Basic Marketing Considerations Daniel Burden International & Special Projects ISU Value Added Ag Program

Reality Check “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” –Peter Drucker.

Feasibility Study & Business Plan Executive summary Mission statement Market analysis Technology review Personnel Qualifications Financial projections SWOT Analysis (Market analysis): Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses & Threats

Viability & Market Penetration Product price point(s) (all fixed and variable (including emergency) costs of production: utility overhead, labor, transportation, loan service, etc.) Break even, reasonable profit, best projected Operate at a loss? – How long? –Exit strategy Know the market = Know the value chain Consumer demographics vs. projected price-point(s)

Reality Check Who will want this thing? (Why buy it?) Why not put the cash toward an alternative protein? Will (and how often will) customers pay this price? Can I work through a distributor? (logistics and price point) What do I have to do to get a segment of this market? How sustainable is my market?

Plan to do it all yourself? Develop a team: cooperators & advisors Network: national, regional & local Read everything that you can find Business plan: Nail the marketing & communications

Know the market = Know the value chain See how the competition sells Listen to advisors Listen to customers Set sales targets (goals) Regularly revise tactics You are trying to hit a moving target, there is no perfection, just constant striving to be “less wrong.”

The Damien Newman “Squiggle”

60% 40% World Harvest 2010 Capture fishery: 88.6 MMT of fish and shellfish Aquaculture: 59.9 MMT of fish and shellfish 60% 40% Total 2010 finfish and shellfish = 148.5 million metric tons ( MMT )

World per capita consumption of seafood = 15.4 kg/yr U.S. per capita consumption of seafood = 7.0 kg/yr

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.” –Muhammed Ali (1942-2016)

“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” –Dale Carnegie.

International & Special Projects ISU Value Added Ag Program 1111 NSRIC For more information: Daniel Burden Program Coordinator International & Special Projects ISU Value Added Ag Program 1111 NSRIC Ames, IA 50011 (515) 294-0925 djburden@iastate.edu www.iavaap.org www.agmrc.org Thank you all so much for making me feel welcome here today, and thank you so much for taking time from your busy schedules to travel here to participate in the conference. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. --=Dan.