An ecch-published Case Series on Agri-food B to B Marketing

 By Professor Hubert Faucher, ESSEC Business School Paris Singapore.   

 Edited by

In 2003, Hubert Faucher, Teaching Professor at ESSEC Business School Paris Singapore, was asked to develop a course in "B. to B. Agri-Food Marketing Policy," as part of the ESSEC-MBA Agri-Food track. This recently created track, comprising three courses and one seminar, offers sector specialization to ESSEC-MBA students. At the outset, given the strong “professional” profile of this specialized track, Professor Faucher thought to involve companies in the teaching process. At the same time he realized that students needed not only to be exposed to executives’ business experience, but also to be able to relate robust B to B marketing tools to the sector specificities. There were not many cases illustrating agri-food applications in the B to B arena, and by far even less so in Europe.
Although obviously by far non exhaustive, the case series spans an interesting number of topics, ranging from organizational purchasing behavior to business strategy, through B to B marketing segmentation and targeting and competitive positioning and introduces a large variety of agri-food subsectors.

• “Fruit Prep Supplies – Dair’Ing vs. Delissia: How Corporate Purchasing Behavior Impacts B to B Negotiation”, published in 2005, features marketing and purchasing strategies and negotiation between Delissia, an international biscuit manufacturer, and Dair’Ing, one of its key fruit preparation supplier.

• “Buffer BiAc Acidifiers – Competitive Product Positioning”, published in 2004, illustrates how to deal with competitive offer positioning in the perspective of business planning, in the highly competitive sector of industrial acidifiers, using a tool called the “Competitive Positioning Analysis Matrix.”

• “Olymp’IA Flavors, B-to-B Market Segmentation”, first published in 2006 and re-published in 2007, deals with B to B market segmentation issues in the agri-food sector. 

• “Toutatis Sunflower Seeds – Farm Input Distribution Strategy” published in 2007, deals with distribution channel management in the plant breeding industry.

• “Pallas and the Feez Feed Enzyme – Can Technology and Marketing Go Hand in Hand?”, to be published in Summer, 2008, deals with choosing the right marketing strategy for “Feez”, a recent product innovation for the feed enzyme market.

“The adventure is awesome”, says Hubert Faucher. Despite an extremely high amount of work (in fact, much higher than expected at the outset), the return on investment is great, mostly in the form of acquired knowledge and fun for teaching. He expects to carry on teaching material publication on his field, which an increasing focus on Key Account Management.

• Learn more on the ESSEC MBA
• Learn more on the Marketing B to B training
• Download the whole article :Téléchargement ecchESSECFaucherv2.doc

Further information on the cases:

“Fruit Prep Supplies – Dair’Ing vs. Delissia: How Corporate Purchasing Behavior Impacts B to B Negotiation”, , published in 2005, features marketing and purchasing strategies and negotiation between Delissia, an international biscuit manufacturer, and Dair’Ing, one of its key fruit preparation supplier. It introduces two roles in separate parts to two distinct groups of participants assigned the preparation of a three-round negotiation between Suzy O’Brien, Dair’Ing’s Fruit Prep’ Business Unit Manager, and Victor du Thil, Delissia’ Category Sourcing Manager. Each party has private information, unknown to the other, and the negotiation take the participants into a generally heated debate where they discover the intricacies of long term negotiation between two strategic partners.

“Buffer BiAc Acidifiers – Competitive Product Positioning”, published in 2004, illustrates how to deal with competitive offer positioning in the perspective of business planning, in the highly competitive sector of industrial acidifiers, using a tool called the “Competitive Positioning Analysis Matrix.” Chloe Ducas, Corporate Line Manager for Acidifiers at Bio Indus, a major player in the bio industries in Europe, must evaluate “Buffer BiAc”, one of its declining products against competition, using a large array of data provided by the strong corporate Marketing Intelligence system. This tool will help her to decipher complex marketing information, leading to a structured action plan for the years to come.

“Olymp’IA Flavors, B-to-B Market Segmentation”, first published in 2006 and re-published in 2007, deals with B to B market segmentation issues in the agri-food sector. First aimed at becoming a unique case, it was split into two different parts, given the breath of the topic. The case features Bob Curnew, recently hired as Marketing Director of the Flavor Business Unit at Olymp’IA, one of the main companies specialized in nature products and fine chemicals. Part A deals with “Targeting for Growth.” In that part, Bob Curnew pursues the objective of raising the BU’s turnover in Europe by 20 % within three years through organic growth. This entails a close look at the main application segments of this activity, namely: Yoghurt and Dairy-based Desserts, Ice Cream, Confectionery and Soft Drinks. Bob will have to study the attractiveness of these different segments to identify the key drivers for growth in a very competitive environment where the twelve key competitors have taken the names of the…  Olympic Gods! Part B deals with “Customer Portfolio Management for Commercial Optimization.” Focusing on the most mature “Yoghurt and Dairy based Dessert” segment, Curnew analyzes his customer base in order to identify Key Accounts and characterize them. This will enable him to fine-tune commercial strategy in order to address the overall growth objective.   

“Toutatis Sunflower Seeds – Farm Input Distribution Strategy” published in 2007, deals with distribution channel management in the plant breeding industry. Here, Jean-Claude Rinac, Sunflower Product Manager for France at Galix Seeds, enters the new “High Oleic” sunflower seed segment with three new varieties, marketed under the brand name “Toutatis” through a large network of distributors. Rinac’s challenge is to design the distribution strategy for the three new varieties as well as for the three “classical” varieties approved last year and still under scrutiny. Sunflower varieties are geographically segmented, based on their “maturity” levels. Rinac will have to deal with geographical issues to adapt the distribution strategy to all varieties in his portfolio, including distribution intensity, communication policy and even delegation of some minor varieties to selected partnering competitors.

“Pallas and the Feez Feed Enzyme – Can Technology and Marketing Go Hand in Hand?”, to be published in Summer, 2008, deals with choosing the right marketing strategy for “Feez”, a recent product innovation for the feed enzyme market. Feed enzymes are additives used in animal feed to improve feed digestibility, hence the cost of animal husbandry. Feed enzyme suppliers belong to a concentrated industry. Under high pressure from his President to achieve worldwide leadership in this market within five years, Gaëtan Lagos, recently appointed as Corporate Marketing Manager, must choose the right strategic orientation for five years and initiate the marketing plan for Year One, in line with this orientation. He will face tough budget spending choices, and will have to invest in the most profitable options, given conflicting proposals from the R&D and commercial teams: will he succeed in reconciling R&D and Sales teams' preferences under Marketing leadership?

These cases are adapted to graduate training, and can be taught in continuing education as well as in full-time courses. Although they are clearly tailored for agri-food management courses, they are perfectly suitable for general Masters in Management and MBAs, where an introductory course in marketing is advised as a prerequisite. All cases are supplied with a series of several documents: while students are provided with the case texts (Word format) and Excel data documents with complementary market, competitive and technical information in order to facilitate analysis, instructors are provided with teaching notes, Excel data with intermediate data processing results, and slide presentations (PowerPoint format), ready for use and easy to customize. In written evaluations expressed to the co-authors (also co-lecturers) from 2004 and 2007, students have deeply appreciated the involved nature of the issues introduced in real life contexts. They have enjoyed the “real life situation” and “learning ways of thinking.” Some have mentioned the higher-than-normal amount of work for preparation, but most have stressed the fact that these cases show the “usefulness of applying methods learned in class.”

“The adventure is awesome”, says Hubert Faucher. Despite an extremely high amount of work (in fact, much higher than expected at the outset), the return on investment is great, mostly in the form of acquired knowledge and fun for teaching. He expects to carry on teaching material publication on his field, which an increasing focus on Key Account Management.

• Learn more on the ESSEC MBA
• Learn more on the Marketing B to B training
• Download the whole article :Téléchargement ecchESSECFaucherv2.doc