accident that it takes place in an outdoor flower market, Cupid’s version of the Farmers Market.

Coca-Cola once was the consummate Innocent brand.  But as American consumers become less trusting of mass brands and as soda and fast food start to become the new tobacco, Coke will have to do something spectacular and credible to regain its position as a brand that can activate the Innocent archetype.

So will every mass food and beverage brand.