The main pillar for the successful marketing of MUIIS products is equipping the MUIIS Service Agents (MSAs) who are the foot soldiers and product ambassadors to carry out the marketing.
The sales plan incorporates the direct selling of the products to the farmers as well as engagements with the intermediary organizations, including online sponsorship. It is expected that farmers will be engaged to show the benefits of subscribing to the MUIIS and intermediary organizations will be shown how to improve the lives of the farmers by subscribing them on the platform.
There will be an online selling platform that will leverage the power of social media. This will include the opportunity to buy for clusters of 100 farmers or any other such number as may be discussed. The strategy will be to set seasonal targets for the MSAs to attain certain sales targets, then there will be effort to ensure that any farmers subscribing in each season are retained in subsequent seasons to provide for recruitment of new farmers within the season, a lot of work will be done pre-season so that by the time the farmer plant, then payment for the bundled product will have been made. The marketing materials will give the project an identity in three areas:
The Look which will include the MUIIS logo identity; umbrellas stand (point of sale/transaction); information, education and communication (IEC) material like T-shirts/reflective vests, brochures; hand books/training and presentation manuals/brochures, posters, farmer books, etc.; videos, placement halls, theatres, community farmer activation; focus group meeting for the marketing campaigns and also information for the farmer; newspaper pull-outs on MUIIS agricultural advisory; District Agricultural Newsletters; and MUIIS stickers on hoes, phones and small reminders for the MUIIS brand to be everywhere.
The Sound will include Jingles – different languages, easily adaptable & consumable to different ages; radio adverts – situation (before & after); call to action – this helps legitimize agent’s on and off field; radio talk shows – detailed Q & A and public relation (PR); invite the district agricultural officers plus the MUIIS agents; ring back tone on all MUIIS agent phones; and farmers who will be willing to activate this over the MTN platform; integrate the ring back tone onto the MTN platform for purchase; and make MUIIS farmer reference point by putting MSAs on radio, TV and market places.
The Feel will include experiential – share stories; farmer voices – record the voices of farmer experience to be aired on radio; farmer registration activations; call to action; demonstration gardens for farmers to use as proof of concept; Q & A, giveaways on raffles; insurance experience will be great to capture through the farmers’ voice both in video and radio; M&E tools like the dashboard for donors and partners; presentations in Uganda and out of the country to promote the MUIIS brand and what the project has done or will achieve, share lessons learnt on implementation will be a key marketing strategy.
Target groups and Locations will include market places, places of worship, video halls, Maruwa groups (elderly councils’, beer groups), women groups (at the wells), women merry go round groups, ladies’ salons, schools on agricultural days, the Jinja annual agricultural show, District Labour Day celebrations, farmer field days, and school agricultural competitions. MUIIS envisages that the messages will mainly be communicated through the following channels mass media (e.g. radio, television, print material, road shows); interpersonal communication (e.g. one-on-one or group education, conferences, workshops); traditional media (e.g. brochures, posters); and social media (e.g. Facebook, twitter);
In line with the Marketing and Promotional Plan of MUIIS, a campaign was launched across the country in November/December 2016. The MSAs are the face of the marketing and sales and as such have been equipped with the necessary information and skills, the advantage with this approach as mentioned earlier is that the MSAs are part of the farmer organizations in Uganda and therefore they shall take advantage of the many events organized by these organizations to market the product and address any issues arising from patronage of the product. In order to achieve maximum results a marketing and promotional campaign was launched to make MUIIS more visible, credible and accurately understood by key stakeholders. Trainings were carried out in the four regions at different venues and dates. After each of the trainings, community/rural promotional and marketing demonstrations were undertaken followed by interviews and live radio discussions on the project.
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