Marketing Strategies: Quality Product

By Daniel W. Block
D.W. Block Associates

The single most important strategy for a successful agricultural marketing program today is to produce the highest-quality product that you are able to develop or procure.

All of the other options available to an agrimarketer, such as advertising, public relations, new distributors or brokers, salespeople, etc., are only useful when 1) the product you are marketing truly satisfies the needs of your customers and 2) that it is of the quality that you claim it is.

The old saying that has its roots in farming is still appropriate in marketing today, "You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear." The significance of that for us in the seed business is simple, but profound.

Although there are a variety of marketing tactics available, it is important to remember that a clever ad, a shiny package, a sophisticated brand name or a persistent salesperson will never compensate for a flawed product or product that doesn’t satisfy the needs that it is supposed to. The oldest and least expensive promotion is "word of mouth," and that form of customer goodwill and support cannot be bought; it is earned by delivering the highest value to your customers for their money.

Adding value

A product includes more than simply the physical and functional characteristics that we commonly associate with the things we propagate and market. Our customers view products (either consciously or unconsciously) as including service, packaging and guarantees – even image and the brand name.

Your customers are not simply purchasing material items that are the result of combining soil and water, genetics and chemicals. They are really purchasing a bundle of benefits and attributes, which are sometimes simply symbolic, and often just a result of their perceptions.

The whole goal in a sound product development strategy is to take the resources you have and enhance, alter, reshape, or package them in such a way so as to better satisfy the needs of your target market.

You also want to differentiate or separate your products from everyone else’s in the marketplace. We call this adding value.

Typically, the more value you can add to a product, the more profit margin available. You may not be able to readily change the kind of seed you produce or sell today, but you can certainly affect other aspects of your product, thereby adding value.

Ways to add value include such things as a special service phone number or hot line for customers to use when calling about problems or questions. Adding information and education to your product is always highly valued by your customers. Consider seminars or workshops for customers that relate to the use of your product, farming practices or related subjects. Events like these illustrate your commitment to your customers’ success and prosperity. It gives you another opportunity to meet their needs.

Building relationships

Building close relationships is one of the oldest and most effective means of adding value to your product, and is really what marketing is all about.

We’ve already covered the importance of personal selling in my first column (May 1987). Attitude and good will, ability to solve problems, and attention to product standards gives the astute agrimarketer a differential advantage over those who simply view their product as a bag or can of seed.

Regardless of how technical the seed industry becomes, people still buy from people. Our people are part of the product that can impact our customers’ satisfaction more than anything else.

Today we need to expand our views of our products. This broader vision enables us to see opportunities to enhance our seed products with value. That means features that today’s farmers are eagerly seeking: information and service.