Business consolidation is the time for marketing to safeguard farmer loyalty

Four strategic imperatives for marketers to help maintain brand bonds and avoid customer fall-out during mergers and acquisitions

Consolidation has become the new normal in agriculture. It runs broad and deep in ag – from global manufacturing to on-the-farm and everything in between. While consolidation presents challenges, it also presents ag marketers with opportunities to bolster their brands, strengthen relationships with customers and enhance their own roles with a few key adjustments to their marketing programs.

Successful marketing during mergers and acquisitions is contingent on thinking customer first – keeping farmers top-of-mind throughout the process.

Farmers have strong bonds with their go-to brands. More importantly, they have strong bonds with the people they deal with at local dealerships, ag retailers, feed mills, and often territory sales and technical service personnel.

Marketers’ jobs are to protect that bond, maintain the goodwill and confidence of farmers (and employees) and minimize any potential negative impact of a merger or acquisition. And they accomplish that by adhering to four fundamental strategies: Be transparent, Communicate, Think Team and Listen.

1. Be Transparent. Be as honest, open and candid as possible, as soon as possible. No one likes surprises especially from their trusted suppliers. Transparency opens minds and builds trust.

2. Share with customers and employees as early as legally possible. Be there with the real story before the rumor mill creates one that’s detrimental to the new organization and transition process. Frequency across multiple channels ensures message delivery and reception.

3. Think Team. Plan to bring your two companies together as soon as possible. It’s a scary, uncertain time, particularly for people of the acquired company. Meet and engage new team members and work with them on culture, the new portfolio of products and services as well as procedures. Join them on introductory visits with customers. A unified front in the field will boost confidence in the continuity of service and trust farmers have come to expect.

4. A key part of communicating is listening. It starts early in the process – long before writing integration plans. If possible, go to the field for a temperature check on the merger or acquisition. Hear from key customers on how they feel about the merger, what they want to know about it and how it may impact their brand choices in the future. A few small focus groups or one-on-one interviews can yield rich insight.

After the merger and integration, listen some more. First, listen to employees to ensure they feel included and can deliver on the vision. Then, listen to customers to uncover concerns, miscommunications and where to apply different strategies or more attention.

Mergers and acquisitions may rattle employees and farmer-customers. The goal is to minimize disruption and maximize the value of the brands involved. Consolidation, transition and integration can be scary and disruptive, but they’re opportunities for ag marketers to help strengthen brands and farmers’ bonds with those brands.  The way to do that is to think customer first and never lose sight of being transparent, communicating openly, thinking about the team and always listening.