CONTENTS

The California Prune Board's Promotion Program

Editor's Notes

An Economic Evaluation of California Avocado Industry Marketing Programs, 1961-1995

Manager's Viewpoint

Director’s Corner

Next Meeting

Manager's Viewpoint

by Gregg Payne
President, Quantum Communication

Marketing research conducted on behalf of commodity marketing boards, commissions and similar organizations constituted under state or federal regulation to engage in generic advertising can be applied in a number of ways. Because there are alternative applications, none mutually exclusive, commodity marketing groups also have options in determining what aspects of research will be emphasized and for what ends. Application and emphasis are frequently functions of transient environmental conditions.

Currently, commodity producers who pay assessments to maintain marketing entities are asking hard questions about the efficacy of programs they fund. In some cases over recent years, questions have translated into legal action. While legal challenges mounted by critics have been generally decided in favor of marketing organizations, producer demands for accountability and demonstrably effective programs are not likely to abate.

Such conditions have altered substantially how research may be used by marketing boards, where emphasis may be placed, and the scope of useful research. In addition to research that certifies retrospectively the apparent success of marketing programs, marketing entities need answers to other questions that are, in the current climate of skepticism, considerably more pressing.

In particular, senior managers need to have at least provisional answers to questions of the "what if" sort: what if marketing dollars had been spent in some other fashion? What if the generic advertising media mix were different? What if the mix of generic advertising and other marketing tools were different? Would the results have been as good as, less good or better than, given other marketing scenerios? Answers to such questions can substantially buttress arguments that commodity marketing programs are not only effective but operating optimally, or, alternatively, indicate avenues for improvement. In a climate in which marketing programs generally, and generic advertising programs specifically, are being increasingly challenged, it pays dividends for commodity board managers and members of the research community to engage in an ongoing dialogue, reappraising strategic and tactical research objectives, and developing tools required to answer pressing questions.