The first months of the year are still valid for setting new purposes. For this reason, we will begin by proposing the topic of “Marketing Strategies in agriculture”, a very broad topic and with a lot of literature in which we can easily find definitions and concepts; however, it is not easy to find information on how to adapt this within the sector and it is much more difficult to adapt them to agriculture in Mexico, since in our country there is a great diversity of agricultural products, and in high-value sectors, we also find a very wide diversification of customs for each region, which, in some cases, are within very mature markets, and in others, although they have great growth potential, the development of the production chain is very incipient or of very low development.
Therefore, this article is an explanation and a small manual, like all those that we try to write from the beginning of our participation, so that it can be used regardless of the size of your business in the agricultural sector and regardless of the level of development in the market of the product you grow, to make the best decisions and, of course, can increase your profitability.
Definition
It is important to mention that a marketing or marketing strategy in the agricultural sector is not about going out to knock on doors to sell our product. A marketing strategy begins with an internal and external diagnosis of our activities, to gather valuable information and establish a series of alternatives to follow to achieve a goal, deciding to carry out the strategy that best suits us according to our possibilities and carrying it out through implementation tactics during the continuous operation and progress of our business.
The strategy must use a set of tactics to achieve our objective, these will be the tools that we have to execute our actions in pursuit of the objective.
Internal And External Diagnosis
Before making any strategy decision, we must make an initial diagnosis of who we are and the resources we have, as well as the situations we face in each harvest cycle; For this reason, we must ask ourselves the following questions:
For Internal Diagnosis:
As in any improvement reflection, we must do an internal exploration to determine where we stand, making an inventory of our strengths, abilities, and resources, as well as our weaknesses and shortcomings, to correct and mitigate the latter.
Through what I observe in all of Mexico, I have divided the type of producers that exist into 3 different groups, to propose a different marketing strategy for each group, since what they need, possibly others have already surpassed and your needs are different.
I have classified the groups into “Basic”, “Intermediate” and “Advanced” to easily identify them and make your query easier to see which one you are in.
Market Focus
It is the vision that we must have as a result of our internal and external diagnosis, showing a list of our strengths and weaknesses within the market, as well as the characteristics of the products that customers are demanding every day.
There are a large number of market strategies, which must be applied according to the type of producer we are, however, I have concentrated them in 4 groups that apply to different types of producers described in the first part already mentioned:
Types Of Marketing Strategies For Agriculture:
a) Growth
b) Consolidation
c) Integration
d) Positioning
