On-line Marketing of Agri-products

Distribution, promotion, Branding of…

By
Dr. Saroj Kumar Sahoo
Structure for Marketing of Agri-
products

Source : FICCI report

Food grain & Horticulture Production Trend
Internet penetration of India
Status of Indian e-commerce
India's e-commerce market is growing at an annual
rate of 51%
China's e-commerce is growing at 18%, Japan 11% and
South Korea 10%
About 75% of online users are in the age group
of 15-34 years since India is one of the youngest
demography globally
Retail category penetration has increased to 65 million unique
visitors a month registering an annual growth of 55%. 

In India roughly 60-65 per cent of the total e-commerce

sales are being generated by mobile devices 
Source : Brand Equity, ET, 9TH May 2016
On-line marketing of Agri-Products
Phases : Value added Agri-Products through Internet
Phase- 1: Brochure-ware sites: Companies use the Internet
primarily to advertise products. The firms gather customer
prospect information and provide customer feedback and
information requests.
Phase- 2: Pre-commerce sites: Firms use the Internet to
create immediate orders off the Internet. However, on-line
transactions are not part of these sites.

Phase- 3: Simple commerce sites: In this advanced stage of e-

commerce, businesses accept orders and payments over the
Internet. However, the sites are often primitive compared to bigger
company sites with few features.
Types of On-Line Marketing

Convenience items: Low-cost items such as books, music,

apparel and flowers. Product selection and ease of shipping
will keep customers ordering.

Replenishment goods: Items included are high-frequency

purchases like groceries, personal care, prescription refills
and specialty foods. With the exception of specialty foods
and refills, consumers will be slow to adopt this purchasing
mode due to distribution issues.

Research purchases: These are information-driven

purchases, such as travel arrangements, computers and
automobiles. Airline tickets are the most often purchased
item over the Internet.
 When to Consider a Web Site for Agri-Marketing
The strategists should ask the following questions to himself

What percentage of my customers and potential customers

use computers, the Internet and Internet selling/buying
mechanisms (E-commerce)?

Do I/we wish to use the Web as an avenue of sales,

information or both in reaching customers?

Where are my customers located? What geographic areas

do I want to add to my customer circles?

What is the competition doing? Will a Web site alter

perceptions about my company compared to perceptions
about other companies doing similar things?
Marketing Considerations
Producers considering marketing over the Internet should
consider some of the following:
1. Businesses successful on the Internet are often those
that are unique, commonly used and affordable.

2. When marketing meat products on the Internet, you must

slaughter and process from a federally inspected plant,
unless you only sell to clients in your state.

3. Unique businesses succeed online only if people can find

them. 

4. Promote your Web site by submitting it to several search

engines repetitively and linking with other high traffic
related Web sites.
Marketing Considerations (Cont….)
5. Link (with permission) to many applicable Web sites,
but be cautious about having too many links that quickly
redirect consumers away from your site.

6. Don’t link to your competitors, but check out your

competitors’ Web sites.

7. Promote your Web site offline by sending out cards and

putting your Web address on every promotion piece.

8. Find a reliable server.

Marketing Considerations (Cont….)

Going Online
If the company is ready to go online, it will need:

High-speed Internet.

Consider a toll-free number – a risk-free way for potential

customers to inquire.

A user-friendly e-mail program (such as Microsoft Outlook)

to manage client contacts.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products
Print media

Pros: Magazines and newspapers provide a very large,

often traditional, audience to get company’s products in
front of, with a proven track record.
Advertisements can give a huge amount of exposure, and
are brilliant for new product launches where there is a
concern about brand recognition or for mass marketing.

Cons: This isn’t the cheapest option and you will need to
think about how you can make your advertising stand out
from the crowd so people will pay attention.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products (Cont….)
Classifieds:

Pros: The classifieds section of agricultural magazines such

as Farmers Weekly provide a very specific audience – an
audience looking to purchase.
This is perfect if the company is trying to sell a product that
is well-established, and the need for said product is well
known amongst the target audience.

Cons: If you are trying to sell a product that isn’t

particularly recognisable, or isn’t very glamorous, your
advert may be a little overshadowed by some of the more
appealing bits of farm machinery on sale.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products (Cont….)
Face to face

Pros: You can get your product right in front of the

customer – if your product is something that needs to be
demonstrated to be understood, this might be the best
course of action. This relies on your ability to sell your
product and you know immediately if your tactics have
worked.

Cons: If you, or your employees are not particularly strong

sellers, then you may struggle to get the best out of this.
Face-to-face events also need investment over above
purchasing stand space and manning it. For example, you
must make up banners, flyers and other sales collateral to
make an impact.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products (Cont….)

Radio

Pros: Radio is once again a very broad-hitting advertising

channel and as result is rarely used in UK agriculture.
Depending on how you spend your money, you could be
hitting tens of thousands of people.
But if you run a farm shop or petting farm, radio might be
the right fit if lots of people in the local area listen to a
regional radio programme.

Cons: Radio, unfortunately, lacks a particularly

sophisticated ‘tracking’ system. You may find great
success from radio advertising, but getting any detail about
exactly what is working is simply not possible.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products (Cont….)
Social media
Pros: Social media provides a brilliant way to influence an
audience outside of ‘traditional’ advertising revenues. Social
media is increasingly becoming integrated into people’s daily
lives and they look at it multiple times a day. When done
correctly, social media can bring your marketing and sales
messages to an audience through a persuasive channel.

Cons: While social media can be extremely effective, it also

requires a lot of input – in order to get the most out of it you
are required to be active members of your social channels, as
well as continuously generating new content. Social media
accounts that only publish adverts are extremely off-putting.
Getting it right is time-consuming.
7 best ways to advertise agricultural products (Cont….)
Promotional item giveaways
Pros: Promotional items give a business potentially huge
amounts of brand awareness. Unlike many of the other
channels on this list, promotional items may continue to have
an effect long after you have stopped producing them.
Things like t-shirts, bags, pens and rucksacks may enter daily
use amongst your target audience.

Cons: Promotional items also involve losing a degree of

control – if someone commits a crime whilst wearing a t-shirt
branded with your logo, your brand may be damaged by
association, despite no wrong-doing on your part.
A model of Agri-product Promotion

Source : Xiaowei Ma 2018 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 439 032033
A model of Agri-product Promotion through Social-
media

Source : Xiaowei Ma 2018 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 439 032033
Thank You Thank You