Agri-marketers direct mail with syndicated study

With direct mail being used more and more in the agriculture industry, farm equipment, seed, and chemical marketers are seeking answers to questions about how farmers are receiving their messages. For example, how thoroughly do farmers read agriculturally-related direct mail? What action do they take based on it?

Agri-marketers also have questions about the direct marketing efforts of the competition. What kinds of pieces are they sending out, and when? How are their messages being received?

For the past two years, some answers to these questions have been provided by Mail Monitor, a syndicated study—performed by St. Paul-based Rockwood Research—that compiles the reactions of farmers in 12 states to the direct mail they receive.

The study gathers information in areas such as the level of readership and action taken for each piece, its size and carrier type (i.e. postcard, envelope, self-mailer, magazine) and the quantity of mail farmers receive.

Methodology

For the 1988/1989 study, 1530 Class 1A farmers (those with at least $100,000 in annual sales) operating farms in the East and North Central regions of the U.S. were contacted by telephone and asked a series of questions on crop and livestock demographics, seed corn brand usage, corn and soybean herbicide usage and tractor/combine brand ownership. They were also asked if they would agree to participate in the study, which would require them to collect all the agricultural direct mail they received during a two-week period or "wave."

During the 12 collection waves, almost 8,500 direct mail pieces were returned to Rockwood Research. The average participant collected 6.5 pieces of direct mail.

Participants were asked to save only direct mail pertaining to agricultural products or services. To gather data on the carrier of each piece, Rockwood specifically instructed farmers to return the envelope along with its contents.

For publications, respondents were told to keep those to which they subscribed and return to Rockwood those published by an agricultural company for promotional purposes. To clarify this, the farmers received a sample list identifying those publications to keep and those to return. To indicate the level of readership and action taken, participants were sent color-coded stickers near the end of the collection period to affix to each piece. Prior to this, they had no knowledge that Rockwood was interested in the degree of readership or action taken.

Each readership sticker had a number from one to four on it, designating, for example, "I read all of the mail piece," or "I read none of the mail piece."

The action stickers used the numbers five to eight to indicate the type of action taken. For example, a five meant "I called or intend to call an 800 number," while a six meant "I contacted or intend to contact a dealer or sales representative." A blank sticker indicated no action was taken.

Buying power

Class 1A farmers are of special interest to ag companies because of their buying power, says Roger Zuehl, manager, agriculture advertising and sales for farm equipment manufacturer J.I. Case Co. The farmer who buys expensive farm machinery probably buys 15 or 20 times as much seed or chemicals as the average farmer involved in production agriculture, and the companies recognize this.

"Farmers who are grossing over $100,000 a year are going to be coming into focus in the promotional sights of just about anyone who is in the seed, chemical, or equipment business," he says.

Zuehl says the study provides information in two important areas.

First, it shows subscribers how much of their competitors' mail is reaching the potential customer. Second, it gauges readership levels for the company's mailings and shows how those levels compare to the scores of competitors' pieces. This data can be used to make decisions about future mailings.

For example, the study has allowed Case to measure the effectiveness of various direct mail programs it has undertaken in conjunction with its dealers.

"It gives us the opportunity to apply that measurement against the costs associated with the promotional mailings and to make determinations regarding expansion, reduction or any other changes that might be considered necessary," Zuehl says.

Sample pieces

As part of the Mail Monitor information package, subscribers have access to samples of competitors' direct mail pieces collected or any agricultural segment represented by the study.

Gary Hennerberg, manager of the direct marketing group for advertising agency CMF&Z Inc., says that the samples give his clients insight into how competitors handle their direct mail pieces.

"Direct mail, unlike print advertising, is hard to monitor because you can't actually see what the competition is doing. If they run an ad in a farm publication, you know what they're doing because you have access to examples of their advertising. But with direct mail you don't have that same luxury."

Major findings

Overall, company/association-sponsored publications such as J.I. Case's Farm Forum, John Deere's The Furrow, and Ford New Holland News made up the largest category of direct mail received by farmers, taking up 23% of the total, followed by crop equipment (15%), pesticide (15%), and seed (9%) companies. The remaining pieces fell into categories such as animal health, breeders, and co-ops.

Farmers received the greatest volume of direct mail between January and April, but study results showed that readership levels were typically lower during this time period than other points throughout the year.

For example, with the onset of winter, farmers read more company-sponsored publications in their entirety. In the end of January and early February, respondents read 69% of all publications thoroughly. Readership declined sharply in mid-February (47%) just as marketers were increasing the number of publications being sent out.

"One of the most significant services the study provides is letting you see how the rest of the industry times their mailings," says Ron Miller, advertising manager, Mobay Chemical Corp. "You like to plan your mailing so that everybody doesn't hit the mailbox the same day, but you also have to be in season." Knowing when to send is critical to ensuring maximum impact for a direct mail message, says Spencer Cohen, senior market research analyst with pesticide manufacturer Rhone Poulenc Ag. Co.

"In order to increase the action that we'd like taken on our direct mail, it's very helpful to get statistics that give us an idea of when the best opportunities are to mail and not get lost in the clutter," he says.

Excluding company/association-sponsored publications, which are aimed at enhancing public image rather than promoting specific products, over two-thirds of the direct mail marketers gave recipients some means of replying. Response rates for these pieces varied between categories; from 12 to 17 percent of direct mail pieces requesting action elicited a response from the recipient.

Use of the various methods of reader reply varied by direct mail category, but overall, a business phone number (29%) or a reply card (29%) were the types used most often. Business reply envelopes (21%) and "800" numbers (18%) were also used.

One-third of the pieces collected in Mail Monitor included some kind of special offer, typically in the form of price discounts and free merchandise.

Carrier data

27 percent of the 8,463 pieces received were self-mailing, a decrease of 4 percent from last year's study. Envelope use increased six percent from the previous year, to 35% of the total. 21% of the direct mail was in the form of magazines and catalogs. The remainder consisted of newspapers or shoppers, postcards, merged mail and ad packs/card decks.

As might be expected, readership was significantly higher for postcards (71%) than for any other type of carrier. While magazine and catalog readership was not as high as that of postcards, it was considerably higher than mail sent in envelopes or self-mailers.

Also as expected, readership levels were influenced by the number of enclosures in a direct mail piece. Envelopes with one enclosure had much higher readership than those with multiple enclosures or those sent as self-mailers. While self-mailers were not read as thoroughly as a single insert in an envelope, the percentage of respondents who claimed to have read all or some of a self-mailer was much higher than for envelopes containing three or more inserts.

The number of pages also played an important part in determining readership of catalogs and magazines. Participants were more inclined to read all or most of the direct mail piece if it contained 21 to 50 pages (60%). Interestingly, publications fewer than 20 pages in length were not read as thoroughly (50%). Readership decreased dramatically for catalogs and magazines over 50 pages (38%).