Level 8
Marketing
Find and keep customers
Marketing is how people find out about your product, trust it and keep buying it. It does not need a big budget. It needs you to understand your customer, make honest promises, choose where to sell, and treat customers well. This level shows you how.
Farmers, processors and young entrepreneurs who have a product, or a clear idea of one, and want to find and keep buyers.
How this level is written
The lessons are practical teaching suggestions written by AfricAgric. The reading list is background reading, not the source of every sentence. Examples with numbers are invented and say so. Use the level as a way to think, then check facts and rules for your own place.
What you will learn
- Describe your main customer clearly enough to speak to them.
- Build a simple brand: a name, a promise and a look that you can keep honest.
- Compare sales channels and choose one or two that fit your product and your strength.
- Think about price, place and promotion together with your costs.
- Keep customers through reliability, listening and fair handling of complaints.
Where this level fits
Levels 1 and 3 helped you find buyers and match a product to them. Levels 4 to 7 helped you make, pack, store and move it. This level is about telling your customers about it, selling it and keeping them.
Parts of this level
- Part 1Know your customerDescribe one main customer in detail. A message for everyone speaks to nobody.
- Part 2Brand and trustA brand is a promise people can rely on. Keep it simple, true and consistent.
- Part 3Channels: where and how you sellEach way of selling has benefits, costs and demands. Choose the ones that fit you.
- Part 4Keeping customersRepeat buyers come from reliability, listening and fair handling of problems.
- WorkbookAll exercises from this level in one place, with space to think and a printable layout.
- QuizCheck what you learned. Answers and short explanations are hidden until you choose to show them.
Not advice
This level is educational. It is not legal, financial, regulatory, nutritional or medical advice. Rules, fees and programmes change, so check every requirement with the authority named before you act.
Background reading
- Agricultural and Food Marketing Management — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), I. M. Crawford, 1997
- Market Research for Agroprocessors (Marketing Extension Guide 3) — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Andrew W. Shepherd, 2003
- Guidelines for small-scale fruit and vegetable processors (FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 127) — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Peter Fellows, 1997