Information and Marketing

 

Where the customer is on another timescale than that of our lifecycle, we should treat them differently, with different arguments.

 

Looking back to what we see as potential customers :

RICH

 

This group is in Burkina Faso to change things. It is their profession, their passion. In perspective, this group is easy to convince, certainly with clear excell sheet about their payback period. Works only for the group which is in Burkina for a long time.

This group has the possibility to inform themselves, are well connected.

Possible beach head:   See interested people from big institutions.

Information needed:    the public folders from TerraCottem and a basic water savings calculation (Or in PDF format), billboards with an invoice linked publicity.

Sales method:   Local rotary clubs, Belgium Club with demonstration.

 

CORP

 

Commercial firms are used to talking in terms of investment, pay-back period and ROI. Water is certainly getting more expensive and will continue to do so. In cases the garden has still to be laid out, the investment is about 20% cheaper, with a payback time of less than 2 years. Most gardens for corporations are using a lot of grass around the building, which needs more water to keep a nice green surface. This will bring down the payback time by about 25%.

An argument which can help is the fact that plants are stronger, and also more resistant against dry periods, if the product is used.

Once a useful beach head is created in this area, others will soon follow.

 

Possible beach head:   Ouaga 2000 area with new developments.

Information need:    the public folders from TerraCottem and a basic water savings calculation (Or in PDF)

Sales method:   Finding the responsible architects AND sponsors, trying to convince them of the financial advantage they will obtain in the medium and long run. The container demo method should do the trick.

 

CITY

 

As water is very expensive, and due to the relatively high number of m² garden or plants the municipality is managing, water is a very high cost. As the global warming and Kyoto is a very big issue here, with less rain in the future, they are sensitive towards water savings.

Discussions revealed that there is certainly an opening here to start with some testing in one garden or another.

 

Possible beach head:   Ouaga 2000 area with new developments. Using the same area makes it also easier for later references, as most first movers live and work here.

Information need:    the public folders from TerraCottem and a basic water savings calculation (Or in PDF version)

Sales method:   Finding the responsible architects AND sponsors, trying to convince them of the financial advantage they will obtain in the medium and long run. The container demo method should do the trick.

 

NGO

 

NGO's are in the country to help with the development, mostly working around a very specific item. As their budgets are coming from outside the country, these is very well planned and only a small part of this budget is available for these kind of tests. Once they are convinced, and TerraCottem is written in their procedures and policies, much more money can be available on a medium term. Therefore, tests and show cases should be prepared to make them ready as a regular customer after 1 or 2 seasons.

Again, it is important to pick out a visible place to do the tests, using sufficiently scientific backing to convince not only the field workers in Burkina Faso, but also the sponsors behind them who often far away behind their desk in Europe or America.

 

Possible beach head:   Zorgo, under the supervision of Pierre Kaboré. He has experience with these kinds of crops.

Information need: the public folders from TerraCottem, financial calculations, and reports of the tests carried out. Reports should be written or signed by a trustworthy person with a good reputation.

Sales method:   Finding the people responsible for the different NGO's and doing a tour with them in the test zones. Getting the press & national television's attention

 

AGR

 

Commercial agriculture firms do not cultivate themselves, but are buying from individual farmers, or local farmer organisations. These firms have an interest in buying high quality, and the expected volumes to deliver back to their clients at reasonable prices. In this way, these firms are interesting for our marketing purposes, as they do have a network from whom they buy, and have an interest in quality and quantity. These firms could also play an important role in financing, or at least backing up the demand for financing.

 

Possible beach head:   no idea

 

Information need:   results from test gardens. See NGO.

 

Sales method:   Finding the people responsible and try to convince them of the added value you could bring them.

 

 

FARM & LOC

 

Professional farmers and local agriculture organisations have to be convinced with visible and repeatable tests in their area, accompanied with the financial plan that is profitable for their cultivation. They will be very price sensible, but open minded if it would be possible to lengthen their harvest period to periods where vegetable prices rise, which is often a few weeks to one month after the normal season. Perhaps not for everybody, but for most of them there should be a package offered together with a micro-finance plan to finance the investment, and possibility to pay back after selling their crop.

 

Possible beach head:   Finding one farmer or group of farmers to test the product. This can be done via connected farmers of earlier contacted NGO's.

 

Information need:   results from test gardens. See NGO.

 

Sales method:   Using the beachhead as a show case to spread the technology one by one. Using this beachhead as the local salesperson and sole contact in the area or village. This method is already succesfully used and described in “The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.”

 

INT / NAT

 

The national institutional level for this kind of project probably depends on the money big NGO's are prepared to invest. That is why we discuss them together, although seperate contacts should be contacted and convinced.

The international institutions, with their big projects and a lot of money, are also the hardest to convince. Trying to ensure that the money is well spent creates at the same time a lot of overhead and financial planning, which makes them a slow partner. But once they are convinced, we are talking about big structural projects.

The contact group has to be contacted anyhow, as they are in our first target customer group, but one has to carefully prepare the structured approach. Seeing the sceptisism some scientific colleagues expose towards this solution, it is likely that the credibility barrier has to be surmounted once again. If not well prepared, a lot of energy will be lost, and perhaps a bad impression made.

What is possible is to get smaller budgets from these institutes for small parts of the projects, like support for training the farmers etc.

 

Possible beach head:   European Community

 

Information need:   Results from test gardens. See NGO.

  Backup from TerraCottem NV

  Testimonies of different aid-workers

 

Sales method:   Putting a projectmap together from A to Z, including method, cost, expected results. Showing that the advantage is there for the population, and not for the vendor only.

 

POOR

 

The real target group of our project, but I cannot see them ealier in the process. Why? Not because they are technology laggards, but because they are that much harder to reach with a commercial product.

There were some families which are grouped, and there are possibilities to access them on a group level in order to promote a step-by-step approach. Because of the energy this is going to cost, we should count on the networks of existing NGO's to pass this message along. Which brings us back to the NGO's. (See higher)

 

Possible beach head:   no beach head needed anymore. See NGO.

 

Information need:   results from test gardens. See NGO.

 

Sales method:   see NGO

 

Marketing material and means :