MARKETING OF MUSHROOMS

One of the statements of this lecture is that one and one is more than two. At least when you talk about market-research and changements in marketing-policy.

Mentioning both aspects: Market-research and marketing- policy implicates that it is very important to be practical in the market-research in order to be able to provide a good foundation and the right tools to construct a good marketing policy. That is very important in a coöperative selling-system in which many people have to be convinced of changes in the marketing policy.

One and One is more than Two. That may be very true when you use more than one kind of market-research instrument. One instrument may give more dimension to another and the reverse. Two different information sources with the same sound can be more convincing than the total of the two seperately.

Market-research is only useful when the research is sufficiently practical and simple in structure that it is easy to be understood and easy to be applied. It is more important to achieve application than to try to realise perfect statistical proof; given the fact you reached a certain level of reliability. It is often better to take a decision today with the chance that it works out wrong than to take the right decision too late. These were some thoughts about how market-research should be designed to be effective. Though they are based on the Dutch situation. I am sure they are also true in many other countries. In this lecture I hope to give you an example of market research of mushrooms in the Netherlands.

The market-research on mushrooms in the Netherlands started about a year ago and has not been finished yet, which means that the practical implications are not all worked out. The instruction was very general. The aim of the research was how to reinforce the market-position of Dutch mushrooms and a sub-aim was how to reinforce the auction market share. The last because only 50% of the mushrooms are sold by means of the auction-clock.

After my introduction it won't suprise you that the research consists of more than one part.

The parts are the following:

• statistical data and analysis
• consumer-research - product-test
• research in shops and on trade-level
• study travels
• cooling-research
• Economical research

During the research the marketing decision makers were repeatedly informed about the progress.