2. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
T ypes of M arketing
Planning• Strategic M arketing
– Encompasses the entire farm strategy
– Deals with the broader issue of determining firm’s
strategic position in the market and how to create
value from that position
• Product M arketing/Pricing
– Deals with the tactical side of selling a product
– Similar to a set of standard operating procedures for
marketing a particular product.
3. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
M arketing
D efined . . .
M arketing is anticipating the needs
and wants of targeted custom ers and
m anaging the process through which
these needs and wants are
satisfied . . . profitably
4. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
M anagem ent Philosophies
Production
C oncept
M arketing
C oncept
Starting
Point
Product M arket
F ocus
Product Q uality
and F eatures
C ustom er needs
M eans
I m proving
production &
distribution
efficiency
I ntegrated
M arketing
E nds Profits through
sales volum e
Profits through
custom er
satisfaction
6. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Strategic M arketing Plan
1. Environmental Analysis (SWOT)
2. Identifying Customers
3. Competitor/Value Creation
Analysis
4. Marketing Mix: The 4 P’s
5. Financial Analysis and Budget
6. Implementation and Control Plan
7. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
1. K now Your M arketplace
• Strengths, W eaknesses,
O pportunities, and T hreats
(SW O T )
• T rends and changes:
– M arket analysis
– Segm entation
– Prioritizing target m arkets
8. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
2. W ho Are Your C ustom ers?
C ustom er: firm or
person that buys
your product
C onsum er: firm or person
that eventually uses your
product
Customers
vs.
Consumers
9. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
C ustom er/C onsum er T rends
Customers
• Just-in-time
inventory
• Business to
business (B2B)
• Manufacturing
mentality
• Industrialization of
agriculture
Consumers
• Households with
fewer people
• Active, on-the-go
lifestyles
• Concern over the
health aspect of
food, with a
desire for good
taste
• Less time for
meal prep
10. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
K now W hat I s I m portant to
Your C ustom er
• Get inside the mind of your
customers
• Find out why they would buy from
you . . . or why they would
not
• Truly understand their needs
– Intentional listening
–
11. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
3. C om petitor/V alue
C reation Analysis
• C om petitive analysis
• R eallocation of
resources if
necessary
• Positioning
M ake sure you are distinctively
different
from your com petition
in areas of im portance
to your custom ers
12. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
T he V alue C hain
Firm Infrastructure
Human Resource Management
Technological Development
Procurement
Inbound
Logistics
Operations Outbound
Logistics
Marketing
& Sales
Service
MARGIN
MARGIN
Supporting
Activities
Primary
Activities
Relationship with Suppliers Relationship with Buyers
13. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
4. D eterm ining the M arketing
M ix
• The set of controllable variables that
will accomplish the marketing
objectives:
• Product strategy
• Place (distribution) strategy
• Promotion (communication) strategy
• Pricing strategy
14. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Product Strategy
• Portfolio of Products
– Corn, soybeans, hogs, dairy, cattle, value-added grain,
fruits and vegetables, custom farming operations, custom
feeding operations
– Fits your strengths and weaknesses
– Provides acceptable risk/return tradeoff
– Meets needs of a particular customer segment
• Quality
– No. 1 versus No. 2
– GMO vs. non-GMO
• Service
– Timely custom operations
– Pre-sorting of grain or livestock quality
• Volume
– Large and small quantities
– Guaranteed volumes (contract)
15. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
M cD onald’s Product
Package
• Food
• Fast service
• Fun for the kids
• Variety
• Non-smoking
• Consistent product
16. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
W axy C orn
• Corn with specific type of starch
• Delivery Schedule
• Specific hybrids
• Quality requirements
• Purity level
17. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Place Strategy
• Storage
– On-farm vs. off-farm
– Segregated or IP
• Timing
– On-demand
– Equal amounts throughout the year
• Location
– Delivery to multiple points
• Assortments
– Delivery of different amounts to different places at
different times
18. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Am erican C rystal Sugar
(AC S)
• M&M Mars changed from a
commodity focus for inputs to a
quality assurance focus.
• ACS keeps the sugar silo at the
M&M Mars plant full.
• ACS shifted from a warehouse next
to the ACS factory in Minnesota to
an ACS warehouse in Pennsylvania
near the candy plant.
19. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Spring W heat
B akers
• Farmer-owned cooperative that
processes wheat, grown on Northern
Plains into flour
• Frozen and par-baked bread factory
in Atlanta, Georgia, a population
center
20. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Prom otion Strategy
• Advertising
– Creating brochures and other advertisements on the
products your farm provides and what value they add
– Creating a farm logo
• Personal Selling
– Telling your customers how you create value
– Meeting your grain elevator manager for coffee
– Having lunch with the lender
– Taking a Christmas pie to your landlord(s)
• Public Relations
– Being a good neighbor
– Being involved in the community
– Open house days
21. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Price Strategy
Price is the cost the customer must
bear in order to obtain the product.
It includes:
• list price
• discounts
• allowances
• payment period
• credit terms
22. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Pricing M ethods
• Value-Based Pricing
– Set price based on buyers’ perception
of value (rather than on the seller’s
costs)
• Cost-Based Pricing
– Add a standard markup to the cost of
the product
• Competition-Based Pricing
– Set price based on following
competitors’ prices
23. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
V alue-B ased Pricing
• C ustom er O riented
• B ased on
custom er’s
perceived value
• M atch price to
perceived value
• B rand loyalty
24. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
C om petition-B ased Pricing
• Price decision
based on actions of
competition
• Less attention on
cost or product
demand
• Large firms all
charge the same
price
• Smaller firms
follow lead of large
firms, may offer a
slightly lower price
25. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
5. F inancial Analysis and
B udgeting
• Estimate the demand given the pricing
and promotion strategy.
• Determine expenses associated with
production and marketing.
• Determine anticipated cash flows.
• Will strategy cash flow? When?
• What are the critical assumptions of the
financial analysis and what are the
impacts of changes in those assumptions?
26. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
6. I m plem entation and
C ontrol
• Focus attention of everyone on
delivering what the customer wants
– Management of people
– Monitoring and control
27. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
H ow D o I B uild A Product
Pricing Plan in A C om m odity
M arket?
28. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
C om m odity M arketing
• Homogeneous Product –
differentiation in services, not product.
• Low-cost strategy
• What about the price received?
– Does every producer get the same price?
• Marketing plans – systematic pricing
strategies.
29. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
W hat I s A M arketing Plan?
A m arketing plan is an outline of price,
date and quantity objectives used to
generate a reasonable return for the
business given the existing market
conditions.
30. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
D iagram of A C orn M arketing
Plan
Price Triggers
Date Triggers
Jan. 1
March 15 May 1 Harvest
$2.50/bu $2.40/bu
Sell 20% Sell 20% Sell 60%r
Existing
Price
31. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
W hat D oes A M arketing Plan
D o?
• Detached from the decision
• Proper perspective
• Introduces discipline
• Check your logic
• What if …...
32. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Steps I n A M arketing Plan
• Relationship between the business plan and
marketing plan
• Production history and expectations
• Expected prices
• Production costs
• Price and date targets
• Review and evaluation
33. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
T he B usiness Plan and the
M arketing Plan
• Marketing plan is implementation of
the BP
• Implementation consistent with
objectives
• What are important considerations?
34. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Production H istory and
E xpectations
• What is the farm’s history?
• Is there an underlying trend?
• How variable is production?
• Write down expected production.
• How does expected production
relate to pre-harvest sales?
35. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Price E xpectations
• Assess the situation
– Historic patterns (seasonal)
– Basis patterns
• The current situation
– Outlook source
– Market advisors (?!?)
36. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
AgM AS – An O bjective Study of
M arket Advisory Services
• 25 Firms – subscribe to each service.
• Observe and follow recommendations
• Compare to a benchmark price answer
Questions:
– Do they consistently beat the benchmark?
– Do they reduce risk and increase returns?
– Are they as good with corn as with soybeans?
– http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/agmas/
37. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
T he D ifference
• What’s the difference between the
market advisory service and the
marketing plan?
– “Beat the Market” vs. “Accepting What
the Market is Giving.”
– Active Marketing = Private
Information
– Active Marketing vs. Passive
Marketing
38. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
C ost of Production
• What are the costs?
• What revenue cover costs?
• What price is needed to cover the
costs?
• Is this price realistic?
39. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Price, D ate and Q uantity
O bjectives
• Identify price and date triggers ..
– When should pre-harvest sales be made?
– What prices are acceptable?
– Prices attainable?
• Set quantity objectives according to
– Financial need
– Risk perceptions
40. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
E valuate and R eview
• Stay disciplined!
• Evaluate your actions.
• Are conditions changing?
41. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
A L ittle M arketing
Philosophy ...
• Bad outcomes still happen …
• Never compare to the market
high ..
• Your plan for your operation ...
42. Strategic Business Planning for Commercial Producers
Strategic B usiness Planning
for C om m ercial Producers
Editor's Notes
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Try to delineate the strategic marketing function of product price place promotion from the price risk management focus of commodity marketing that producers are used to. This presentation deals with both issues in a structured framework. The first part focuses on the strategic issues, the latter part is on the pricing issues. Remember marketing is comprised of the Four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Price is only one of them.
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Key Words . . .
Anticipating
Needs And Wants
Targeted Customers
Management Process
Customer Satisfaction
Profitability
Marketing should begin with the customer, not the production process. The marketing process should guide what direction for the production side since the purpose of business is to satisfy customer needs through the sale of products and services, not supply products and services which might sell. Marketing should also accomplish the company’s objectives.
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The marketing concept says that a firm should focus all its efforts on satisfying customers, at a profit. It replaces the production-oriented concept which is focused on organizing a firm’s resources to make products, and then sell them. The marketing principles seeks to meet the needs of customers rather than placing emphasis on its own internal activities and use of resources.
A customer’s needs should be the primary focus and firm resources should be organized to satisfy those needs. The three tenets of the marketing concept are a customer orientation through an integrated firm effort to realize profit, rather than just sales.
Typically managers of business units tend to think of the business from their own vantage point – the rest of the business revolves around him – and often expects other units to adjust activities to fit his needs. The typical production, sales and accounting aspects should work together since the output of one is the input of others.
As an example, the Ford Mustang was designed according the marketing concept. Considerable marketing research was done before the product was designed or the marketing strategy developed. The strategy finally adopted took into consideration consumer research, company resources and objectives.
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Making a strategic marketing plan for your business can be broken down into six steps. The rest of the strategic marketing plan portion of this lecture will present the steps.
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Know who you are selling to (market analysis, segmentation, prioritizing targets)
Know what is important to targeted customers (customer analysis)
Make sure you are distinctively different from your competition in areas of importance to targeted segments (competitive analysis, reallocation of resources if necessary, positioning, market intelligence)
Focus attention of everyone on delivering what the customer wants (management of people, monitoring and control).
Constant monitoring of changes in the market (market intelligence, market analysis, internal feedback system)
The most fundamental marketing concept is treating customers like you are truly interested in them. That means making sure you are meeting needs that customers perceive as important. Meeting needs is the heartland of every marketing program.
A useful tool in assessing the marketplace is SWOT. Assessing the opportunities and threats and how the business can capitalize on them or avoid them using the firm’s strengths weaknesses
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The Value Chain, or value plate, does is breakdown the functions of a company into its activities to provide a way to assess the internal capacities of the business. The bottom half of the figure contains the primary activities that the firm conducts. These include inbound logistics, or the way in which the company receives, stores, etc. its inputs. Operations is the basic activity of producing your product. Outbound logistics are the activities associated with storing and distributing your final product. Marketing and sales are all of the activities associated with attracting and keeping customers for your products. Service is the activities associated with providing support to your customers for your products including users manuals, help lines, warranties, etc. Inbound logistics and Operations relate to your suppliers. Outbound logistics, marketing and sales and service relate to buyers.
As you move from left to right the primary activities move through time and increasing value. Linking these five primary activities together forms a chain.
The top half of the graph represents a set of activities that are conducted to support the primary activities of the firm. These would include procurement which are all of the activities associated with negotiating, financing, and paying for all inputs necessary for the business from raw inputs used in the final product to pencil used in the accounting office. Technology development is the activities associated with research and development and included R&D in all phases of the primary activities not just R&D associated with new product development (things like process improvement research, distribution improvement research, market research activities to support marketing, etc. Human resources are the support activities associated with hiring, firing, compensating, retaining, and training personnel for the company. Finally firm infrastructure is the top management activities of the firm which include, negotiating with the government, negotiating with competitors, developing the firms long-term strategy, development and maintenance of information systems for assessing firm performance, etc.
The next slides further explain the activities.
What do you do with this figure? That is, what support and primary activities do you do better than your competitors and which ones do you not do so well with relative to your competitors. This is a great tool for helping you assess your strengths in weaknesses in a more structured way. It helps think about ALL of the activities that you conduct in your business and critical assess whether you are doing each activity as well as you can. This figure helps you focus on specific activities that you do well relative to your competitors so that you can determine what your core competencies are relative to your competitors.
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A grains business has a number of decisions to make to develop the product part of a marketing strategy.
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Need example
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As illustrated in the previous slides, many general strategies exist for marketing products. If a particular strategy is chosen, then an implementation plan is a next step. During the next few slides we’ll discuss a marketing plan for a particular strategy – a commodity, low cost producer strategy. We’ll use the market plan spreadsheet as a reference for the module, so be sure to have it handy.
How is the commodity marketing strategy different from other strategies, such as the niche marketing strategy?
Typically, a commodity strategy is adopted when the product is homogenous; that is, it’s difficult to differentiate the commodity from a competitor’s. To be successful at producing commodities, our costs must rank among the lowest relative to competitors. Further, a farm business can’t stand pat on its cost structure in a commodity market; rather the farm business must continue to improve efficiency else it will become a high cost producer as others leave the market.
What are other characteristics of the commodity market?
Another characteristic is that commodity producers generally can’t dictate the price received – if they tried, competitors would offer a lower price. In this market, the price is determined according to supply and demand conditions.
But does every corn and soybean producer receive the same price? No, that’s not true either. In agriculture we can time the crop sale so that a price received from a forward contract is quite different than the price received at harvest, which is quite different from the price received if we store the crop and market it the following Spring. If only we knew when the market high would be – the entire crop would be sold that day.
In truth, no one knows when the market high will occur. But, we can use the time varying nature of prices to avoid making pricing mistakes – or at least make sure we take advantage of what the commodity market can give.
It’s with this end goal in mind that we introduce Marketing Plans as a tool for pricing our crop. A word of caution, a marketing plan is not a way to beat the market. Rather the marketing plan is a set of systematic pricing strategies with quantity and price triggers. The marketing plan is a road map of how much grain will be sold, when it will be sold, and how it will be sold (e.g., forward contract). Writing down a marketing plan, before the crop is planted, allows us to check our logic and then play “what if”: what if the farm produces only half of what we expect? What if prices are higher than we expect? When the marketing plan is reviewed, it is an indicator of past success (what works) and failure (what doesn’t work).
So what definition captures the essence of a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is an outline of price and quantity objectives used to generate a reasonable return for the business given existing market conditions.
Let’s break the definition down – examining a few words will lend meaning. The plan has price and date objectives – objectives that are really triggers. When a price or date trigger is met the producer sells the quantity listed in that objective. Thus, the objectives provide a road map of when the crop will be sold, and how much will be sold. In addition, a marketing plan should generate a reasonable return – reasonable in the sense that the return is consistent with the current pricing environment (existing market conditions), that it will generate something close to the market average, and that it will cover the costs of the farming operation.
The diagram on this slide represents a very simple marketing plan for corn. (A more complex marketing plan may be built using the example you downloaded). The arrow represents a timeline from January to Harvest. The marketing plan has several date triggers, March 15th, May 1st, and Harvest. It also has several price triggers associated with the dates -- $2.50 per bushel and $2.40 per bushel. The quantity objectives are sell 20% of expected production on March 15th (perhaps using forward contracts), sell an additional 20% on May 1st, and sell the remainder at harvest.
How does a marketing plan introduce discipline into the marketing of commodities? In the example, the producer has decided to sell 20% of the expected crop by March 15th under a price trigger of $2.50 per bushel. What happens if the forward contract price is greater than $2.50 per bushel prior to March 15th? The producer pulls the trigger and sells 20% of the crop. What happens if March 15th arrives but prices are below $2.50 per bushel? The producer still pulls the trigger and sells the crop. In this manner, the producer guarantees that he/she is taking what the market is willing to give – even if prices are not at their best. (Note: prices might be at their high on March 15th relative to the rest of the year, and selling the crop means that the producer ensures at least a portion of the crop receives this high. Spreading sales of various points in the year is a risk diversification strategy).
How does the marketing plan allow a producer to check their logic? Formally writing the plan allows the producer to examine their price, date and quantity objectives formally ask the following questions: Are the date objectives set at times when prices are at their historical best? Are the price triggers reasonable given history and current market information? e.g., is this the time of year when basis is narrow and stable, or wide and uncertain? Are the quantity objectives consistent with what I can produce? Will the quantity objectives meet cash flow needs?
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What are the benefits of a marketing plan?
First, writing down a marketing plan detaches one from the decision making process. Why detach oneself from the decision process? Detachment is needed because we often sell or choose not to not sell our crop based on emotion. Have you ever thought “I won’t sell because I deserve more for the crop – look at the work I put in ..” or “Prices are really rising now, I’ll wait until tomorrow to get a higher price” and the price never materializes. The marketing plan detaches one from the decision by introducing decision rules. In this manner, the marketing plan reduces the chance we will fall into defeating human behaviors when marketing that include:
Escalation Behavior: enter a contract in order to gain a favorable scenario … and then refuse to leave when it is unfavorable.
Anchoring Behavior: hear of a favorable price and anchor a decision to it. Producers with anchoring behavior fail to sell a crop until the anchored price appears.
Blue Sky Blue: entertaining more risk by putting off a sale rather than accepting a guaranteed loss.
A marketing plan gives the proper perspective placing the marketing decision in the context of costs and the current economic climate. As discussed on the previous slide, the marketing plan enforces discipline in decision making and allows the producer to check the logic behind their decisions. Finally, one can ask important ‘what-if’ questions i.e. What if price aren’t as high as expected? What-if I only produce fifty percent of expected production?
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Let’s build a marketing plan in the example you have downloaded. Six components exist in this marketing plan, and each component has its own worksheet. The components are titled: The Relationship Between the Business Plan and the Marketing Plan, Production History and Expectations, Expected Prices, Production Costs,
Price, Date and Quantity Targets, and Review and Evaluation. We’ll examine these components in turn.
The first step is relating the marketing plan to the overall plan for the farm business. Remember, the business plan establishes our overall strategy, while the marketing plan implements the strategy. So answer the following questions posed on the first sheet of the marketing plan example: How will the marketing plan fulfill the business plan’s objectives? How do the marketing plan’s objectives relate to the business plan’s strategy? Is it intended to serve the financial goals of the farm? The marketing plan needs to be consistent with the business plan’s long term objectives and short term goals.
What are other important considerations that deserve attention when writing the marketing plan? Is cash flow a concern? Are financial resources needed for other business enterprises? How will the marketing plan impact the farm’s tax liability? Note these and other considerations as appropriate.
Knowledge of the farm's production history is very useful when setting the quantity objectives for the marketing plan. In the marketing plan example turn to sheet 2, and write down the amount of acres harvested and the yield in the shaded cells. What is the average number of acres harvested over time? And what is the average yield over time? (Note: the total production and average production are calculated for you). Is the total production predictable from year-to-year? How variable are yields?
Reflect on the previous questions as you write the planted acres and expected yield on the right-hand side of the page. Then review the table that lists percents of total production? How likely are you to see 90% of your total production. How likely are you to produce only 50% of expected production?
The production information is useful when setting the quantity targets. How much grain do you realistically expect to produce? Given the variability of yields, how much are you willing to sell via pre-harvest contracts? When are you comfortable contracting more – prior to planting? after planting? after pollination? after harvest?
The planting information and the likelihood of a loss will be useful to you as you set quantity objectives.
Price expectations can play an important role when setting price and date triggers. A first step is to assess the historical situation: what is the average price at different points during the year? (you may wish to think about futures prices and basis separately). Does it make sense to set a date objective when prices are historically at their lowest point? How variable are prices during the year? Does it make sense to plan on selling all of the crop when prices are the most variable?
When examining futures prices, it’s often the case that pricing opportunities occur in the early Spring (in or around USDA’s planting intentions report), just after corn planting begins in the Corn Belt, and just prior to the pollination period. At the same time, low prices are often seen during harvest with recovery occurring throughout the remainder of the Winter. However, every cropping year is different, so its best to assess the current situation and adjust the marketing plan to fit conditions. University extension specialists and the USDA are good sources of current and outlook information which will help one set date targets. The extension specialists and USDA personnel generally assess the situation but seldom make recommendations. Another source of information as well as pricing recommendations are market advisors who often provide a service to help producers “beat the market”. But can someone really beat the market? We’ll discuss that question on the next slide, but notice where you will place the high, average and low prices on the marketing plan worksheet. In addition there is a spot to list either the target price or the loan rate for the crop next to the heading “Farm Bill.”
So what is the difference between following the advice of a marketing service and using the marketing plan?
One difference is in its perspective – a market advisor believes that information is available to him/her that other traders don’t have. If they act on the information, then the advisor can “beat the market” and consistently garner profits above the market average. A marketing plan has a different focus – it seeks to garner average returns in the market by spreading sales of grain while using a variety of methods. The market advisor actively manages grain sales using price and quantity information to forecast short term results. The marketing plan is passive – we only worry about current prices as it relates to price triggers, and we only make sales when the price or date triggers are met.
It’s important to make price and quantity objectives in the context of our production costs, so turn to the worksheet tilted “Costs.” What costs are important?
Let’s look at the corn example, about half of the way down the worksheet. In the short term, we need to cover at least our variable costs, so use a per acre estimate of corn variable costs under the heading “revenue required per acre” next to the “variable Cost” label. (It’s $147 per acre in the example). In the longer term, we need to pay for land rent (or mortgage interest) and make payments for (or in anticipation of) new machinery. Thus, it’s good to write down the per acre sum of variable costs, land payments and machinery. Finally, our family living expenses are often covered by the farming operation, so add the per acre contribution of family living expenses to the variable cost, machinery, and rent payment sum and write the total next to the appropriate label.
Once the totals have been entered, the price needed per bushel to meet each of the costs are placed in the column titled “Needed Price/bu @ the expected yield”. To meet corn variable costs in the example, a price per bushel of $1.08 is needed, and the needed corn price increases to $2.57 per bushel and $2.86 per bushel as costs are added. Are these prices attainable given the price expectations you entered? The price expectations are found at the bottom of the corn table.
After the same cost information has been entered for soybeans, the farm’s expenses are summed at the top of the sheet assuming a 50/50 corn-soybean rotation.
Production, price and cost information provide a good context so that actual price, date and quantity objectives can be set on the worksheet titled “Price, Date and Quantity Targets.”
The first step is to identify the date triggers in the far left-hand column. What dates seem to fit the historical pattern of prices? How does the trigger date relate to the expected production total? i.e. selling all of the crop before it is planted might be considered risky.
Next write down the method of contracting /sale? How does the method of sale influence the firm’s risk position? Is there a delivery requirement, or is the pricing based on a futures hedge? Does the method of sale fix all pricing components (e.g., a forward contract) or does it allow a portion of the pricing formula to fluctuate (e.g., a basis contract)? The method of sale influences the riskiness of the revenue generated by pre-harvest and post-harvest sales.
Move to the far right column and write down the pricing objectives in the appropriate columns using your price expectations (in the upper right-hand portion of the worksheet). Are the price triggers acceptable (will they meet costs)? Given the expected price, are the trigger prices attainable?
Finally set the quantity objectives – how much do you plan to sell each period? Are you comfortable contracting that amount? The cumulative quantities are summed under the column % priced – how much of the crop is left after each sale is made? Are you pricing the largest of portion of the crop at a time that is best for the farm business?
Notice that all of the objectives on the Price, Date and Quantity Objectives Sheet have been transferred to the the pink cells on the Evaluate and Review worksheet. Use this sheet to write down when you actually make a sale, and then compare your performance over time. What sales are you pleased with? Why? Are the circumstances that made that sale successful likely to persist in the following year? Did you learn any new information from the sale? Why were mistakes made?
Be sure to stay disciplined and follow the price and quantity objectives. But if conditions change, take note of this and adapt the marketing plan to fit conditions. For instance, poor planting weather may make you revise the quantity objectives if you fail to plant the expected acreage.
The best marketing plan is one that is reviewed often, and when lessons learned from one year are carried over to the next.
Finally, a last bit of marketing philosophy. Even when you make the best plans, unexpected events can happen – bad outcomes occur. A marketing plan will still help you to avoid some common marketing pitfalls, and for that reason it is useful.
Don’t abandon the marketing plan because you missed the market high! Remember the marketing plan is designed to be passive – to help you obtain a market average. The plan may prevent you from hitting the market high, but it also prevents you from hitting the market low.
Finally, be sure to design a plan that fits your operation – a marketing plan that works for one operations may not be suitable for another.
Good Luck!
