Business Keota Farmers Cooperative Association Research Proposal

The amount of new memberships will be kept in a database to see how successful the open house was. Increasing membership will be beneficial to all parties involved.

MANAGING THE MARKETING PROGRAM

Marketing is really just as simple as telling the right story to the right people. Marketing is the process of building a brand, or in other words, recognition for a reputation. In order to build the brand you want, it is important to answer some basic questions.

What is your business about?

The essence of a business brand can usually be described in just a few words about the integrity, authenticity, uniqueness and reputation of your business. The value of that brand is what customers or clients are willing to pay for.

Who do you want to work with in your everyday operations?

Identifying your ideal member will help you to target your marketing efforts to those individuals that you can best serve.

How will you find your potential members?

Many experts feel that word of mouth as one of the biggest ways they find new members. Potential members are everywhere.

What marketing tools work best to reach your members?

Demonstrating your expertise will help to attract the kind of members that you want to work with.

How will your members like working with you?

Every interaction with a member is an opportunity to strengthen your brand. Are you attentive, reliable, professional, responsive, creative, and resourceful? Your brand is what you do, not just what you say.

Do you really know about what's important to your members and how they feel about doing business with you?

Customer satisfaction is the key to any successful business.

Do you know who your competitors are?

Knowing your competition is important if you want to effectively promote your services to clients (Marketing Your Business, 2009).

Keota Farmers Cooperative Association will use their database in order to track the answers to these questions. Membership information is kept in this database and is accessible by the associations management at all times. Membership numbers will be evaluated on a quarterly basis to monitor membership status. When new members are obtained it will be entered into the database how they first heard about the Co-op in order to determine which form of advertising is most effective. This will help the association to meet their goal of new membership.

GOALS: RESPONSE AND CONVERSION RATES

-Increase memberships by 25% between July 1st, 2009 and June 30th, 2010, through the direct mailing and the open house. This hope is to increase the awareness of the importance of alliance membership for the survival of the small feeder farms. The direct mail brochure will be sent out to 250 potential members in the Keota area. Estimating that 20% of the potential members will respond to the open house that will give Keota Farmers Cooperative Association 50 new potential members. Assuming that 20% of the 50 new potential members would follow through with signing up and for the conversion rate, would give Keota Farmers Cooperative Association 10 new members by the end of June 2010.

- Keota Farmers Cooperative Association would receive approximately $10,000 per alliance membership. The total profit from 10 new memberships would be $100,000. The Co-op spent $870 on the direct mailing piece which includes postage, cost for the mailing list, and cost of the package. The return on investment would be about 99% for those 10 new members from the mailing list. Instructor's note: The $100,000 is revenue- to determine profit you must subtract the marketing costs from the revenue. ($99,130) You would then use this number to determine ROI.

MEASUREMENT PLAN

Management will look at the database of members that joined the alliance from July 1st, 2009 through June 30th, 2010, to determine which means of advertising was the most effective. This will help to determine how many members that Keota Farmers Cooperative Association obtained from the direct mail program and if the same program will be offered throughout the next year of July 1st, 2010 through June 30th, 2011.

Measurement will be accomplished by the same program that the Co-op currently uses to document member information. In order to determine which advertisement was the most effective the staff will document in the database how the member heard about the alliance program. The selection will include direct mail, ad in newspaper, radio or TV advertisements. Management will keep track of the selections and determine a plan of action for future means of advertising.

TACTICS

Deliverable

Your Role (what are you going to do?)

Deadline

Marketing Plan

Draft Marketing Plan

July 15, 2009

Mailing List

Obtain Mailing List

July 18, 2009

Staff Meeting

Inform Staff of upcoming membership drive

August 1, 2009

Mailing Package

Design Mailing Package and have brochure printed

August 15, 2009

Newspaper Ad

Design, contact newspapers, and provide with advertisement plan

September 1, 2009

TV Ad

Design, contact TV stations and provide with advertising plan

October 1, 2009

Meet with Staff

Go over project plans and finalize expectations

October 15, 2009

Mailing Packages

Send direct mailing packages to desired targets

November 1, 2009

BUDGET

$42,050

To notify the 250 potential customers for alliance membership with Keota Farmers Cooperative Association of the open house program, the Co-op will be sending out a packet with the vital information. An ad will be placed in the Keota Eagle, Sigourney News Review and the What Cheer Paper, weekly for two months. There will be brochures available in the lobbies of all the area offices for customers to take. Radio and TV advertising will be done for the months of November and December.

The total "Classic" Direct Mail Package cost will be included in the budget for potential members. The cost for the newspaper and TV ads, along with the brochures will be included in the budget for advertisement. Contingency for other expenses also included.

Classic Direct Mailing Packages (Printing and Postage) $750.00

News paper Ads (8 times) $24,000

Radio Ad (3 times daily for 90 days) $4,500

TV ad (8 per month x 2 months) $12,800

$42, 050

RESOURCES

Cropp, Robert. (1998). Farmer's Cooperative and the City of Keota, Iowa: A Case Study.

Retrieved June 20, 2009, from Web site:

http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/fra/keota.pdf

Don't take time away from you operation to round up information. (2009). Retrieved

June 20, 2009, from DTN Livestock Web site:

http://about.dtnpf.com/ag/lib/pdf/sellsheets/DTN%20Livestock.pdf

Generating rural progress. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2009, from Web site:

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/aug00/gener.htm

Hogs Companies in Iowa. (2009). Retrieved June 20, 2009, from MANTA Web site:…