Marketing of Direct Selling of Agricultural Products

Abstract

Direct selling of agricultural products means selling of products directly to consumers away from a fixed retail location without using any other organization or company. The success of direct selling is determined by the factors such as distance of the company from the homes of customers, important is also transportation network, readiness of the company for this type of selling as well as following the given rules and legislation together with respecting market potential and marketing approach of the company. Extending the activities of the company in this direction is strongly connected with utilization of marketing tools within marketing conception. Success of this activity is influenced by recognition of motivation as well as other conditions for direct selling of agricultural products from original producer. Paper points at importance of direct selling of agricultural products based on own questionnaire research. To get as close as possible to final consumers with fresh products and selling these products directly to consumers away from a fixed retail location are the most important points. Producers are constantly looking for adequate distribution channels for their produce which would satisfied requirements of customers and obtain a reasonable effect for producers as well. Direct selling of agricultural products is a form of sales, which does not appear so frequently in the practice because of urgent need for industrial treatment of most agricultural products. Despite this fact, direct selling of agricultural products has its own unique economic, commercial and non-productive substantiation. For direct selling is the most important to use the tools of product policy . The direct selling of agricultural products is concentrated mainly on traditional agricultural products or their processed food products - dominant is quality of sold product. Quality of the product influences directly image of the product as well as the groups of customers of direct selling. Direct selling from the farms in the Slovak Republic contributes to the total revenues for the agricultural production capacity from 6% to 7%. Direct selling is more intensive in the companies selling fruit and vegetables, where the volume of direct sales reaches 10% to 15% share of sales. Although direct selling is the just additional distribution way, it is appropriate to choose a strategy that respects the manufacturing offer of the company and the economy of the sales. Within direct selling of agricultural products, there is also a need to use the tools of communication policy, such as advertising, sales promotion and public relations to get closer to the target customer.