Market analysis for archer daniels midland company

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a US company which engaged in procuring, transporting, storing, processing, merchandising agriculture commodities and product. It is operating in more than 240 countries including USA, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Available at www.admworld.com (Accessed 06/04/2010)

ADM have many competitors’ in this industry sector this is because of its business nature, the followings are the major competitors of ADM’s.

Processing Inc; Agribrands International, Inc.; Ajinomoto Co., Inc.; The Andersons, Inc.; Bartlett and Company; Bunge Limited; Cargill, Incorporated; Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives; ConAgra, Inc.; ContiGroup Companies, Inc.; Corn Products International, Inc.; Eridania Beghin-Say; Farmland Industries, Inc.; GROWMARK Inc.; Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.; Riceland Foods, Inc.; The Scoular Company; Southern States Cooperative, Incorporated; Tate & Lyle PLC; Universal Corporation.

Those above companies are major competitor of ADM’s due to their assets, sales, and focus of their business and geographical reach of their product.

After reviewed the principal competitors’ of ADM most of them they are using market mix strategies, competitive, positioning and differentiation strategies in order to capture consumer in the market when they are launching new product in to the market.

By taking Bunge Company as a case example of ADM’s competitor after reviewed this company we see that its goal is to be the best company in the agriculture and food production in the world and their strategies is to strengthen their core business like fertilizer, food product and ingredients, expand their business by improving their assets and expertise by having other product like sugar so that than can be competitive company in this industry moreover they will make sure understand their customer need and provide product in different segment and enhance their product efficiency, and their lastly strategy is decentralization and integrated at the same time so that they can be close to their customers in the whole region where they are supplying their products. www.bunge.com accessed 12/04/2010.

In order to compete with company like Bunge with their strategies when launching a new product as ADM’s we will use defence and attack strategies.

According to Kotler P, Keller K. M, Brady M, Goodman M and Hansen M (2009) in defence there is position defence, flank defence, pre-emptive defence, counter offensive defence, mobile defence and contraction defence in attack there is frontal attack, flank attack, encirclement attack, bypass attack and guerrilla warfare attack.

On the defence strategy as a market you have to know the needs of customers and satisfying them and creating high brand equity for the new product (position defence), however you can introduce new product which reposition the existing product by having promotion activities (flank defence) or you can attack the competitors in different

pways and keep them off balance, by having pre communication or pre announcement regarding future actions of the company which will threaten the competitors and they will start to concentrate on gaining the market share and avoiding competition.( pre-emptive defence). Kotler et al (2009).

On the other hand Kotler et al,. (2009) in order to introduce new product in the market frontal attack also is a one of the strategies by putting low price , advertising, distributing product in the area where competitors are underperforming with segmentation of product and to save all uncovered marketing needs, on this you are using gape in order to developed by discover needs and satisfy them.

In additional for that in production of new product, marketers can use bypass attack by having diversification to un related product and diversifying it in to new geographical market and practice it in to the high technology which will replace the existing product. Kotler P et al (2009)

However by analysing recent financial ability of the company and competitors will help in evaluating financial health of the company against of its competitors and help in decision making of production of new product in the market.

Creating new product is a very important area for the success of the business, this needs care full demand and support from the top management level in order to get their commitment in to the production of new product, this needs care full because it seems many new products failed at the early stage. Moreover it also need commitment from responsible people for designing, producing, marketing, selling and distribution channels, because of this combination of channel internal communication is very important when launching new product. Internal communication also includes communication with other department in order to get support from them in the production of the new product.

Sales incentive plan (pre- launch activity) is also important thing to do when launching new product this is to secure distribution channel and to make sure that resellers and retailers have much skills and knowledge concerning the product.

In addition for that when launching new product the objective should be specific in order to meet goals and target of the new product. This will help in introducing product in the market.

Kotler P et el,. (2009) point out that, for business to have strong brand in competitive industrial trade it is important to know your principal competitors because every day competition arises from different part of the world, they continue by said that creativity is a major tool for dealing with competitors by design and well building marketing programmes.

After company know their competitors it must know their strategies, objectives, strengths and their weaknesses. Kotler P, at el,.(2009)

Moreover they suggest that for company to analyse their competitors’ they should monitor the following three things which are, share of market( the competitors’ share of a target market), share of mind( the first name which comes from the customer mind in this as marketer you need to know the percentages of customer who name the competitors’, lastly is to monitor the share of heart this means that you need to know the number of customer who will prefer to buy product of your competitors’ instead of yours. Kotler P et al,.(2009)

Marketing strategies is very important aspect of any organisation plan because it help to pursue the goals and policies of the company and getting customers for the new product. Marketing strategy are general concern with 4 Ps which are product strategies, promotion strategies, pricing strategies, promotion strategies and placement strategies ( www.1000 ventures.com)

In additional for that Kotler P, Armstrong G, Wong V, and Saunders J ( 2008) suggested that company must adopt one of the several marketing strategies when introducing new product this can price, promotion, place, and product, they take price and product as an example of strategies and they offer this explanation: management can use skimming strategy by introducing new product in the market with high price and low promotion this helps to recover gross profit per unit while the low promotion makes marketing spending down, this strategy is usefully when market size is small, little immediate competition and many consumers know the product and they are willing to pay high price, if the consumers have low knowledge about product high promotion and high price is required, high promotion help to put price high in the market for the new product.

On the other hand they point out that, a company might introduced their new product with a low price and high promotion this help in penetrating easily in the competitive market share. Or they can put low price and low promotion spending this is sensing when customers are price consider and the company needs to keep it new product cost down because of the resource limits. Kotler P et el,.(2008)

Besides Bradley F ( 2005) argue that Strategic differentiation can also be beneficially in production of new product by producing new product differently with your competitors by focusing on the needs of customers and their value in selected international market and producing unique product and process new technologies which are supportively in international competition , on this as a marketer you need to understand the need of customers and their behaviour this will make easy to put new product in the market.

You can differentiate your market in terms of ‘size, speed, color, combination or accessories’. www.1000 ventures.com

No company can be successful if produced the same product which are offered by the competitors in the market, for company to success its need to produce products which are different from its competitors this will create strong brand reputation and brand acceptance opportunities in order to gain this you have to target you customer, making segmentation of the product and position your product in the mind of your targeting customer. Kotler P at el,. (2009)