Jerry Bouma’s goal is to make marketing seminar participants uncomfortable. And he succeeds.
The idea is to turn the discomfort into action that ensures the success of the participants’ businesses.
“A lot of people don’t know what they don’t know, which makes it really dangerous,” Bouma said during a Regina seminar.
“The business world, and the marketplace, is a cruel place.”
Bouma of Toma and Bouma Management Consultants in Edmonton said producers and processors must know where their products fit to determine which marketing strategy and tactics will work best.
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He said market strategy can be divided into four categories:
- An existing product into an existing market requires a strategy for market penetration.
- An existing product into a new market requires development.
- A new product in an existing market needs differentiation.
- A new product in a new market needs market creation. Bouma said this category provides the greatest risk but can also mean great rewards. He reminded his audience of Apple’s highly successful IPod digital music player.
Agriculture is “firmly entrenched” in the first category. He said most producers focus on squeezing out competitors by being low-cost.
However, Bouma said other countries now produce at a lower cost than Canadians, leading to a need for volume.
Producers marketing in this category must target non-users or increase the rate of use by existing customers.
He said moving an existing product into a new market – Canadian beef into a new country, for example – focuses on expanding the reach of that product, which requires developing new relationships.
Those who want to put a new product into an existing market need a strong understanding of the client’s needs and wants, Bouma said.
Niche products typically start here, as do many value-added products.
“The first in (to the market) is very important,” he said.
Understanding the customer’s price point is key. People will pay different prices depending on where they are.
For example, a person may eat lunch at a fast food restaurant for $7 to $8 but leave a tip larger than that while eating at a steak house later that same day.
Another example is the difference between prices at supermarkets and specialty stores.
“If you have a high-value meat product, is a major retailer really going to position your product where it should be?” Bouma said.
He encouraged seminar participants to focus on one key factor that could make their marketing plan successful. That could mean more research, working with other businesses, targeting customers or establishing a new pricing system.
“Rethink what you’re doing.”
