By SARAH B. AUBREY
Indiana Correspondent WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Commoditization. Globalization. Consolidation. These words are shaping how most agribusiness leaders are presenting their product messages to distributors, dealers, and producers across the nation.
As mergers reign and products continue to look more alike than dissimilar, many firms are discovering that in the minds of customers, the ag input marketplace has become highly homogeneous, with many companies struggling to differentiate themselves in a look-alike marketplace.
Re-thinking Service Strategies: Innovations that Drive Profit is the theme for the 2007 National Conference for Agribusiness, hosted by Purdue University. Scheduled for Nov. 13-14 in West Lafayette, the conference will focus on service in a broad strategic sense, using a wide array of examples from both inside and outside the agricultural industry.
“Agribusiness professionals need to develop a mindset of thinking about service as being equal to product in importance,” said Dr. Scott Downey, assistant professor and associate director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue. “It’s about elevating service to the status of product.”
According to Downey, one method to build solid customer relationships and drive profits is to create value from service. What was once considered an add-on to a product or service bundle has now become an opportunity to differentiate between both firms and products.
Key concepts explored during the conference should include breaking service paradigms, assessing service opportunities, determining customers’ willingness to pay for services, delivering service with an impact, communicating service value and managing escalating customer expectations in a competitive marketplace.
Featured guests will be from agriculture and other industries.
“Communicating service value is not unlike communicating tangible product value,” said Jane Ellis Anderson, senior project manager for the center and the New Ventures Team. “The challenge for many companies who would like to be paid for services is that they have not yet raised service up as being equal to tangible products in the process.
“Firms who have developed services in response to customer needs are being rewarded with new revenue opportunities.”
Industry experts featured in the conference line-up include, among others: Chuck Stein, president of Owens Corning Cultured Stone Products; Glenn R. Weckerlin, global director of Brand and Product Line Management for Chevron Corp.; and John Mann, vice president of Engineering at John Deere AgriServices, Inc.
To learn more about the National Conference for Agribusiness and take advantage of early bird discount rates, contact Jane Ellis Anderson at 765-494-4247 or by e-mail at jane1@purdue.edu
View conference information and download a brochure online at www agecon.purdue.edu/cab/programs/nca This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
