Cooperatives – See the Future

October is National Cooperative Month, and VistaComm is celebrating with the more than 40,000 cooperatives creating stable jobs and a more sustainable economy across the U.S. Co-ops represent a proven way to do business and build communities.

This year’s theme, “Co-ops See the Future,” embodies what co-ops envision and work to achieve every day—a more sustainable and inclusive tomorrow.

In this blog, VistaComm applauds the more than 100 cooperatives we have the pleasure of calling business associates. And we’re introducing two of our favorites to you:

• Joe Schauf of Central Prairie Co-op in Sterling, Kansas
• Pete Schmitz of Farmers Co-op Association in Canby, Minnesota.

Both Joe and Pete send regular profound and helpful messages to their producers, patrons, employees and neighbors—in magazines, newsletters, emails and on their websites. You can read Joe’s message: Where would we be without your co-op? in a VistaComm blog sent earlier this month

Read On for Pete’s message: Customer or Patron?

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 Customer or Patron?

by Pete Schmitz, General Manager
Farmers Co-op Association
Canby, Minnesota

I often use customer and patron synonymously, but there is a difference between the two. Customers and patrons alike are great for our cooperative business and we love serving both. A patron, however, understands he or she owns a piece of the co-op, and that they share in the profits of the business.

As an owner, the patron also knows that they have risk, but that risk is shared with many others, reducing their ownership liability. The patron owner also understands that a board of directors represents them and their interest in the cooperative. Finally, the fact that the cooperative was formed in the community it serves and supports its community with employment opportunities, products and services is clear to the patron. They realize that these products and services may not have been provided had the cooperative not existed.

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There are 2,106 agriculture co-ops in the U.S., with more than 2 million member-owners.

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It isn’t difficult for customers to become patrons. Anyone who does business with their local cooperative, is added to the membership list and completes a very short application can be an owner. So, it serves the management of all cooperatives well to thank all your customers and hope they strive to one day be active patrons in your cooperative. You’re always welcome!

See Full Article Here: Cooperatives – See the Future

A Boss Worth Celebrating

Today is Boss’s Day. At some offices, recognizing those in leadership can be a grim ritual. Not so at VistaComm. We are fortunate to be led by a fast-moving, outgoing, transparent and hard-working accountant turned CEO Maria Walz. Every morning, we’re happy to hear the machine-gun tapping of heels on our floor. Maria has arrived and all’s right with the world! Here’s a few fast facts about our boss.

Post Source Here: A Boss Worth Celebrating

October is National Cooperative Month!

This year’s theme for National Co-op Month, “Co-ops See the Future,” embodies what co-ops envision and work to achieve every day—a more sustainable and inclusive tomorrow.

Celebrated by cooperatives nationwide during the month of October, Co-op Month is an opportunity to celebrate the many ways cooperatives are using innovation to create shared prosperity for their members and communities.

With more than 40,000 cooperatives creating stable jobs and a more sustainable economy across the U.S., co-ops represent a proven way to do business and build communities.

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There are 2,106 agriculture co-ops in the U.S., with more than 2 million member-owners.

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“With clear signs of increasing interest in the cooperative model, it’s easy to see a future where cooperatives leverage their influence and impact through the shared resources of our movement to engage, partner with and empower people from all walks of life,” said Doug O’Brien, president and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA).

“As drivers of an economy that reflects those values, we see a future in which people have more equitable access to sustainable jobs and can more broadly participate in the economy and create better world for their families, communities and future generations.”

VistaComm applauds these principles and the more than 100 cooperatives we have the pleasure of calling business associates. In celebration of the powerful contributions our partner cooperatives have made to the ag industry, we’d like to introduce you to two general managers we highly respect and enjoy doing business with: Joe Schauf of Central Prairie Co-op in Sterling, Kansas, and Pete Schmitz of Farmers Co-op Association in Canby, Minnesota.

Both Joe and Pete send regular profound and helpful messages to their producers, patrons, employees and neighbors—in magazines, newsletters, emails and on their websites. VistaComm would like to share those messages—each one tremendously supportive of the cooperative business model.

We’ll begin this week with Joe’s message and encourage you to return next week to read what Pete has to say about “. . . when customers become patrons.” Enjoy.

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Where would we be without your co-op?

by Joe Schauf, General Manager
Central Prairie Co-op
Sterling, Kansas

Imagine our industry without the local co-op. If you purchased all your inputs and marketed al­­l of your grain through major corporations, local farmers would lose their collective bargaining power…and much more.

For example, how would the terminals treat average producers if those terminals didn’t have competition from co-ops? What kind of prices would they be offering you?

Without local elevators, you would have to haul to regional terminals. Would those terminals open up on Sunday afternoons, or stay late to take your grain? Would they offer help if your truck broke down or got stuck in the field? I’d be willing to bet that your local cooperative does all those things.

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Who else can sell you fuel for your farm, propane for your house, inputs for your crops, a place to dump your grain and marketing power to sell that grain? You can get all those products and services somewhere—but not all at one location like you can with a co-op.

Adding value to local communities

It’s also important to note that a local co-op has an economic ripple effect in the communities it serves. Full-time employees, as well as numerous seasonal workers, deposit their paychecks at local banks and spend their earnings at local businesses, adding to the economic well-being of local communities. Plus, local cooperative and their many individual locations spend money for supplies, utilities, insurance and local taxes.

Local cooperatives support numerous non-profit organizations and schools in their service areas. This includes financial support for FFA chapters, 4-H programs in surrounding counties, and scholarships to high schools, local technical and community schools and colleges in the area.

While local cooperatives have certainly evolved from the small grain elevator where your grandfather or great-grandfather took grain, they all still seem to operate on the same principle:

To give co-op members the advantage of economies of size and the bargaining power to obtain goods and services at the least possible price and pass those savings on to members at a competitive price. Plus, members share in the earnings of the co-op through patronage.

As a producer, when you consider your options for doing business, think about the value of doing business with your local cooperative. After all, where would we be without them?

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Learn More Here: October is National Cooperative Month! 

Is Big Always Bad?

Recently, a VistaComm client decided to challenge the idea that cooperatives are becoming too big to care about and serve their customers-members. In a magazine article titled “The Big Bad Wolf,” this local cooperative pointed out that members can become obsessed with size and see growth as a reason to fear and quit doing business with their own company.

This company recently built a large fertilizer and chemical warehouse in partnership with regional cooperatives that needed wholesale distribution facilities in the area. Both organizations benefited from this partnership, but the size of the project prompted some of the local cooperative’s members to regard their own company a monster that had grown too big to have the farmers interests at heart.

How big is too big?

From what I hear, many of our clients are facing the same issue with their customer groups. Some members believe their co-ops have gotten too big for its britches. They contend that the cooperative system is gobbling up the competition and becoming a beast too large to control. They yearn for the old days when small farmers patronized small local co-ops.

Yet, many VistaComm clients feel they must grow, either through acquisition of existing businesses or so called “organic growth” of their trade territories. They believe getting bigger is an important component to remaining relevant to their members.

“How big must a cooperative get in order to serve its customers well in the current economy?”

Perhaps a more important question is, “How big must a cooperative get in order to serve its customers well in the current economy?” Here’s what I’ve learned while helping our clients communicate.

A co-op must be big enough to:

• Attract exceptional talent
• Overcome government regulations
• Differentiate from the competition
• Collaborate with others

Attracting exceptional talent

In an economy where unemployment is at its lowest level in decades and Baby Boomers are retiring, a company must be big enough and offer the kind of benefits and challenges necessary to attract bright new people.

With the flood of technologies knocking at farmers’ doors, there is a great need for talent schooled and experienced in agronomy, animal nutrition, marketing and energy to help farm customers make good choices.  There is also a great need for talented operations personnel, with experience and knowledge in products and the equipment necessary to apply them.

Many of VistaComm’s clients have relationships with universities and vocational schools that can supply these exceptional employees. Moreover, some of our best clients offer internship programs that offer students experience and give the co-op an opportunity to look at the pool of full-time employees that follow graduation.

But to attract that kind of talent requires an exceptional workplace that is well-regarded in the industry, has competitive wages and benefits, and offers a sufficient challenge for bright, tech-savvy people just beginning their careers. These requirements are usually found in growing companies.

Overcoming regulations

The federal government’s Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) has forced many feed milling firms out of business.

To continue serving their livestock customers, the rest are engaged in some sort of expansion—usually involving closing small, older mills and building large modern mills. These mills not only meet regulations and allow these cooperatives to stay in the animal nutrition business, but they also produce a higher quality of feed and more choices for their livestock producer patrons.

However, to afford the depreciation on these large new facilities, the cooperative must hire more sales personnel and spread their services over a larger market area—including manufacturing feed for other companies. This requires a commitment to grow.

Differentiating from the competition

Remaining relevant to the customers in these times of surging technology, big box stores, and on-line giants may also necessitate growth.

That growth will depend on what the competition is offering? One VistaComm client in the power equipment business is faced with stiff competition from big box stores. The way that co-op differentiates itself is to “set up, gas up and deliver” the mowers and four-wheelers it sells, ready for the customer to use. It also picks up and repairs that equipment when it breaks down.

Other VistaComm clients, particularly those who deal in commodities like fertilizers, are finding the need to expand their speed and space to serve their farmer-customers who are also growing and getting faster at planting their crops.

One CEO told me “Agri-business has got to become like Amazon to our customers, because they’ve come to expect that kind of selection and instant gratification in other areas of their lives.”

All this requires growth—getting bigger in facilities, rolling stock and staff.

Collaborating with others

To build some of these larger facilities, like fertilizer plants or feed mills, cooperatives must have grown to a sufficient size and have sufficient human and financial resources to partner with other cooperatives or private companies on projects that will be mutually beneficial.

As I mentioned, one of VistaComm’s clients is a local cooperative which recently collaborated with a regional cooperative to build a large agronomy center. This center provides speed and space—both for the local cooperatives farmer-customers and for other local cooperatives that are customers of the regional.

Cooperatives must be big enough for other reasons than the few I’ve stated above, but you get the idea. The challenge is pointing out to your farmer customers the need to grow and convincing them that, as member-owners, you still have their best interests at heart.

One VistaComm client tells its customers, “Our goal isn’t to be the biggest—it’s to be the best for you. In our world, becoming bigger is an outcome of striving to be the best.”

One way a cooperatively owned business can strive to be the best is by keeping a close ear to the pulse of customer/owners. VistaComm can help you do this, by third-party administration and results analysis of professionally designed surveys that reveal what your customers need and value.

Learn More Here: Is Big Always Bad?

Talking Farmer to Farmer: Come Along on My Great European Ag Adventure

Did you know dairy cows give more milk when they listen to Mozart? Ah, the things you learn from the tour bus guide when passing through farm country on your way to Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

[caption id="attachment_3861" align="alignright" width="600"] Call it a cathedral to food. After touring farms in Europe, Darcy Maulsby was thrilled to see the next step in the farm-to-fork connection at the impressive Central Market Hall in Budapest, Hungary. She brought home a prized bag of sweet Hungarian paprika.[/caption]

While we don’t raise dairy cows on my family’s farm near Lake City, Iowa, I felt right at home, talking farming in rural Europe. Maybe it was the snow. I traveled 5,000 miles from Iowa to Austria for a Danube River cruise in March, only to be met by more snow and ice.

I was with nearly 100 members of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation for this experience of a lifetime. During our week-long European adventure across southern Germany, Austria and Hungary, we visited with European ag ministers and toured local farms. While these farmers grow different crops than we do (apricots, canola, barley, sugar beets and a disease-resistant grain called spelt), they face many of the same challenges. Do any of these sound familiar?

• Many people live in cities now and have romanticized ideas about what the farm is—or should be.
• We need our international markets.
• Organic is big, and growing.
• GMOs are a major issue. Some European countries allow livestock farmers to feed GMOs; others do not.
• Water quality is an issue, including nitrate levels. Manage this challenge; or face regulations.
• Farm profitability is a challenge. In Austria, about two thirds of producers farm part time and have off-farm jobs to supplement their income.
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like animal and environmental activist groups are powerful.
• Austria has nature-protected areas where the government controls the land. The controlling agency dictates how the land can be fertilized. Farmers are strictly regulated and must keep detailed records.
• It’s tough to pass the family farm on to the next generation. Many European families are having fewer children, and fewer young people want to be farmers. Tax issues also complicate the process of passing on a farm.

[caption id="attachment_3865" align="alignright" width="400"] Luscious apricots are a key ingredient for sachertorte. This famous chocolate apricot cake with dark chocolate ganache is to Austria what apple pie is to America—an edible, national treasure.[/caption]

Perhaps most surprising was that up to 70% of Austrian farmers’ income is subsidized by the government, according to Nikolaus Morawitz with the Vienna Chamber of Agriculture.

Wow! Talk about food for thought. My takeaways?

• Be wary of overreach by both the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and be prepared to challenge it.
• Share your story to help non-farm people better understand where their food comes from.
• Invest your time, talent and treasures into your local community. Make it a place where the next generation wants to live and work.

Let’s eat

One more thing—don’t forget to savor the journey. Is there anything more intrinsic to a place than its food? It’s a question I savored when I wrote my book, “Culinary History of Iowa,” and it inspired me during my European adventures.

I’ll never forget the robust, sweet, smooth taste of the apricots we sampled near Vienna. And, as I sat in the luxurious, red dining room of the Hotel Sacher in the heart of Vienna, savoring a slice of sachertorte (main ingredient: apricots), I knew why this is the ultimate special-occasion dessert in Austria. Sweets also work their magic in apfelstrudel (apple strudel), another signature Austrian dessert made with locally-grown fruit. Yummmm.

It’s time to head to the kitchen, turn on some Mozart, and cook up a taste of Europe as I ponder my next ag adventure.

Learn More Here: Talking Farmer to Farmer: Come Along on My Great European Ag Adventure

Integration = Efficiency: How Integrated Marketing Can Grow Your Business

Which of these describes you?

A. I know marketing is important, but it’s just not my strong suit. I think what we’re doing already is ok.

B. A better marketing campaign could be good for business, but a company our size doesn’t have the budget for that.

C. I know there are lots of ways we could market our company, but all these tools are overwhelming.

D. All of the above.

If you see yourself in any (or all) of these scenarios, you’re not alone. Effective marketing and communication strategies are tricky today, especially when you consider the sheer volume of messages vying for people’s attention. The average consumer is exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day, according to the American Marketing Association. Yikes!

Millions of these messages are delivered via social media, where the sheer volume of content posted daily is staggering. Every 60 seconds, 3.3 million posts are added to Facebook alone, according to Smart Insights.

Social media is just one part of the story, though. Remember the days of the Big 3 TV broadcasters (ABC, CBS and NBC) ruled the airwaves? Today, the number of television channels available to the average TV household has exploded to 205.9, according to Nielsen data shared on MediaPost.com in 2016.

Don’t forget all the emails, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, radio broadcasts, podcasts, online videos and more that are competing for your attention.

In today’s over-saturated marketing environment, finding effective ways to build your brand can be daunting. The quality of your content, as well as your marketing strategy, matters more than ever. Where do you start?

Understanding integrated marketing communications

If you want to cut through the clutter and reach your target audience, it’s time to consider integrated marketing communications (IMC).

IMC is not merely doing more kinds of marketing. IMC offers a coordinated, cost-effective strategy to help you focus on your key message and share it in a consistent, compelling way through a strategic mix of marketing/communication channels. That mix may include video, digital (social media, blog posts, e-books, e-newsletters), advertising, print (newsletters, magazines, brochures, direct-mail campaigns), trade show promotions, press releases and other tools.

Integrating this cohesive strategy across various communication channels doesn’t just streamline your marketing; it helps you meet your customers and prospects where they’re at. That’s one reason the majority of consumers (72%) prefer integrated marketing campaigns, according to the annual Consumer Insights Survey.

What does IMC look like in practice? VistaComm client Mid-Iowa Cooperative shares a consistent message inspired by its mission of “good land, good people, good advice” through:

• A Facebook page to provide timely updates.
• A professional YouTube video produced by VistaComm to help people experience the Mid-Iowa story from the farmers and employees who know it best.
• A quarterly print newsletter produced by VistaComm.

But isn’t print dead?

If anyone tells you print isn’t part of effective IMC, don’t believe it.

Science is revealing that ink on paper creates a deeper impression in the human brain than something non-physical, like a digital message. A recent article in Target Marketing explains this phenomenon of “your brain on print.” According to a study from the Center for Experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University in Wales, the physical nature of print elicits an emotional connection in people.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers found that content delivered in paper form is more stimulating than content delivered in virtual or digital form. Apparently, our brains perceive printed items (like newsletters) as more genuine—and engaging.

But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Greg Larson, president of Electronic Systems, Inc. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, says:

“Our print newsletter, produced by VistaComm, is a product that—after more than 14 years—continues to work for us. VistaComm’s writers and designers always hit the mark in meeting our objective to showcase our expertise while maintaining the feel of a mid-size company that cares about, not only its customers, but its employees and suppliers, as well.”

But that’s not all. “It’s interesting, we’re in a high-tech business, but we really believe in the importance of print communication,” Larson added. “Our customers can easily ignore or delete electronic communication, but they read a good old-fashioned print newsletter—cover-to-cover. We continue to get positive comments from our customers on receiving a printed newsletter.”

Put ICM to work for you

Electronic Systems, Inc. highlights how a strategic mix of marketing tools, including print, can add tremendous value for customers. Conveying a consistent, targeted message through IMC, helps build trust, which increases loyalty, which leads to sales.

Want to see how IMC can work for you? VistaComm’s team can help you assess your current marketing activities, define your target audience, develop a strategy and integrate your marketing channels to generate more traffic, leads and sales. Call David, Laurie or Maria today at 844.453.9261 and realize your full integrated marketing potential.

Resources:

• 4th Annual Consumer Insights Survey, E-tailing Group, 2011.
• American Marketing Association, Joshua Saxon, IE School of Human Sciences & Technology, 2017.
• Smart Insights, Robert Allen, 2017.
• Mediapost.com, MediaPost Communications, (Nielsen Data) 2016.
• Center for Experimental Consumer Psychology, Bangor University, Wales, 2009.

Read Full Article Here: Integration = Efficiency: How Integrated Marketing Can Grow Your Business

Opening Doors with Baseball

Throughout America’s heartland, two institutions have stood the test of time—farming and baseball. That’s not to diminish the popularity of the games that gave rise to classic stories like “Friday Night Lights” or “Hoosiers.” But those pursuits generally end for small-town residents once players head off to college or start careers. Baseball players, however, play on with town teams, eventually graduating to softball. It is an enduring pastime that parallels the seasons of crop and livestock production.

As important as baseball is to rural American culture, that importance is magnified many times over in Central American countries like Nicaragua. There, baseball is more than a pastime. It’s a source of hope and, for some, a pathway to survival.

Throughout Nicaragua, hundreds of teams and thousands of kids and players have received gear from HKRF:

1. 18,000 baseballs, softballs
2. 3,200 gloves
3. 3,300 bats
4. 400 sets of catcher’s gear
5. 1,800 batting helmets
6. 8,000 uniforms, t-shirts
7. 1,200 pairs of spikes, tennis shoes

South Dakotan Craig Severtson lives at the intersection of those three worlds—baseball, farming and Nicaragua. He grew up in a baseball family, ultimately playing for Augustana University in Sioux Falls*. Today, he and his sons raise crops and feed cattle on their farm on the outskirts of Flandreau.

These days, most of Craig’s time and energy are focused on securing resources and making connections for Helping Kids Round First (HKRF), a non-profit he established to help create ongoing, sustainable change among the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua.

It started with baseball

Starting a non-profit was not on the agenda when Craig began traveling to Nicaragua in the early 2000s. “Nicaragua is a baseball-crazy country,” he states. “As compared to many Latin American countries where soccer is king, baseball is king in Nicaragua. I had heard about a medical mission taking baseball equipment with them to Nicaragua, and I wanted to go. But they traveled during calving season, and that didn’t work for me. So, I had to do something on my own.”

Craig had developed a passion for the Nicaraguan people when he journeyed to and through the country in the 1980s. With his family raised, and the farming/ranching operation in the hands of his sons and hired man, he started making annual trips to Nicaragua in 2009.

“I would carry as much baseball equipment with me as I could,” he states. “Even in the poorest communities, you can always find a baseball field. It’s the national pastime, and one of the few sources of hope for their youth. What little equipment they have is shared by everyone in the town.”

Craig tells another story that drives home just how important—and scarce—baseball gear is to the teams they work with in Nicaragua.

“We were having supper with Nixon Munoz, a 16-year-old young man and Johnny Alvarez, his pitching coach,” he recalls. “We help supply Johnny with equipment for his academy. Nixon was getting ready to sign a pitching contract with the Boston Red Sox. After supper, Nixon helped us carry bags of gear from our truck to Johnny’s car. He asked us, ‘Are there any gloves in the bags?’ I said, ‘Of course. Do you need a new one?” He answered, ‘Not a new one. Any one. I don’t have a glove.’”

By 2015, it was no longer suitcases of baseballs and gloves going to Nicaragua. That year, HKRF sent their first shipping container of gear. At the same time, more volunteers accompanied the HKRF team on their trips, as word of their unique work spread.

Providing baseball equipment, organizing baseball clinics, and helping communities generate sustainable activities that benefit youth physically and emotionally is making a significant difference. But, as it turned out, baseball was also the calling card that opened doors to a host of other opportunities in sustainable agriculture, rural health care and the empowerment of women.

“This is some of the most significant work you can do,” Craig summarizes, “the kind that leaves a generational trail. We are using baseball as a starting point to help families, and eventually communities, change their lives.”

*On June 2, 2018, the Augustana University Men’s Baseball Team was crowned NCAA-Division II National Champions. From the very beginning, this organization has proudly supported Helping Kids Round First.

Craig Severtson and the Helping Kids Round First team are just a few of the extraordinary people we meet every day at VistaComm. To learn more, visit www.HelpingKidsRoundFirst.org and subscribe to the HKRF newsletter Touching Base. Thank you, Craig, for letting VistaComm tell your amazing story.

Post Source Here: Opening Doors with Baseball