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Seafood Marketing
State of Alaska > Commerce > DED > Seafood Home  > Seafood Marketing  > Presentation  > Evaluation Plan
 
This segment of the workshop was presented by Chris Mitchell. For further information, please contact him at:

Mr. Chris Mitchell,
Marketing Consultant
Seafood Market Developers
425-702-0275
CFoodBizz@aol.com

 

Evaluation Plan
 

Evaluating the Plan

"If I am in business next year,
then the business is successful"

Quite often for small operators in the Alaska salmon industry, the test for whether you are successful is whether you are still in business. While this is in jest, it does underlie a truth that quite often harvesters and processors are not grading their efforts and looking for ways to improve.

Other Possible Measures

Harvesting

  • Are fishermen receiving higher prices now?

Quality

  • Are you producing more #1s or premium fish now?

For the act of harvesting, a sensible measure for a harvester is whether you are receiving higher prices. Whether you are a harvester or processor, it is useful to know how well you are doing in producing top grade fish.

Processing

  • Are costs of processing declining?
  • Are any specific costs out of control?
  • Are yields increasing and rejects declining?
  • Is worker turnover declining?

Processors might look to see if their costs are declining or out of control. They might look to see if they are getting higher yields from the raw material. They might also look at worker turnover. There are many ways to measure various attributes of your operation.

Marketing

  • Are sales and markets growing?
  • Tonnage and geographic
  • Are interested buyers calling to purchase?
  • Number of new customers
  • Are my prices increasing? – Premium over market?
  • Are you developing a recognizable brand?

When it comes to marketing, there are a number of evaluation measures that are useful to track.

The most obvious might be whether sales and markets are growing. Sales can be measured in volume, while markets might be measured in geographic reach.

Once a product is launched, buyers calling you would be a good measure of consumer satisfaction. Similarly, tracking the number of new customers would tell you if the products are gaining acceptance.

  • Which marketing tools result in the most new customers?
  • Web hits
  • Tradeshow contacts
  • Requests for samples
  • Growing reputation
  • If you’re doing V-A products – focus group results

A big part of establishing measurements is to determine which marketing tools resulted in new customers. New customer growth can be reflected in increases in web hits (if you have an e-commerce location), tradeshow contacts, requests for samples, a growing reputation, and results from focus groups.

System for Evaluation

  • Set up in-house systems to continuously gather such measurements.
  • Successful businesses generally take 3-5 years to prove themselves.
  • Just surviving till the next season is long way from “making a profit.”

When setting up tracking systems to measure the success of marketing efforts keep in mind a couple of items. It is useful to continuously gather information. A successful business will take quite some time, three to five years, to establish themselves in the market. Don’t settle for survival as a measurement of success.