Customer Relationship Management in the Agricultural Machinery Market

Competitiveness of the agricultural market

Brazil, basically an agricultural country, and 21.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015 came from agribusiness. As modernization has made inroads into agricultural production, a visible spurt in productivity has been observed, with the continuous development of genetically modified varieties and phytosanitary products, as well as the intense expansion and rise in the introduction of handling techniques and the employment of constantly enhanced modern machines and tools.

The expanding agribusiness enhanced positively the Brazilian economy, as is evident from its contribution to the trade balance (Figure 1). The last 27 years have demonstrated that 40.7% of Brazilian exports have been from the agribusiness sector. Brazilian agribusiness exports have shot up by more than six times, since 1989. Conversely, the imports in the sector account for only 11% in the same time period (27 years), revealing its strong contribution to the Brazilian trade balance.

Figure 2 clearly demonstrated the effective evolution of the agribusiness trade balance, which has showed no negative balance since 1989, but rather boosted its balance through the years, touching US $80.134 billion in 2014. However, fluctuations have been noted in the Brazilian trade balance, on both the positive and negative sides, showing a downward trend since 2006, to a negative balance in 2014 (US$ -3.959 billion).

As agribusiness expanded and became modernized, one of the major worrisome issues has been to identify the means to boost productivity, to the detriment of the expansion of agricultural areas. Providing adequacy and updating the farm equipment in the rural regions is one method of dealing with this concern. The introduction of precision agriculture had a positive impact, initiating to modernize and optimize the utilization of agricultural machinery, geting higher returns.

In table 1, the steady rise in the sales of domestic agricultural machinery is seen from 2000 to 2015. These upward surged was an indication of the expanding Brazilian agribusiness, and introduced new interests and concepts, which are inserted in this sector. The upswing in the sales and domestic output of the agricultural equipment induced the entrepreneurs to be concerned about their market shares and inspired them to utilize marketing tools and strategies to justify and heighten their performance.

Table 1 Internal sales of wholesale agricultural machinery - (2000 to 2015). 

Apart from the normal avenues of setting up exhibition stands and product demonstrations at various fairs, both at the field and farm levels, resellers of agricultural machinery have also been focused on advertising campaigns, maintaining up-to-date websites and boosting the market share in their parts of the country. In light of this sharper competitiveness, establishing customer loyalty has been now accepted as one of top priorities in organizations across the globe. Therefore, this aspect must also be included among the principal priorities of the companies involved in the agricultural division.