Marketing Strategies for Your Seed Business

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Presentation OutlinePresentation Outline

• Who is your customer?

• Getting to know your competitor

• Building your brand

• Building your marketing plan

Who is Your Customer?

Customers are not homogenous

• Different groups of customers make different purchase decisions• Tim Horton’s or Starbucks?• Dell or Future Shop?• RBC Royal Bank or Credit Union?• Viterra or Farmers of North America?

• Businesses succeed because they design their product/service offering to meet the needs of specific customer segments

Market segmentation

• Segmenting your market is like slicing a pie into pieces

• Maybe you should go after one or two key pieces and leave the rest for someone else?

Describing customer segments

• Let’s list some descriptive terms of various customer segments for seed:• Early adopters - always want what’s new• Service and convenience• Mixed farm• Multi-crop operations• Farm size

• Which segment(s) create the best opportunity for your seed business?

Knowing the opportunity

Market research helps in understanding the customer and the overall market opportunity

•Statistics Canada 2006 Census of Agriculture

•Saskatchewan Agricultural Statistics searchable data base http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/agriculture_statistics/HBv5_P2.asp

Spring wheat history in 4a and 4b

Spring Wheat: Acreage, Yield and Production

Seeded Harvested Yield Production Year Region Item acres acres bu/acre tonnes

2007 4a Spring Wheat 158,219 154,077 20.4 85,725 2006 4a Spring Wheat 197,544 182,839 15.8 78,700 2005 4a Spring Wheat 179,020 174,743 27.9 132,885 2004 4a Spring Wheat 162,694 156,659 33.1 141,086 2007 4b Spring Wheat 197,512 196,771 28.8 154,365 2006 4b Spring Wheat 250,761 248,634 31.9 216,071 2005 4b Spring Wheat 164,204 160,840 37.1 162,572 2004 4b Spring Wheat 150,715 149,816 35.3 143,786 2008 Saskatchewan Spring Wheat 7,600,000 7,555,000 36.1 7,416,200 2007 Saskatchewan Spring Wheat 7,485,000 7,418,000 28.1 5,679,600 2006 Saskatchewan Spring Wheat 9,574,964 9,415,000 31.8 8,151,000 2005 Saskatchewan Spring Wheat 8,200,000 7,975,000 36.6 7,949,600 2004 Saskatchewan Spring Wheat 9,185,000 8,600,000 32.4 7,580,000 Source: Statistics Canada and Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture

Census Divisions and Crop Districts

Census of Agriculture Ddata

TOTAL WHEAT20012006

HectaresAcresFarms #

HectaresAcresFarms #

Census Division

13,08332,32952Carmichael No. 109 - CCS (470004054)

7,74819,14537Piapot No. 110 - CCS (470004050)

19,77348,86134Maple Creek No. 111 - CCS (470004045)

14,12334,89942Arlington No. 79 - CCS (470004038)

13,45233,24048Grassy Creek No. 78 - CCS (470004034)

16,58940,99261Wise Creek No. 77 - CCS (470004028)

33,04781,661112White Valley No. 49 - CCS (470004024)

30,57675,55485Reno No. 51 - CCS (470004019)

27,50667,97072Frontier No. 19 - CCS (470004011)

25,74563,61859Lone Tree No. 18 - CCS (470004006)23,22257,38265Val Marie No. 17 - CCS (470004003)

279,122689,7251,099262,632648,979806Division No. 4 - CD (470004000)

Statistics Canadawww.statcan.gc.ca

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-629-x/95-629-x2007000-eng.htm

Getting inside the customer’s head

• What drives seed customers to buy or not buy?• Selection • Reputation• Service• Loyalty• Added benefits (newsletter)

Getting inside the customer’s head

• Consider these questions:• Why do producers buy seed from you?

• Why don’t they buy seed from you?

Know Your Competitors

Getting to know your competitor

• Who competes with you for your customers’time and money? • Existing & potential competitors• Direct & indirect competitors

• Are they selling competitive varieties and services, substitutes or possible substitutes?

• What are their strengths and weaknesses? • How are they positioned in the market?

Positioning strategiesPRODUCT POSTIONING MAP - Example

Selection of Varieties (High)

Selection of Varieties (Low)

Agronomic Advice (Low)

Agronomic Advice (High)

Jane’s Seed Co

Seed For U

Seed AgroSpring Seed Inc

Sam’s Seed Ltd.

Finding info on competitors

• Internet – use Google/search engines• Ask your suppliers and customers• Company marketing materials• Industry publications• Media coverage• Trade shows• Labour ads

Describing your competitors

• Describe each of your major competitors• Consider the following factors:

• Size • Market share • Target market(s) • Comparative product quality • Potential for growth • Available capital and human resources• Brand image• Innovation

Their weakness, your strength?

• Can you turn your competitor’s weakness into a strength for you?

• What opportunities do the competitors create for your business?

• What threats do the competitors create for your business?

Building Your Brand

What is a brand?

• An impression formed over time through multiple experiences

Image, reputation, character, what you are known as and associated with.

Why brand?

• Competitive advantage in performance or price are increasingly hard to achieve and sustain

• Price and performance are easy and fast to match

• After price and performance what is there…

Your choices on branding

• You have no choice as to whether you have a brand or not

• A marketer only has control over how the brand is positioned and how it is managed over time

• Brands evolve over time to keep them contemporary but the core values within brands do not

Brands can bring advantage

• Being “on the list” in crowded markets • A source of customer preference • A barrier to losing customers • A source of premiums for your services• Difficult to match by competitors

A strong brand is ……

• Known • Connected to customer values • Meaningful • Sustainable • Built over time through consistent behavior of

the total organization

Defining Your Brand

• Image: How you are perceived today

• Personality: What are the ‘human qualities’

• Identity: What you aspire to be

• Position: What you can be today

• Promise: What is the one thing your customer will remember

• Slogan: Creative articulation of promise

Case Study - FedEx

1. Image: How you are perceived today

• Innovative, reliable solutions for shipping

2. Personality: What are the ‘human qualities’

• Helpful, friendly, fun, innovative, imaginative, reliable, hard-working, professional, competent, leader

3. Identity: What you aspire to be

• Most trusted provider of shipping, information, and global trade services

Case Study - FedEx

4. Position: What you can be today• The most reliable and dependable overnight delivery service

for all sizes of businesses across the United States and globally

5. Promise: What is the one thing your customer will remember• Reliability

6. Slogan: Creative articulation of promise

• Past: When it absolutely, positively has to be there.

• Recent Past: Relax. It’s FedEx.

• Present: If you are not using FedEx, you are running out of excuses

Building Your Marketing Plan

Product, more than a bag of seed!

• Seed varieties and related services• There are many elements that differentiate

your product from the competition:• Brand name • Quality• Seed traits or technology• Packaging – bags, mini-bulk, bulk• Service – delivery• Support or agronomic advice• Warranty or return policy

Price: Focus on value

• Price is determined by a number of factors including:?market share?cost of production?competitors?customer’s perceived value of the product

• Your pricing decision must be a balance between the value you deliver to the customer and your business costs

Examples of pricing decisions

• Pricing strategy??Premium?Discount?In line with the rest of the market

• Credit terms• Volume discounts• Bundling with other products• Early payment discounts• Preferred customer pricing level• Pricing by seed count rather than weight

Place / Distribution

• Examples of distribution decisions:• Distribution channels – retail, wholesale• Market coverage – number of locations, internet

sales• Specific distribution channels• Inventory management• Warehousing• Order processing• Transportation• Bulk

Promotion

• Promotion represents all of the communication tools that a marketer may use in the marketplace.

• Promotion has four distinct elements:• Advertising• Direct marketing• Word of mouth • Public relations

Tools - Advertising

• Is broad in scope reaching out to a wide range of people. It is paid for and can include elements such as:• Newspaper or magazine advertisements • Radio advertising• Website• Co-promotion• Outdoor signage• Yellow page listings

Tools – Direct Marketing

• Is targeted directly to a specific individual. • Examples include:

• personal letter • brochure mailed directly to an existing or

prospective customer • e-mail / e-newsletter • sales call either in person or over the phone

Tools – Word of Mouth

• Any informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum.

• You (and your staff) play an important role in word of mouth promotions.

Tools – Public Relations

• Is not directly paid for. Includes:• media releases • sponsorships• conferences• seminars or trade fairs• events such as field days or plot tours

Sharing the Message

•A symbol of quality•The tag can be used in many places:

• Invoices • Advertisements• Brochures • Stationary and business cards• Seed product guides• Company newsletters• Web sites

The seed tag graphics are easy to download from the CSGA at www.seedgrowers.ca

Thank You cards

Promotional thank cards are intended to be used post sale, either with an invoice or a follow-up after the sale. Cards can be ordered from the Canadian Seed Trade Association office by calling (613) 829-9527 or sending an e-mail to csta@cdnseed.org

Invoice Stickers

Congratulations stickers are available as .pdf files. The stickers, which are printed on standard printer labels, can be added to invoices to encourage repeat purchases. Both colour and black and white versions are available from the CSGA web site.

Sharing the Message – Ads

The advertisements come in a variety of sizes and include either a canola or wheat field image. You can download these ready to use from the CSGA web site.

Thanks