The marketing mix - Agribusiness Management - page 145

Plate 7.1 Marketing mix
Successful marketing requires the right marketing mix: the correct combination of product, price,
place, and promotion strategies. Photo courtesy of Purdue University Centre for Food and
Agricultural Business.
In the end, it is this bundle of products, services, and information that creates value for the
buyer.
The value bundle
When developing a product strategy, the agribusiness marketer begins with the needs of the
target market clearly in mind. What set of products, services, and information can the fi rm
deliver to meet the needs of the target market? One especially useful concept that can help
answer this question and guide development of a product strategy is the idea of the value
bundle . The value bundle is the set of tangible and intangible benefi ts customers receive
from the products and services an agribusiness provides. The fundamental challenge when
developing a product strategy is determining what to include and what not to include in the
value bundle for the target market.
What is value? And, more importantly, how do customers defi ne value? Value to the
customer is defi ned as the ratio of what they receive (perceived benefi ts) relative to what
they give up (perceived costs) ( Figure 7.2) . As customers make purchasing decisions, they
compare the perceived benefi ts of the purchase against the perceived costs. If the value equa-
tion is tipped in favor of the benefi ts, i.e., the benefi ts exceed the costs, the customer has
found a good value and will make the purchase, provided another supplier isn't providing
more value/lower cost on the same bundle.