Soil Moisture Tester (SMT) Marketing Plan for Farm Tech Inc.

Soil Moisture Tester (SMT) Marketing Plan – Farm Tech Inc.
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Executive Summary
The world is facing severe problems in terms of climate change, soil moisture deterioration, and water scarcity. With an increasing need for environmental sustainability and water conservation, agriculture (the biggest water consumer) requires technology-based solutions to ensure optimal water use by reducing wastage. Farm Tech Inc. proposes the Soil Moisture Tester Gadget (SMT), which will retail at an average of $86, targeting three key market segments: gardening, small-scale farming, and industrial agriculture organization. The SMT can read soil moisture content and soil quality and, therefore, provides data and information that informs farmers when to water and the idea crops to grow. The gadget is expected to reduce water consumption by 35%.
Therefore, the current paper provides a marketing plan for the promotion of the project. It consists of organization, market, industry, competitor, and customer analysis where minimal obstacles to the entrance and stiff competition. The marketing program consists of price, promotion, place, and product strategies to provide FTI with a competitive edge. Other covered areas include financial projection, implementation of the current marketing plan, and subsequent evaluation of KPIs, including translation of web and social media traffic into sales. Online and local store-based positioning will be an idea in ensuring consumers have access to both information and the product. An effective marketing plan for the first five years will cost $300 000 annually will translate into at least $4.5 million in gross revenue annually.

Soil Moisture Tester (SMT) Marketing Plan – Farm Tech Inc.
1.0 Company & Product Description – Farm Tech Inc.
Today, the modern global society is facing worrying realities in global warming, depletion of soil moisture, and drying up of rivers. Thus, the world is in a critical moment where people must adopt sustainable usage of water. The OECD reports that irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of water, accounting for 70% of worldwide water consumption (OECD, 2018). However, the figure is short of small-scale usage of water for farming activities like ownership of household backyard gardens and small pieces of land held by individuals. Given the pressing need for responsible and optimal use of water, technology powered interventions are required to assist farmers in conducting farming activities optimally and efficiently while conserving water by reducing wastage. Such technologies include the Soil Moisture Tester developed by Farm Tech Inc.
Farm Tech Inc. (FTI) is an American-based organization that designs, develops, markets, and retails technological gadgets to enhance farming strategies and approaches. The organization's mission is to provide high-quality farm technology and enhance productivity. The organization's vision is a world where farm products are produced with efficient and optimal water utilization. FTI is headed by the CEO who overseas different departments and operations, including Human Resource Manager, Marketing Manager, Production Manager, Financial Manager, and Research and Development Administrator. Employees under these departments are employed on a contract basis to allow FTI to save on human resource costs. The company intends to list 20% of its capital as shares to the public, targeting farmers as critical investors.
While the company will specialize in technology-powered solutions for farmers, the main product is the Soil Moisture Tester gadget. The simple to use yet effective gadget can be placed in the soil to detect the soil type, soil's moisture retention capabilities, and soil moisture. The product relies on software that can be connected to a computer system or a mobile device through a specialized interface where users can get the necessary information, including alerts on the level of soil moisture. The purpose of the gadget is to inform users on when to water plants. Further, the type of soil detection aspect allows farmers to determine the type of crops that will benefit more from the soil. Therefore, the gadget is a novel digital solution that adds to the technological advancement and quality enhancement in farming activities to reduce water wastage to enhance environmental sustainability efforts by timing irrigation and opening or closure of taps and help in the determination of appropriate crops to grow.
2.0 Strategic Focus and Plan
Therefore, the mission of the current marketing plan is to ensure that all farmers within and without the United States have the correct information about the Soil Moisture Tester (SMT) gadget. In other words, the FTI-SMT gadget can only be effective on environmental sustainability if used widely across the globe, given the amount of water consumed through farming. If water conservation is to be effective, then targeting the largest consumer of water is a key strategic focus and plan for FTI's marketing plan. Additionally, the current marketing plan's vision is to realize a global reduction in farming water consumption with enhanced productivity. The enhanced productivity is aimed at producing farm food products that will enhance nutrition and well-being when hunger and famine have developed into global crises.
Based on the marketing mission and vision, the current marketing plan has the following specific goals:
Ensure that farmers are part of the critical stakeholders in the organization in both as investors and customers.
Ensure that the product is widely known in the United States through different marketing approaches
Ensure that the product attains a global brand status given that farming is an essential global activity, and
Ensure that the FTI-SMT is the product of choice for both American and international markets.
These goals will be realized based on the organization's core competencies of structures, processes, and people. These core competencies are enshrined in the critical organizational department already mentioned. For instance, the marketing department will provide a marketing plan and strategy to ensure that the stated marketing goals are realized. Other core examples where competencies will drive marketing strategies include the production and the research and development departments whose purpose is to ensure the production of quality and robust products that are less costly, can sustain any weather or climatic conditions and can be used for a long time with minimum need for repairs or replacements. These competencies are essential because they will give the organization a competitive edge on the marketing front.
3.0 Situation Analysis
Situation analysis is a process in which an organization's current strengths and weaknesses are assessed to inform a marketing plan or organizational strategy (Blackwel & Eppler, 2014). SWOT Analysis, Industry analysis, competitor analysis, and customer analysis form the core aspects of organizational situation analysis.
3.1 SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is among the fundamental models used for situation analysis. Table 1 below summarizes the FTI's SWOT analysis I regard to the current marketing plan.
Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1: Summary of FTI SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Competent organizational members: FTI has several vital departments with competent individuals involved in researching, developing, and producing quality and competitive products. The strength enhances the product and pricing strategies because of the product's appeal efficiency in providing real-time information about the soil.
Product relevance – Farming is a crucial aspect of any global region regardless of the climate or weather patterns. Given the current global crises of water scarcity, hunger, and global warming, the organization's product is highly relevant in the current global economy.
Visionary leadership – FTI has visionary leadership that seeks to leverage the current global trend of green products and processes that contribute to environmental conservation. Such visionary leadership will underpin the current marketing strategy. Weaknesses
A new entity in the industry – FTI is a new entity in the agricultural technology industry that has existed for decades. As a result, the organization may not have experience dealing with within-border and cross-border marketing and product distribution, especially against organizations that have established local and global distribution channels.
Inadequacy of marketing resources – Marketing is an essential aspect of any modern organization. However, marketing strategies and approaches are costly, especially where existing local and global organizations have set the bar for higher expenditure. As a new organization, FTI may not have the necessary resources to compete against the marketing strategies of an existing organization. Opportunities
The need for environmental conservation and optimal food production – Currently, the global society faces several crises, including climate change, water scarcity, and soil moisture deterioration that is supposed to enhance food production. These trends are an opportunity for FTI to provide affordable technology-based solutions to align farmers with conservation efforts.
Increasing climate change seminars, meetings, and charter – The mentioned activities are increasing given the severe nature of climate change and global warming. Since FTI is providing a solution to assist in conservation efforts, local and global seminars, workshops, and meetings on climate change provide an opportunity for FTI to market their products and contribute to the conservation conversation. Threats
Political obstacles – The climate changes issue remains a divisive topic in public discourse, with people increasingly disparaging existing scientific evidence (Petersen, Vincent, & Westerling, 2019). Therefore, in local and global political arenas in which climate change evidence is opposed, the FTI's marketing plan may not be effective.
Competition – Since FTI is a new entity in the industry, existing organizations are already designing, distributing, marketing, and retailing soil moisture information collection equipment, albeit with different capabilities. These organizations also have established distribution channels and have significant marketing budgets. The competition provides a threat to the visibility and efficacy of FTI's current marketing plan. 
3.2 Industry Analysis
Unlike the SWOT analysis, which focuses on internal organizational factors, industry analysis focuses on the forces within the business environment that will impact the current marketing plan. The critical aspects observed under industry analysis, according to Aithal (2017), include ease of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, availability of substitute products, and competitors. In terms of ease of entry, the only obstacle is the existing established organizations. However, from farmers' perspective, federal permits are not required for technological utilization as long as farms directly meet regulatory requirements involving the limitation of pollutants, operational standards, and management practices (EPA, 2020). The SMT gadget can easily be intergraded into these domains with minimal effort making it easy for FTI to enter the market.
Buyer power is also relevant. Today, the National Farmers Union has over 200,000 f...