Adding Value with a Marketing Plan
by Keith Evans, Saint Joseph, Mo.

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"Marketing is just as important to your success as is your breeding program," Keith Evans told more than 215 Angus enthusiasts who attended the 2002 National Angus Conference.

Your herd bull may be so unique, and so overpowering compared to his competition, that a standard, side view, posed photo will do the trick. But for most, that won’t work. It’s true that a potential customer will want to see a picture of your bull before he invests in the bull’s semen or progeny. However, a brochure mailed to an interested potential customer, a visit to your place or a smaller, secondary photo can accomplish that task.

The illustration is responsible for grabbing the attention of the reader.
The headline, like the illustration, should draw attention to what you are selling and create interest. It should expand on the illustration’s promise by telling what the picture is about. Moreover, it should state the most important benefit a customer will receive–more pounds, more dollars, more peace of mind, whatever. A slogan or a trite expression should never, never be used as a headline. Some advertising experts work for days to write the “perfect” headline. Never shortchange the headlines in your ads.

Compelling, persuasive body copy is essential if the illustration and headline do their job. Once your ad has the reader’s attention, it’s the job of well-written copy to create desire on the part of the reader to own the product or at least learn more about it. This is where you give the sales pitch, explaining the features and benefits of the cattle you have for sale.

Good copy also creates conviction by backing claims with proof. State the facts, spell out your guarantee and make people want to do business with you. Good copy tells the sales story in a nutshell, in a logical order. Each sentence should make the reader want to read the next sentence. In closing, the copy should ask the reader to take some action—telephone for more information, ask for a sale catalog, stop by for an open house next week, come to the sale, etc. Too many advertisers assume that the reader will automatically act in a certain way, but that’s seldom the case. Tell them how to do it, and make it easy.

Part of this final job is handled by the ad’s signature. Effective ad signatures feature the business logo and include the name of the contact person or persons, the telephone number, fax number, E-mail and Web site address, mailing address, and directions to the farm or ranch. The herd logo must be attractive and distinctive and identify your business at a glance. A professional should design it, and you should use it in every ad and every promotional piece you produce.

Finally, these four advertising building blocks, illustration, headline, body copy and signature, should be combined in such a way as to create an overall distinctive appearance for the advertisement. You can identify top advertisers simply by the distinctive appearance of their ads, even before you recognize the illustration, read the headline or identify the logo. Distinctive appearance in an ad is usually produced by someone who knows how to combine proportion, color, type faces and other graphic elements to produce a pleasing, eye-catching design. Once you have achieved the desired “look” then use it time after time to build recognition for your business.

Study advertising like you study genetics and cattle breeding. Insist that each ad you run contains the five basic building blocks and accomplishes the five basic tasks. You’ll be more confident about approving and paying for advertising, and your advertising will return you more money.

Defining your market area
The most effective marketing is done by people who have carefully defined their market area. In fact, knowing the size of your market area and the number of potential customers it includes is essential for efficient marketing. The marketing budget and program you should use depends upon whether you will market cattle worldwide, nationwide, statewide or only within a 50-mile radius of your farm or ranch.

Start the process by digging out your sales records for the last few years. Get a map and place a dot near the location of every buyer or every animal sold. If you are like most producers you will find a shotgun-type dot pattern. Over the years I have done this for both large and small private sales, and state consignment sales. Always, the heaviest concentration of dots is clustered around the breeder’s location. The dot pattern thins as the distance from the sale location increases.

Thin or blank spots in the pattern almost always show up. These identify areas with no potential buyers, areas where another breeder dominates the market or areas that are not being adequately reached with advertising and promotion—or some combination of the three. In more populated areas of the country the bulk of a breeder’s buyers will probably be within a 50-mile radius of home. In areas where the carrying capacity of the land is lower, the cluster of buyers will often be more widely distributed. Even sellers who attract buyers nationwide find that the majority of their buyers live relatively close to them.

Before you decide that the heavy concentration of dots on the map will be your defined market area, do some more research. First check out the number of commercial cattle in this area. Then figure four or five bulls to breed each 100 cows. This will give you an estimate of the number of bulls in service within your area. Figure a 25 percent annual bull turnover (or whatever is appropriate to your area of the country) to get the number of new bulls needed in the area each year.

Also take into account the competition you face. There are sure to be other breeders and consignment sales that you must compete with. To get a complete picture mark these competitors on your map, and list roughly how many bulls they sell. You can’t calculate exactly how all these factors affect your business. But with this information in front of you it will be easier to define your primary market area and design your marketing plan.

Regardless of how large or how small a market area you map out, your advertising and marketing goal is specific: establish awareness, hopefully top-of-mind awareness, of you and your business with a high percentage of the potential customers in that area. You want every producer within that area to know about your business and to at least consider you and your cattle when it’s time to buy bulls.

At this point the answer to the often-asked question, “Where should I advertise?” becomes more obvious. You should use media that will most efficiently reach all the potential customers within your defined market area. If the area is small, weekly or small daily newspapers may be an efficient buy. There may be a well-read local farm or livestock newspaper that reaches a high percentage of your intended audience. In some areas radio stations might cover the area well. On the other hand, direct mail of some kind could be both efficient and effective. Once you’ve checked the circulation and rates of all the media options, and the other methods of reaching and influencing buyers, you will likely use a balanced combination.

As the market area enlarges so do the media options. Breeders who want to attract volume bull buyers from a distance, or who target other registered producers can often make good use of national beef cattle magazines, the national breed association publication, or regional breed publications. In some instances various types of national publications would be efficient. None of these would be efficient for a 75–mile radius market area.
Many breeders, once they are satisfied that their defined market area is well covered, will reach out with advertising and promotion beyond the fringe of their sales map. This introduces them to new prospects, and can eventually broaden their sales base. But never do this by taking money from the budget that properly covers the designated market area.

Every successful business has a good handle on its competition, and its customers and potential customers. Defining your market area and understanding the potential customers within it can save you money, give your marketing program direction and clout, and improve your business.