Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Strategic market planning
Objectives
•
Outline the marketing concept
•
Review the evolution of marketing in the food and agribusiness industries
•
Present the market planning framework
•
Discuss the components of a SWOT analysis
•
Examine the market segmentation concept
•
Develop the fundamental idea of positioning
Introduction
Ask people what they think of when the term “marketing” is mentioned and most will answer
“advertising” or “selling.” While advertising and selling may be two of the most visible
marketing activities, marketing in food and agribusiness fi rms involves far more than these
two methods of marketing communication. In reality, marketing includes a wide spectrum
of decisions and activities that center on effectively reaching your customers, prospects, and
public, and providing them with information about your products or services that satisfy
their needs and wants. The full marketing process involves identifying customer needs,
developing products and services to meet these needs, establishing promotional programs
and pricing policies, and designing a system for distributing products and services to
customers.
Marketing management
is concerned with managing this total process.
The marketing concept
Marketing
can be defi ned as the process of anticipating the needs of targeted customers and
fi nding ways to meet those needs profi tably. There are several key ideas in this defi nition.
Marketing is about anticipation. Good marketers are always working to anticipate what
their customers' needs will be in the future. This may mean anticipating the features farmers
will be looking for in a new tractor or it might involve anticipating the type of seasonings
consumers will want in a new frozen chicken entrée. Good marketing involves having the
right products and services available when the customer is ready to buy them. It follows that
good agribusiness marketers know a lot about their customers.
A second key idea is the notion of a
target market
. Clearly, “one size does not fi t all” in
the food and agricultural markets. Good marketers understand this and focus their efforts on
the unique needs of specifi c target markets or market segments. They know that the small
livestock farmer in Kentucky needs a very different set of products and services than does
