Articles
MARKETING IMPLICATIONS OF DEVELOPMENTS IN CONSUMPTION OF HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS
However growth in consumption of some major products, like fresh tomatoes, is slowing down.
This decline in growth of demand for some major horticultural crops makes the theme of this paper topical.
It is timely also in view of some developments in horticulture like increasing energy costs and emerging export potential in developing countries.
An appropriate treatment of the theme of this paper calls for a marketing analysis of consumption of horticultural products.
This approach offers a broader and more relevant analysis of the problem area than a strict economic one since:
- it does not limit itself to the purely economic aspects of consumer behaviour but includes behavioral aspects as well;
- it implies not only a treatment of appropriate price strategies vis-à-vis developments in consumption, the typical approach in economic theory, but also a discussion of relevant strategies for product, promotion and distribution;
- it covers organizational aspects of marketing strategies; in fact, this seems to us one of the major issues in developing the right marketing approach for horticultural products.
"Horticultural products" is a generic term for a set of diverse products.
There is much difference between marketing red cabbage and white lilies.
Consequently it will be difficult to arrive at conclusions valid for the marketing of horticultural products as a whole.
Nevertheless let us try to develop general views, which seem justified but cannot always be proven, on the basis of actual market developments and research results.
In this way, we can contribute a frame of reference for future action.
The scheme of the paper is as follows.
First, some general characteristics of consumer behaviour with respect to horticultural products will be discussed.
In particular we will try to indicate which developments in consumer behaviour in general seem to contribute to expansion of demand for horticultural products.
Having arrived at conclusions about potential developments in consumption of horticultural products, we will suggest appropriate marketing strategies to utilize the available potential.
One aspect is the need for suitable product policies and for consumer education.
Afterwards we will discuss appropriate organizational structures to implement the marketing policies needed.
The relationship between marketing problem and organizational structure will be given much attention.
Finally some inferences for future research will be made.