Marketing Aquaculture Products — 1

6. Family owned and operated
Weaknesses (Internal):
1. Breakdown of delivery vehicle
2. Day-of-delivery transportation to meet
fresh non-frozen product delivery
deadlines
3. Labor-intensive hand processing on day
of delivery
4. Limited labor if anyone is sick or there is
an emergency
5. Limited production capacity
Th reats (External):
1. Fuel cost impact on product
2. Main high-value customer restaurant-X
decides to discontinue product
3. Cheaper product steals our market
4. Bad public relations about our operation
or our product
Opportunities (External):
1. Large potential local customer base
2. Huge potential regional customer base
3. Regional food fair to meet many new
contacts over several days
4. Local direct-to consumer marketing at
three nearby farmer’s markets
5. New technology to connect with
customers (Twitter®/Facebook®)
In Strengths we see that the product’s reputation
and attributes are what is driving this
company and its product, not the fact that it
is family owned or a good-looking operation.
Although important marketing points; these
considerations tied for last place in the list.
Weaknesses illustrated that our friends need a
new fuel-effi cient way to get their product to
market. Th is is probably something they have
recognized, but chosen to ignore for some time.
Th ey should start shopping for a new or better
used vehicle or consider contracting for their
delivery needs (sometimes a very cost-eff ective
solution; this also would free-up some of the labor
pressures). Small-operation labor issues are
always problematic, but these labor issues could
be solved by looking at the processing practices
and streamlining them to increase operational
effi ciency, or fi nding some good part-time help
who would work for minimum wage.
In Th reats, we again see the need for a new
vehicle or contracted delivery. We also see the
need to have good open communications and
propagate a strong supplier-buyer relationship
with restaurant-X. Th ere is not much you can
do about cheaper product, but your clients are
not going to go that route if they are getting
quality product from you and have a personal
relationship with you and your staff . Bad PR
happens, but not that oft en. Still, you should
have a risk-management plan that hinges on
openness and quality-control practices that
allow you to defend your product or identify
what happened and where.
Opportunities are a bright spot for this business.
Th ey now see that they have a nice fat nut
to crack to move more product (--and to move
more product they need a little labor help and
new truck, etc.). Th ese market revelations are
not immediately actionable items, but the food
fair is, and should be targeted. Th ey may want
to investigate the farmer’s markets (perhaps
their new part-time employee would like to
staff a table) and talk to their local extension
professional or savvy teenager about social
networking sites.
As you construct your written marketing plan,
be sure to specify major goals achievable over
the next year or production season, and quantify
this in terms of sales, market shares, fi nances,
operations etc. And fi nally, do your best to
defi ne strategic action programs: indicate who,
what, where, when, how etc., and set milestones
and prioritize performance targets. Example
outlines and worksheets on how to organize
this is presented in the next section.
Develop or improve your identity and product
communications as needed. Th is probably
means working with a professional to articulate
your message, develop your image and
label, and strategize about your print advertising
needs. Some aquaculture-ventures do this
work themselves with their own staff or family
Marketing Aquaculture Products — 51