Agriculture Marketing Jobs

Agricultural marketing is a booming part of the farming industry, since there’s a lot of competition in the grocery store. Marketing jobs start at the farm and end at the supermarket, and you can work with everyone from small family-owned businesses trying to attract local customers to large corporations.

Direct Marketing Jobs

If you work in direct marketing in the advertising sector, you’ll typically be working to advertise food products in non-traditional ways. While advertisers deal with television commercials and magazine ads, marketers working in direct marketing try to reach the consumer through email marketing, coupons and sales campaigns, and other types of media.

Branding Jobs

Small farms typically won’t hire workers for this kind of job, but food companies like Kellogg’s, Budweiser, Oscar Meyer, and so forth want consumers to recognize their brand. Major food corporations spend millions of dollars every year on sponsorship, so you could work with these accounts. Branding is also important when it comes to packaging design, and this play hand-in-hand with advertising and direct marketing efforts as well. Branding professionals typically work with all of the other departments to create a cohesive look and feel for the company. Agricultural organizations also hire branders. For example, you may have see the commercials that talk about the safety of high fructose corn syrup as a natural product, which combats the stereotype that products made with this ingredient aren’t good for you. These commercials are branding, but not for a specific company, and they’re run by a national organization concerned with the welfare of the corn industry.

Retail Marketing Jobs

Farmers won’t be in business if consumers stopped buying products. Even small- and mid-sized businesses hire retail marketers either in full-time positions or as consultants, to help them make the most of their retail locations. Packaging is a big part of retail marketing, as consumers respond differently to colors, shapes, and other aspects. How products are laid out at a store also makes a difference in sales. Next time you’re at a grocery store, take notice to what brands are at eye-level in every aisle. Companies pay big bucks for shelving real estate. As a retail marketer, you could also help design small shops to create a layout that is best for selling products directly from the farm to the consumer.

Pricing and Distribution

Marketers also work closely with farmers and food processing companies to get their products available to more consumers. If you work in pricing and distribution, you’ll help analyze the market for a product and the manufacturing/growing costs to determine how much it should cost for the consumer. These marketers also work in sales, so you’ll be identifying new lines of distribution, making presentations to potential wholesale consumers, and working closely with advertising teams to get the product out into the world.

Regardless of the marking job that most interests you, keep in mind that most of these opportunities are only available for multi-million dollar corporations. If you want to work on a farm, closely with the animals or crops, this job may not be the best for you. On the other hand, keep in mind that farms couldn’t exist without consumers to purchase their products, so even if you aren’t feeding the cows by hand, you are making it possible for farms of all sizes to stay in business.