Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
8
Tools for marketing decisions
in agribusiness
Objectives
•
Outline the procedure for a marketing audit
•
Analyze how sales forecasts are made and how they are used in the agribusiness fi rm
•
Present methods for analyzing competitors
•
Review techniques for studying customer attitudes and opinions
Introduction
Developing and managing a successful marketing program in an agribusiness can be a com-
plex task, particularly in larger fi rms with many products. This chapter explores several
analytical tools that are critical to agribusiness marketers' understanding. Whether you are
selling a product, or managing programs, people or products, it is important to understand
how each of these tools can work toward helping the agribusiness fi rm achieve goals and
stay competitive.
The needs of customers are constantly evolving. Competitors are continually introducing
new products, services, and programs. Nearly all agribusinesses face highly seasonal demand
that creates the possibility of critical bottlenecks in servicing customers. Unpredictable
weather patterns further complicate market planning, and volatile agricultural commodity
prices often cause the demand for farm inputs and services to fl uctuate. Because of such
complexities, agribusiness marketing strategies require a great deal of planning. Successful
managers spend much time analyzing their market, assessing their own strengths and
weaknesses, and mapping their strategic marketing plan.
Agrimarketers use a wide assortment of analytical tools and concepts—market planning
tools to assist them in the market planning process. These tools play an important role in
important role in the evaluation phase of the market planning process. Some of these tools
are highly sophisticated and involve complex mathematical models and extensive marketing
information systems. Other tools involve far simpler approaches to data collection, while
still others are simply methods of capturing subjective “gut feelings” and intuition for
the market.
One point is clear regardless of which tools are used—agribusinesses using an informa-
tion-driven approach to market planning are more likely to be successful than those who
don't put data to work in their planning efforts. This chapter will look at four broad sets of
tools that agrimarketers can use in the market planning process—the marketing audit, sales
forecasting, competitor analysis, and customer analysis.
