Marketing Aquaculture Products — 1

operation, check over and revise by , and
will have a clipboard with attached pen for the
E-mail list with the computer.
Similar Milestone lines could include ones for
calling potential buyers, developing a contact
list, making sales calls, developing print advertising
or on-site promotional events, or periodic
reviews of MarketMaker data.
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Th reats) Analysis
SWOT is another comprehensive list-making
exercise. Where the MAT is your actionable todo
list; SWOT is to help your strategic thinking
and a reality-check for your assumptions and
planning.
Have your team begin by brain storming on the
four headings Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Th reats mentioned above. Later, as
in the Assumptions part of the MAT, consider
all critical items with your proposed project
timeline in mind; don’t get bogged down with
too much detail when creating the lists. When
the team is rested and fresh, rank them from
most important to least important, then critically
analyze each of the points with the mindset
of independent outside reviewers. Develop
contingency plans to preserve your strengths
and address your weaknesses as needed.
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to
your business; Opportunities and Th reats are
external. All SWOTs should be ‘one-handed’
- something is either a Strength or a Weakness,
but cannot be both. Enter items under
each heading and then rank them in order of
importance. Aft er a brainstorming session, an
example of the lists might look like:
Strengths (Internal): Family owned and operated,
cold artesian water, good looking operation,
quality product, great local reputation,
choice of top chefs in X, Y, and Z high-end local
restaurants.
Weaknesses (Internal): Limited production
capacity, labor-intensive hand processing on
50 — Marketing Aquaculture Products
day of delivery, day of delivery transportation
to meet fresh non-frozen product delivery
deadlines, limited labor if anyone is sick or
there is an emergency, breakdown of delivery
vehicle.
Th reats (External): Main high-value customer
restaurant-X decides not to carry our product
anymore, fuel cost impact on product, and
cheaper product steals our market, bad public
relations about our operation or our product.
Opportunities (External): Regional food fair
can be a place to meet many new contacts over
several days, new technology to connect with
customers (Twitter/Facebook), and local directto
consumer marketing at three nearby farmer’s
markets, large potential local customer base,
and huge potential regional customer base.
As mentioned above, SWOTs should be ‘onehanded’
- something is either a Strength or
Weakness, but not both. Family owned and
operated for example, could be something that
could easily have strengths and weaknesses. It
is you value judgment as to which category in
which it should be placed. Th ere is a simple
solution to when you encounter something
you are unsure about, think about what are the
strengths and weaknesses of that point. In the
preceding example, we see that the weaknesses
of Family owned and operated appear under
the other headers in terms of limited labor and
the pressure on the same folks doing the work
as well as getting the product to the clients.
Now if we rank our examples by their importance,
we begin to see the tough things we need
to address regarding the operation, things that
we thought were important as not being that
important, as well as where there may be some
great opportunities:
Strengths (Internal):
1. Quality product
2. Choice of top chefs in X, Y, and Z highend
local restaurants
3. Great local reputation
4. Cold artesian water
5. Good looking operation