A Word on Organizing an Industry Marketing and Lobbyist Co-Op

by John Cataldi | Oct 6, 2010 | Agriculture, Cooperatives and PACs, Industries, Politics, PR Crisis, Social Media, The Real Mad Men

I am amazed that there are groups of people in a variety of industries that have been sold a bag of false hope in spending a substantial percentage of group hard earned dollars, in the form of feed tariffs, to establish change that ultimately could mean the life of death of their livelihoods.

Just last week, I was asked to investigate marketing a farming co-op to look at ways they could use our technology to act as a catalyst to measure and grow the effectiveness of the tens of millions spent to date. I was excited, given one of the perks of my job is to learn about new industries and business models almost every day. So in preparation, I downloaded an armament of industry reports, digitally listened to social conversations within the industry, investigated their competition, market, etc. I eagerly joined the conference call with the anticipation of walking away as a trivial expert on this type of farming, possessing just enough information and industry lingo to impress my colleagues and hold a technical conversation with my soon, would be clients. I gave my world to the head of the co-op I was just an observer and assured him that I was just hear to observe. I assume my reputation of speaking my mind and screaming at injustices across a board room has preceded my arrival. I believe this to be true as my assistant gave me a 3 minute on the proper usage of our phone mute button.

This was really a bad time for me to make a promise! What I soon discovered that the co-op potentially took millions, without creating any measurable change other than repetitive monthly news papers to the group, showing their work in process at luxury hotels and conventions, and a rebate that was given to the farmers because their profits were eaten away by offshore competition. My personal opinion on the second deliverable is that while it’s always nice to receive a rebate, the shininess of the accomplishment wears off when the rebate is given when the co-op, DID NOT DO THEIR JOB!  Moreover, I stayed up all night doing my diligence in preparation for this conference, so that the co-op moderators spent the first 10 minutes talking about weather, followed by a sales pitch, of why the farmers needed to spend more money on planning on how to combat the unification of flavor and lowering the cost of processing their food that may help them shave pennies off of the COGS but will cost them millions to implement, at the cost of an increased market erosion from offshore organizations. DID NOT ANYONE READ THE REASEARCH ON THE COMPETITIVE FORCES RUINNING THEM OUT OF THEIR OWN MARKET, AFTER STEALING THEIR BREED STOCK!

I felt my blood pressure ever increasing and my finger moving ever more towards the mute button. When the call ended, I recapped with some of the co-op members which brought me to my most startling discovery of all! The marketing vendor / lobbyist group were controlling the entire program, which the head of the co-op had a duel ownership stake within. This was further compounded by a second discovery that I could find no record of either organization ever being registered as a lobbyist or donating to any political campaigns of organizations. So flustered, I contacted a few of my lobbyist friends in Washington the other day just to be sure I am not completely off base.

So as a RULE,  if you are CREATING A CO-OP, TRADE ASSOCIATION, or even a POLITICAL ACTION COMITTEE committee (PAC), I would REALLY recommend the following. 

1. Create a mission statement which includes why you were created!
2. Co-op management should come from within the co-op, not outsiders
3. If you really want an outsider, call him a board advisor. I have several board advisors that are scary brilliant, but I would not let them run my company, plus it’s not their job, it’s yours. 
4. ALWAYS keep control and accountability of the co-op’s  money. NEVER allow your media, marketing, lobbyist have complete oversight on all spending. Isn’t it your money? 
5. In any industry co-op, ALWAYS… ALWAYS… ALWAYS define purpose that is in aligning with short term deliverables. Trying to row to the new world in a row boat, just isn’t going to cut it. But building a ship yard, prior to slapping a boat together is always a better idea. So start small. Small also means small budget, with an ever growing budget built on measured success.
6. THIS IS BIG….. FEAR NOTHING! If thinking outside of the box will save your ass, then call UPS immediately to ship the box to Base Zulu, Antarctica. 
7. Keep it Simple (KISS).   Don’t over think strategy or overreact to environmental pressures.  If you are in a market that commoditized your industry by 80% from offshore suppliers, then your mission is pretty simple…. RIP THE BALLS OFF OF THE COMPETITION! It literally took me 3 days to lay out a go to market strategy, at no cost to the co-op, which is measureable, scalable, and has freaking teeth. 
8. FIRE THE AGENCY, including us if we cannot meet deliverable timelines is not aligned with the co-ops interest. If your industry is at the brink of destruction, I promise not to schedule any vacation time until the co-op’s master strategy is put into motion. 
9. ACT AS A COHESIVE UNIT – Co-ops for some reason place the agency, board members, vendors, politicians, etc. on a pedestal, if an organization hinders your process that hinders profitability the course of action is simple… (Please see Point #7 – KISS and Rip Balls). 

 Just food for thought… and a final question… does competitive balls go well with some flava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti? Just a question… all this talk about farming has made me hungry.