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Case Study

Case Study: Agricultural Input Manufacturer Seeks Insights into New Market Opportunities

Experienced farmers on the field

Client’s Industry: Agriculture, agribusiness

Client: Chilean-based Agricultural Input Manufacturer

Client’s Challenge

The client was considering expanding their manufacturing operation and looking for new markets in which to sell more of their product. Before launching their brand and product into a new market, they wanted to learn more about the local attitudes and purchasing decisions, the potential barriers to trial, and adoption of their proprietary brand before introducing their future line of products. And more specifically, they wanted to understand any nuances of the producer mindsets in each of multiple regions, the localized farming practices, the challenges producers were facing, and the level of knowledge and perception of plant nutrition.

Solution

The regions of interest to the client were two European countries and two states in the United States known for their diverse crop types and significant agricultural production. Within each of the regions, producers were recruited for interviews based on the location of their operation and the type of crops grown.

Working with the client, Prime46 developed the interview guide that provided a consistent set of topics and questions interviewers followed. The guides were translated into local languages, and the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for similarities and differences. Themes began to emerge during the analysis, which were provided in the report and presentation.

Results

While the primary goal of the research was to understand the market potential within each region, the secondary goals included collecting insights about the core values of the category, or to say, ‘understanding why producers produce’.  Additionally, goals included comparing the challenges growers face and benefits of their chosen lifestyle.

The findings helped the client be able to:

  • Understand the core category values among producers in various regions
  • Gain insight into the motivational differences and similarities among producer attitudes
  • Know the level of awareness and compare the perception of competitive products in the regions

Successes

Prime46 was able to help a South American company identify values, motivations, and perception among producers in European countries and high-value production states in the U.S. While the action taken isn’t known, Prime46 was able to present the findings to several leadership groups internationally.