Marketing for Agribusiness

Marketing for Agribusiness aims to develop Learners’ understanding of agricultural marketing and its application to agribusiness enterprises. Learners examine agricultural marketing in low- and middle-income countries, customer satisfaction, consumer behaviour, environmental analysis, market audits and promotional planning. On completion, Learners will be able to analyse agribusiness markets and apply marketing tools to support customer-focused, competitive and sustainable agricultural enterprises. This unit forms part of the ICM Level 5 Diploma in Agribusiness Management Professional Qualification.

Agricultural Marketing

• Meaning and scope of agricultural marketing: exchange functions, physical functions, facilitating functions
• Marketing functions: exchange, physical, facilitating
• Agriculture and food marketing enterprises: smallholder marketing, cooperatives, farmer associations, contract farming schemes
• Types of markets for agro-products: village markets, wholesale markets, terminal markets, commodity exchanges, supermarkets, export markets
• Commodity marketing and value chains: value chain definition, value chain mapping, value addition points, value chain bottlenecks
• Value chain mapping: mapping from producer to consumer, identifying chain actors, value addition points, bottlenecks, power dynamics

Customer Satisfaction and Behaviour

• Meaning and importance of customer satisfaction: customer retention, word-of-mouth, loyalty, measuring satisfaction
• Consumer behaviour in market processes: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation
• Factors influencing consumer behaviour for agricultural products: psychological, personal, social, contextual
• Buyer behaviour in business and institutional markets: processors, retailers, institutions
• Customer relationship management in agribusiness: CRM systems, loyalty programmes, direct communication, after-sales service
• Certification as a marketing tool, types of certifications: organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, GlobalG.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practices – food safety, traceability), B Corp; benefits; costs

Environmental Analysis

• Stages of business environmental analysis: scanning, monitoring, forecasting, assessing
• Organisation and market environment: micro-environment, macro-environment
• PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) analysis
• Market scanning tools and competitive intelligence: competitor analysis, market research, industry reports, trade associations, digital tools
• Implications of environmental change for agribusiness marketing: opportunities and threats, strategic responses

Market Audit

• Meaning, structure and focus of a market audit: systematic examination of marketing environment, objectives, strategies, activities
• Stages of market audit: defining scope, gathering data (internal and external), analysing, drawing conclusions, making recommendations
• SWOT analysis and strategic diagnosis: Strengths, Weaknesses (internal), Opportunities, Threats (external), TOWS matrix
• Characteristics of effective audits: objective, systematic, periodic, action-oriented
• Components of an agribusiness marketing audit: product portfolio, pricing, distribution channels, promotion, customer satisfaction, competitor position

Developing Promotion Plans

• Advertising planning: setting objectives, message development, media selection, budgeting
• Sales promotion planning: consumer promotions, trade promotions, timing and duration
• Personal selling and sales force management: B2B selling to processors, retailers, institutions; key account management; sales force structure, recruitment, training, motivation, compensation
• Public relations and stakeholder communication: media relations, community relations, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication
• Digital and social media promotion for agribusiness: social media platforms, email marketing, content marketing, search engine optimisation
• Branding for agricultural commodities: country-of-origin branding, geographic indications, certification marks, brand value components, challenges
• Rural and low-literacy communication channels: radio, farmer field days and demonstration plots, agricultural shows and exhibitions, extension visits, word-of-mouth

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