11/22/06 It`s all about marketing

When he spoke to Idaho dairymen futurist Lowell Catlett told them they need to look at marketing their products. Catlett is an economist from New Mexico State University who says times have changed and today's consumers know what they want and where they can get it. CATLETT "If you're supplying truly what people want, domestically or foreign you will have no problem with marketplace. Selling is you produce what you want to produce and then you go try to find a market for it. Marketing is you find out what people want and then you go produce it." Catlett says New Zealand is a perfect example of the right way to market a product. New Zealand targeted Europe for its dairy products. First they went, asked questions about dairy needs and then went back to New Zealand, produced want Europe needed and now it's a sustainable market. Catlett says the US dairy industry is a 'babe in the woods' when it comes to foreign marketing. CATLETT "For so long we've just had a pretty good domestic market. One billion people in Asia, and China and the world rose out of poverty into the middle class in the last decade and when they did, guess what? Those one billion people wanted a richer diet that involved milk proteins, in forms of cheese, fluid milk, ice creams and meat products." Catlett says dairy producers have an opportunity to be price setters rather than price takers. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott