Business-to-business marketing services provider DM2-DecisionMaker has launched its Agricultural Marketplace Database with the help of names from Watt Publishing titles like Egg Industry, Poultry Tribune and Pig International.
Watt supplies the lists, and DM2 standardizes the data structure to map to the target markets, titles and demographics needed in the industry. The database is ideal for marketing professionals working for communications, computers and office supply companies. Organizations selling farm machinery, equipment, feed, tools, financial services and travel and transportation also may benefit.
“As business professionals and consumers, we rely just as heavily on the agricultural marketplace as many other business types, yet it is frequently taken for granted or may not be as visible,” said Mary Miller, senior marketing manager at DM2-DecisionMaker, Chicago.
Watt produces a number of monthly agricultural and poultry publications including Feed International, Feed Management, Meat Processing, Petfood Industry, Pig International, Poultry Tribune and Watt Poultry USA.
“Our goal is to educate the direct marketing industry on the value of this market as being a highly sought, professional, high-tech group of people and businesses,” Ms. Miller said. “We need to change the traditional perception of farmers and help the market understand that agriculture is using enhanced technology and nutritionists to produce quality food for the U.S. and the world.”
The database offers selects such as primary occupation, job function, business type, specific title, sales volume, employee size, acquisition source, SIC/NAICS code and gender.
Since the real estate value of cropland and range land has risen steadily in the past 10 to 15 years, farmers and investors have increased the size of their properties and their businesses.
Prices of principal crops such as feed grains, wheat and soybean as well as cattle and calf prices also increased in the period.
The 2006 earnings forecast for U.S. farmers is $56.2 billion, Ms. Miller said. The average individual farm operator income is projected at $80,344, while commercial farm income is expected to reach nearly $140,000.
Profit margins have improved and so has the opportunity for farmers to expand their businesses, Ms. Miller said. Therefore, agriculturists are in need of more products, supplies and equipment to run them.
“The farming and agricultural market comprises more than half a million individuals who are business owners or decision makers responsible for feed, livestock and poultry manufacturing and processing,” Ms. Miller said. “The number of U.S. farming professionals rivals that of Fortune 1000 executives, and they face the same business challenges, just in different industries.”
The agricultural sector consumes anything needed to run a business, like communication equipment, computers and networks, construction equipment and consumables for the home and business. The industry also uses farm machinery and equipment, feed and farm maintenance products, financial services, transportation equipment and services and travel and leisure services.
The Agricultural Marketplace Database will help marketing and sales professionals gain a new perspective of the farming and agricultural industry to be one of business owners and operators, Ms. Miller said.
“It also enables us to present a cross-publication representation of files that DM2 does not manage at a source level so that the best contacts in each market are combined in the appropriate database,” she said.
