The Challenge
In 2019, BVDG was ready to expand to new export markets, but was unsure where to target their market development efforts to achieve maximum impact.
Our Solution
BCI created a decision-support dashboard that can leverage data as well as BVDG’s own knowledge to identify and prioritize immediate export opportunities and longterm market development potential for Bard Valley Medjool dates.
We started by interviewing BVDG officials to gain a better understanding of their product, marketing strategies, market history, and competition. We discovered which markets historically performed best and which factors they have found are consistent in markets that have high potential for consumption of imported Medjool dates.
Bryant Christie Inc. provided us with a great tool to support critical decision-making. They went above and beyond to meet our needs. Their market research and analysis identified a few markets we had not been considering, and others that suggested growth opportunities beyond our current level of export.
BCI conducted extensive desk research to augment BVDG’s experience and identified 12 factors that may indicate market potential and receptivity to BVDG market development efforts. We gathered data corresponding to those 12 factors for 33 markets and developed a scoring system to make the values of each variable easier for BVDG users to interpret. The final dashboard contained agricultural trade data (imports and exports), demographic information, comparative tariff rates, data on market trends, and more.
The decision-support dashboard was designed to be interactive, giving BVDG the ability to enter and modify weighting for the 12 factors and consider the impact on the relative market prioritization scores. This means that BVDG can dynamically incorporate their own insider knowledge about the relative importance of these factors, and update the weighting as their understanding and priorities evolves over time.
Ongoing Collaboration
Since this initial project, BVDG has returned to BCI for insight on marketing agencies that could assist the company in a few of the target markets they are considering, and has inquired about export development grants that could support future marketing initiatives. The Value Added Producer Grant program, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and Market Access Program are three funding sources being considered.