I. General situation of agricultural planting in Taizhou area
Taizhou is located in the middle of Jiangsu Province, along the Yangtze River, with a distance of 150 kilometers from north to south, with the Yangtze River in the south, the sandy area in the middle and He Lixia in the north, with a total land area of 5,797 square kilometers. Agricultural arable land is nearly 5 million mu, accounting for only 55% of agricultural land. The main crops are about 3 million mu of rice, more than 3 million mu of wheat, more than 500,000 mu of rape and 6,543,800 mu of barley and wheat. The demand for agricultural products is considerable, and the demand for varieties is relatively single and concentrated.
Second, Taizhou agricultural market management status
1, old business model and narrow marketing channels.
Farmers are the main consumers of agricultural products, located in the vast rural areas, with a large consumption population and scattered in different regions. Consumption is basically based on households, and each household has only 1 to a few acres of land. Every household makes consumption decisions according to their own forecast and demand for future planting. These features are not available in any other products. At present, the marketing of agricultural products in Taizhou is still stuck in the traditional sales model. Cities, districts and counties use one or two major wholesalers to organize the supply of goods, distribute them through two main channels-agricultural technology extension departments and supply and marketing departments, and then supply them to farmers through villages. The long-term market economic behavior has also had an important impact on farmers' consumption habits, and the formation of buyer's market has intensified the competition of marketing channels; The gradual disintegration of the rural camp of the supply and marketing cooperative system, the participation of production enterprises in circulation, the increasing activity of private enterprises and self-employed, and the development of public infrastructure such as transportation and communication have promoted the formation of agricultural materials trading market centered on counties or towns, changed the inherent mode of agricultural materials competition pattern and agricultural materials circulation channels, and the role of channel retail terminals in agricultural materials circulation system has become increasingly obvious.
2. There are many agricultural outlets and lack of professional technical services.
Agricultural materials are agricultural products related to agricultural production and reproduction, including pesticides, fertilizers, seeds, small farm tools, agricultural films, feed and so on. They have the characteristics of many varieties, specifications, large area, difficult display and layout, high technical content, strong seasonality, strong regionality, difficult after-sales service and different producing areas. However, the agricultural market is huge, with its uniqueness and development law. Crop growth has strong seasonality, which is determined by natural conditions. Although out-of-season production has made great progress, it still cannot represent the whole agricultural production situation. There are completely different crop species in different seasons, so the occurrence of pests and diseases is also seasonal, and the requirements for soil and fertilizer conditions are different according to different growth periods. All these have led to the centralization of agricultural products procurement, which often takes only a few days. After this season, we have to wait for the next year. Due to the low education level of farmers and high technical requirements for the use of agricultural materials, it is impossible to effectively solve this demand by reading the instructions and product labels, because after all, these materials cannot cover all aspects of agricultural technology. Therefore, agricultural materials, especially new agricultural materials, need a long promotion period. Moreover, in the use of agricultural materials, if used improperly, it will not only fail to achieve good results, but may even cause harm to the crops themselves and cause greater economic losses to users. Taizhou has more than 20 agricultural wholesale outlets of a certain scale and more than 300 other sales outlets. Although it is convenient for farmers to buy agricultural materials, they lack understanding of the performance and usage of the products they buy, and only listen to the recommendation of sellers without specific technical guidance, which leads to operational mistakes and losses to farmers.
3. The fierce price competition makes some inferior or insufficient products flow to the market.
The price of agricultural products affects farmers' expectations and confidence in the market price in the coming year, thus affecting this year's investment. Through market survey, it is found that farmers are more inclined to increase investment in cash crops, such as tobacco, medicinal materials, tea trees, flowers, lawns, vegetables and other crops, while restricting investment in non-cash crops, such as corn, rice and soybeans. Because the distribution network is dominated by self-employed, the price competition of products is still the main means of market competition. In order to expand the market, price reduction and promotion are the main means for some agricultural producers. In order to reduce the cost of products, some producers have to reduce the content, or use inferior means or retailers to reduce sales, which makes the products they sell not work normally and even have a negative impact. The old three articles in the agricultural resources industry are: advertising opens the way, distributing goods to give people away, and the price is dead. The main job of marketers is to distribute goods, collect money and drink. Most agricultural enterprises survived the storm. When the years are good, they act a bit like the Universiade. I don't know how to do it! When the years are bad, if you are unlucky, you will lose some money, no matter what! The performance of an enterprise depends entirely on luck, and there are few operational factors. Moreover, the low-level price war and the blind distribution of goods with high risks lead to the disintegration of small enterprises and the tottering of large ones, and the leap forward of the industry level can not be supported by the cost.
4. Most seed companies have implemented restructuring.
Except Jingjiang and Jiangyan, the seed supply is relatively unified and the varieties are relatively single, the seed markets in other counties and cities are relatively liberalized, the supply channels are complex, the supply varieties are chaotic and the after-sales service is uneven. Every year, there are some social instability factors because of seed quality problems. Due to the remoteness of rural areas, the traffic and communication are relatively backward, which limits the circulation of market information, resulting in a large number of market information not reaching farmers to guide agricultural production and consumption, thus making farmers know little about the technical performance and quality of products and increasing the use cost. The consumption benefit of agricultural products is different from other products, and it takes a long time to see the effect after use, and it is deeply affected by climatic conditions. Climate change directly affects the growth of crops, the occurrence of pests and diseases and the demand for water and fertilizer by crops. It is impossible for farmers to fertilize in dry weather without water irrigation, so the demand for fertilizer is minimized; Pesticides are not considered in rainy season. These factors directly affect the demand of agricultural products, and it is difficult to quantitatively estimate the market demand in the coming year.
Third, Taizhou agricultural product demand trend
1. Large-scale purchase by agricultural users
Aggregation: With the rapid growth of industrial enterprises in Taizhou's economic development, most farmers abandon agriculture to engage in business, leaving a large number of cultivated land idle, and large areas of fertile land are transferred to develop aquaculture, or cultivated by capable large-scale farmers, thus changing the procurement and use of agricultural products, from independent procurement and use by one household to bulk procurement and even centralized use by large farmers, thus reducing the procurement cost of agricultural products and improving the economic benefits of farming.
In recent years, there have been a number of social organizations specializing in bulk purchase of agricultural materials, such as various farmers' associations, farmers' brokers, vegetable companies, large transporters and individuals. They generally bypass dealers and buy agricultural products directly from manufacturers. They have strong purchasing bargaining power, and older ones can even compete with wholesalers. In addition, China Post, rural credit cooperatives and some freight companies have also launched the third-party logistics business of agricultural materials, and so on. This kind of organization plays an important role in agricultural production. The more developed agriculture is, the more vital it is. Often the combination of the two promotes the prosperity of the rural market. The reason why "agricultural leading enterprises+farmers' associations+farmers" can become a basic new agricultural development model and be used by the circulation of agricultural resources is that this model can directly connect loose farmers to resist the impact of market economy, strengthen frequent contact with farmers, and the operating cost is low, so that farmers can buy their own agricultural products at lower prices, sell their agricultural products at protective prices, and at the same time, they can easily obtain agricultural technical services. This new business model, because its business scope involves the agriculture-related industrial chain in a certain area, farmers can get benefits from it, thus effectively impacting the operation of traditional marketing channels, and it has been paid more and more attention by agricultural manufacturers.
2. Chain operation of agricultural resources market
Farmers gradually shift from product demand to service demand. Chain operation should implement unified identification, product quality, publicity and guidance, distribution, sales price and after-sales service. It is necessary not only to carry out chain operation of products, but also to carry out chain operation of technical services, so as to upgrade the operation of agricultural products to the operation of some food chains, such as brands, property rights and services.
3. Direct selling of manufacturers
Direct selling of agricultural products gets rid of the intermediate profit sharing of dealers and directly benefits end customers and farmers. Not only sell products directly to farmers, but also send services to Tiantou.
The changes in the members and business of these channels have impacted the structure of traditional agricultural channels to a certain extent, which objectively requires the agricultural channels to be adjusted accordingly.
4. Farmers pay more and more attention to the quality of agricultural materials.
The price of agricultural materials has less and less influence on farmers who buy agricultural materials, because consumers are concerned about the internal quality and efficiency of agricultural products such as pesticides and fertilizers. Farmers are still willing to pay high prices for agricultural materials with good quality and good reputation. Sales of high-priced pesticides and fertilizers are not necessarily reduced due to price factors. On the contrary, sometimes demand exceeds supply. At present, many foreign companies' high-quality and high-priced agricultural products have entered the stores and mass markets of domestic distributors, which is a good proof.
Fourth, how to do a good job in Taizhou's agricultural products marketing.
1. Pay attention to the promotion and advertising of innovative products.
Faced with the reality that there are many supply channels and complex categories in the agricultural resources market, farmers need to know the production, sales and development trends of pesticides, fertilizers and plant hormones. A good product or variety can't just be pieced together by dealers, renting a venue, promoters talking about the characteristics and usage of products, and dealers organizing promotion. This traditional extension model can no longer meet the needs of modern agricultural market. If a product wants to be promoted successfully, it is necessary to let the direct users of the product know the characteristics, performance and scientific use methods of the product, let them use it in cognition and summarize and promote it in use. To do this, we must have strong propaganda support, and advertising is the main means. We can carry out repeated publicity for a certain period of time through influential TV stations, agricultural science and technology newspapers and other media, so that everyone can know what this product is, what it is used for and how its performance is like hearing Head & Shoulders. In addition, farmers' meetings will be held, and science and technology will be organized to go to the countryside to demonstrate on the spot.
2. Pay attention to the combination of brand and product efficacy.
Brand effect has always been the main factor to promote product sales. A good brand represents good quality and good service. The same is true of agricultural brands, especially after the agricultural market is liberalized. No matter how much attention is paid to agricultural products such as seeds, pesticides and fertilizers, some old and excellent brands still have advantages in agricultural product sales. At present, the advertising channels of manufacturers are mainly magazines and newspapers, and most agricultural distributors spend little on advertising, taking seeds as an example, which is generally about 3% of sales. The survey shows that the more times dealers advertise seeds, the more sales will increase; Dealers whose seed advertising expenses exceed 5% of sales have the highest growth rate; The sales of enterprises that advertise by direct mail or in magazines and newspapers are above average; For dealers who emphasize after-sales service in advertisements, the sales increase is twice that of other dealers who emphasize seed price information. Emphasizing after-sales service in advertisements can especially meet the psychological needs of consumers. What they are most worried about is that no one is responsible for the problem and they can't find a claim. Therefore, far-sighted agricultural enterprises should aim at producing high-quality brand products, and the main products that farmers can buy and use with confidence are famous new varieties. In recent years, some foreign agricultural products have entered China. Compared with domestic agricultural products, their products have greatly surpassed domestic products, thus occupying a large market share. However, there are also some famous foreign brands of agricultural products. Due to the lack of sufficient adaptability demonstration tests in the market, its curative effect is almost the same as that of domestic products, but its price is much higher than that of similar domestic products, so the sales volume will drop sharply. Therefore, when we promote agricultural products, we should not only pay attention to the brand, but also pay attention to the efficacy of products in order to improve the sales of agricultural products.
3. Pay attention to service innovation.
As the main consumers, farmers have gradually become the core of marketing channels, and correspondingly, the focus of channel competition has also moved down to the terminal. The main manifestations of the downward shift of channel center of gravity are the flattening of channel structure, the shortening of channel length and the reduction of channel intermediate links. For example, the original provincial distributors or regional distributors gradually lost their market competitiveness and market control ability, and were eliminated as county-level distributors by the market. This change in marketing structure can help production enterprises to quickly distribute goods and occupy the market, strengthen the pertinence of marketing, and enable production enterprises to control and develop the market more actively and comprehensively. As a sales model, channel flattening simplifies the sales process, reduces the sales cost, and makes enterprises and distributors have more profit space. However, flattening is not simply to reduce any sales link, but to optimize the original supply chain, eliminate non-value-added links in the supply chain, improve the efficiency of channel operation, and build a complete, organic and efficient network system among factories, merchants and users, so that thousands of users in Qian Qian can communicate and interact with manufacturers and merchants through this network. Due to the transfer of rural youth labor to cities, most users of agricultural materials have low cultural quality, and agricultural materials are the carrier of agricultural technology, which requires high use and is labor-intensive. This requires agricultural operators to constantly innovate their service consciousness, do a good job in the quality service in the process of agricultural product sales through product demonstration and observation, telephone appointment for home delivery, and provide services for others, so as to seek development in the quality service.
4. Innovate sales channels and attach importance to terminal services.
Get rid of the traditional sales model and explore the marketing channels of agricultural materials that adapt to Taizhou market. The design and establishment of channels should not only adapt to the current competitive environment, but also take into account the changing trend of the competitive environment, because the establishment and cultivation of channels takes longer than other elements of the marketing mix. If the promotion war and price war belong to the tactical category, then the competition of channels is a strategic issue. In recent years, due to the development and popularization of computer and communication technology, many changes have taken place in the theory and practice of marketing, and many practices that have long been familiar and recognized by people have been changed. However, no matter how the economic environment and technical conditions change, the function of channels to integrate the space and information gap between producers and final consumers will exist for a long time, and goods will always flow from producers to consumers through channels. Therefore, as an indispensable part of the value chain system, channel will play an important role in the generation and maintenance of the core competence of enterprises, which makes the core competence brought by marketing channels difficult to replace. Channel selection and management is not only a management function and daily operation, but also an important link for enterprises to gain competitive advantage. An efficient channel network system will become a strategic resource for enterprises to compete in the future. Due to the outdated business model, narrow marketing channels and numerous agricultural outlets in Taizhou, it is the only way to improve the sales of agricultural products in Taizhou and explore a marketing channel suitable for Taizhou market. The innovation of sales channels should be based on product efficacy and service priority, benefiting the people and improving production efficiency. In order to win in the fierce competition of agricultural resources market, the marketing strategy must be unique. Explore chain operation, direct sales operation, network operation and other modes, give full play to the communication role between agricultural terminals and users, and embark on a road of agricultural marketing in Taizhou.
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