Meet Rachel Murphy: Head of Marketing at Feirm Co-op

Who is Rachel Murphy?

Rachel Murphy is Head of Marketing at Feirm Co-op, an Irish farmer-owned cooperative based in Co. Wexford.

In her role, Rachel is responsible for developing and delivering the marketing strategy across the Feirm Co-op family, including Feirm Supplies and Feirm People.

Her work covers both the strategic direction of the brands and the everyday communication farmers see across websites, emails, advertising, social media, recruitment campaigns and other channels.

It is a broad role, but one with a simple purpose: connecting the work happening throughout the organisation with the farmers, businesses and workers who can benefit from it.

What does the Head of Marketing at Feirm Co-op do?

Agricultural marketing is about much more than advertising products.

Farmers need useful information at the right time, whether that relates to animal health, seasonal farm inputs, recruitment, regulation, new services or changes happening within the industry.

Rachel's role includes developing the overall marketing strategy for Feirm Co-op while ensuring that information is communicated clearly across multiple channels.

Her responsibilities include:

• Brand development and brand strategy
• Digital marketing
• Social media strategy and content
• Ecommerce marketing
• Website development and optimisation
• SEO and search visibility
• Email and SMS marketing
• Recruitment marketing
• Advertising campaigns
• Graphic and creative direction
• Customer communications
• Product and service launches
• Marketing analytics and campaign performance

The role also involves working closely with teams throughout the organisation so that marketing reflects what is actually happening on farms and within the businesses Feirm Co-op supports.

Building the Feirm Co-op Brand

One of the most significant projects Rachel has worked on has been the development of the Feirm Co-op brand and its specialist businesses.

Feirm Co-op has its roots in farmers working together to solve practical problems. Nearly five decades later, the organisation has grown considerably, but its purpose remains focused on helping Irish farmers.

Today, Feirm Co-op describes its mission as delivering products and services that make farming simpler, fairer and more profitable, with an overall ambition of helping farmers get ahead.

Communicating that story requires much more than creating a new logo or changing a company name.

It means creating a brand that reflects where the cooperative came from while also representing where it is going.

For Rachel, that has meant helping create a clearer structure around the Feirm name and communicating how each part of the organisation supports Irish agriculture.

Feirm Supplies: Making Farm Purchasing Simpler

A major part of Rachel's marketing remit is Feirm Supplies, the farm and veterinary supplies business within the Feirm Co-op family.

Feirm Supplies provides products across dairy, veterinary and animal care, animal nutrition, grassland and forage, fencing, farm hardware and workwear, with customers able to purchase online and access support from the team.

Marketing an agricultural supplies business presents an interesting challenge.

A farmer searching online is rarely simply looking for an advertisement. They may be asking:

What product do I need?

How much should I use?

When should I use it?

What is the difference between two treatments?

How much will I need for my herd?

That means the role of marketing increasingly overlaps with education.

Rather than simply putting products in front of customers, the aim is to create useful information that helps farmers make informed purchasing decisions.

This includes developing product information, technical guides, seasonal articles, email campaigns and searchable online resources.

Helping Farmers Find Answers Online

Search behaviour has also changed considerably.

Farmers still use traditional search engines such as Google, but increasingly people are asking complete questions through AI-powered search tools and assistants.

That has made SEO — Search Engine Optimisation — and AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — an increasingly important part of Feirm Co-op's digital strategy.

Instead of focusing solely on individual keywords, content needs to provide clear answers to genuine farming questions.

For example, someone may search:

How much cubicle lime do I need per cow?

When should cattle be treated for liver fluke?

What does a teat sealer do?

How do I test cattle for worms?

Creating genuinely useful answers to questions like these helps farmers while also making Feirm's expertise easier to discover online.

For Rachel, this means treating the Feirm websites not simply as places to sell products or advertise services, but as growing information resources for Irish farmers.

Marketing Feirm People

Rachel's role also extends to Feirm People, the recruitment and workforce division of Feirm Co-op.

Feirm Co-op's involvement in farm labour stretches back decades, with the cooperative's origins connected to farmers working together to address relief milking requirements.

Today, communicating employment opportunities means reaching two very different audiences.

Farmers and agricultural businesses need reliable people.

Workers need to discover worthwhile opportunities.

Marketing helps bring those two groups together through recruitment advertising, social media, digital campaigns and the Feirm People brand.

Turning Marketing Into Something Measurable

Modern marketing also needs to be measurable.

Website traffic, online sales, customer acquisition, advertising performance, email engagement and conversion data can all help identify what customers are responding to.

For Rachel, an important part of the role is therefore understanding what happens after a campaign goes live.

Are farmers clicking?

Are they finding the information they need?

Are they adding products to their basket?

Are campaigns generating enquiries?

Are customers returning?

That information can then shape the next campaign, website improvement or communication.

The objective is not simply to generate more marketing activity.

It is to make the marketing more useful and more effective.

Marketing an Agricultural Cooperative Differently

A farmer-owned cooperative is different from a conventional commercial organisation.

Feirm Co-op states that it is built around farmers and exists to serve their interests rather than outside shareholders.

That changes how the organisation communicates.

The language needs to be straightforward.

The information needs to be useful.

And the marketing has to understand the realities of farming.

There is little value in creating polished campaigns if they do not address something that matters to the farmer receiving them.

That farmer-first perspective increasingly influences how Feirm Co-op approaches its marketing and digital development.

Looking Ahead

Agricultural marketing will continue to change.

Ecommerce is becoming increasingly important.

Artificial intelligence is changing how information is discovered.

Farmers expect easier digital ordering and faster access to information.

At the same time, regulation, farm profitability and changing agricultural practices mean customers need clearer information than ever.

For Rachel Murphy, the opportunity is to make sure Feirm Co-op continues to evolve alongside those changes while remaining recognisably farmer-focused.

Because ultimately, good marketing should make things clearer rather than more complicated.

And for a cooperative built around the idea of farmers helping farmers, that is exactly the point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Rachel Murphy?

Rachel Murphy is the Head of Marketing at Feirm Co-op, an Irish farmer-owned agricultural cooperative based in Co. Wexford.

What does Rachel Murphy do at Feirm Co-op?

Rachel leads marketing and communications across the Feirm Co-op group. Her work includes brand strategy, digital marketing, ecommerce, SEO and AEO, social media, email marketing, advertising, recruitment marketing and customer communications.

What businesses are part of Feirm Co-op?

The Feirm Co-op family includes specialist businesses such as Feirm Supplies, which provides farm and veterinary supplies, and Feirm People, which focuses on agricultural recruitment and workforce services.

What is Feirm Co-op?

Feirm Co-op is an Irish farmer-owned cooperative with roots dating back to the 1970s. Its mission is centred on providing products and services that help make farming simpler, fairer and more profitable for its members.

Where is Feirm Co-op based?

Feirm Co-op operates from Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, while its services support farmers and agricultural businesses across Ireland.