How the 4 Ps of Marketing Can Be Used to Help Small Scale Farmers to Market Their Agricultural Produce

Farmers’ market produce could fall in one of two marketing channel structures the first one being direct channel. This is so because the Farmers market can sell their produce

In a perfect market, the price of a good or service reveals information about both the buyer and the seller. The buyer would never buy anything that costs more than it is worth to him or her, so the price reveals the value to the buyer. The seller would never sell anything for less than its cost of production, so the price reveals the value and cost of the good or service to the seller.

-The role and significance of prices in the market economy has to do with supply and demand. If there are the same amount of buyers as products, the price will settle. If there are more buyers than products, the price of the product will rise. And, if there are more products than buyers, the price of the product will decrease. This occurs until the supply of the product matches the demand of the product.

1 Farmers may not totally understand the product value. They may not easily accept new product that they have never heard about.

There is a market trend of supply and demand in an economy and this is measured through the equilibrium process and the actors that affect supply and demand. The farmers are the market suppliers and hence they determine their produce by measuring the equilibrium market prices and quantities. The suppliers are aware that when the prices of commodity increases the demand of the same commodity decrease and when demand increases supply decreases until the market reaches an equilibrium point. There are various factors that affect

Prices in a market economy are very important. Price allows us to give out goods appropriately to those who are able to pay.

The agricultural industry: the farms, plants, animals, and farmers, have supported this great country for so long, but lately we have turned our backs on it. Today, we live in a materialistic society, people wanting more and better items, not settling for products that will accomplish the same job.From looking at the fruits and vegetables in the grocery store, we see the bruised or smaller ones left, while the big and brightly colored ones are selected first. In our society today, changes are constantly being made to help expand and evolve the agricultural industry, but it has yet been able to do so. To this day farmers across this nation have not been completely successful in providing for the people who make up this country. In the stores

c. How consumers maximize utility, and how prices are established in markets for agricultural products

Supply and demand are the rulers of price in the capitalist economy of the United States, and farm goods rely on these factors as much as any other commodity. The demand for food remains relatively stable although slightly increasing year to year, but the supply fluctuates greatly depending on

1) What are the four variables of the marketing mix? Who controls the marketing mix variables? Explain briefly.

As a farmer you need to watch the changing prices for the products. They use different actions to keep themselves safe from unpredictable changes in the markets. Farmers also track disease and weather conditions closely, because disease and bad weather may have a bad blow on crops or animal health. When farmers plan ahead they may be able to store their crops or keep their animals to take

As per Ian Ruskin Brown and Greg Clark “ Marketing mix is the term used explaining the different elements comprising the offer that the different companies makes to their customers”. (Brown and Clarke, 2000:44). E.Jerome McCarthy in early 1960s came up with the four Ps in the marketing mix. According to him these 4ps are “ Product, price, place and promotion”.( McCarthy and Shapiro 1975: 35). Refer Appendix I for the pictorial representation. But the view of Richard Sandhusen is that the four marketing mixes should be ‘price, product, promotion and distribution’ (Sadhusen, 2000:319). According to Steven Stralser ‘in order to create a marketing strategy and plan that touch all the areas of marketing to position a product, maximise revenue etc a few more components have to be considered which are, Marketing segmentation, Marketing Strategy, Marketing research , Pricing, placement and value chain.’(Stralser,

The marketing mix is a combination of 4 P’s (product, price, place and promotion) that should be used in conjunction with each other to ensure a competitive edge over other companies. ‘The marketing mix is designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a target market’.

Moreover the university known as fraser valley had the highest prices so far in any of the market by any other country. And the next and the most expensive farmland was recorded by the Bradford which is locate in Ontario and where the value of land was increased by 25 percent. This also stated that the demand is affected by the operations of farmland which also further expanded. Now a days, increase in the demand of the farmland led to increase in the number of buyers for various lands which also affected the price in the economy. As after increase in prices of farmland there was a huge increase in rate of the agricultural commodities. Thus sometimes demand exceeds supply and sometimes supply exceeds demand. When demand exceeds is known as quantity demanded and when supply increased is knows and quantity supplied. Both demand and supply are effected on basic reasons as each and every other country’s economic transactions and various type of goods and services are affected by the forces of demand and supply. Sometimes the economy lowers or equals the demand and supply and this will lead to equilibrium in the economy where the demand is equal to supply so the price of farmland will be in control in form of every other country. Mostly demand in the economy is increased by both demand of the products and related to all

Political factors impact the agricultural sector in factors relating to regulation, distribution, and consumption of foods in a given country. Government policies and imposed regulations have a direct effect on nutritional choices that a consumer makes, and this, in turn, affects the agriculture market (KPMG, 2012). For example, policies governing food prices or the amount of information that a consumer will receive affects the choice of the consumer. Food regulation and safety measures implemented influence the supply of food products, and ultimately determines the market choice for consumers (KPMG, 2012). Economic factors have a direct effect on the agricultural industry. On one hand, the input cost such as the price of seeds, fertilizers, and cost of labor affect the productivity of the industry. The economic status of a country also affects the industry’s productivity. For example, in developing countries, the agricultural sector is less developed owing to limited resource input and poor infrastructure (KPMG, 2012).