Taking on the giants

I'm in Saskatoon today for Agri-Trend's Farm Forum. It has a great line up speakers, and I look forward to two bearpit sessions with agronomists taking questions from farmers on fertility and pest management issues. Lots of good articles ideas and useful tips will come of those sessions. I'll have more from this conference on my blog and lots more in Grainews in the months to come.

Read below for the "giants" reference...

Nufarm had a 10^th anniversary media event in Winnipeg this week. The crop protection company invited Andrea Mandel-Campbell to speak about “Why marketing matters.” Mandel-Campbell wrote the book called “Why Mexicans don’t drink Molson,” arguing that Canadians are not big on self-promotion or on “branding” our trade goods. We’re content to be commodity suppliers — price takers, she says, which does not qualify Canada as a true “trading nation.”

Her provocative talk is meant to light a fire under Canadian would-be entrepreneurs. Her point about Molson specifically is that Canada has abundant supply of the two ingredients needed to be a big player in the beer market: malt barley and fresh water. And yet Mexico — not known for barley or fresh water — has the much stronger international beer brand, Corona. Molson isn’t big in Mexico because it never tried to market outside Canada, she says. And this reluctant attitude to branding is not confined to beer. The same is true in mining, forestry and agriculture, she says.

Canada is the top exporter of canola, mustard, lentils and maple syrup, yet there is no big Canadian brand in any one of these products — certainly no brand with any international presence. “The farther you’re removed from the commodity, the better you’ll fare in a downturn,” Mandel-Campbell says.

I asked what advice she would have for farmers and farm industry leaders who wanted to “brand” themselves and their product. She recommended these first steps:

1. Farmers don’t tend to think of themselves as salespeople. “This fundamental mindset change has to come first,” she says.

2. Start with the basics. Talk to the people directly above you in the value chain. Ask what they want and what you can do to provide it. That starts to build your “brand” in their eyes. (A brand doesn’t have to be a logo, she says.)

Darryl Matthews, of Nufarm, added at the end that you don’t have to be a giant to develop a brand. In fact, it’s usually the contrary. “You brand to take on the giant,” he says.