Swanson Russell

Agribusiness marketing is ripe with complexities. Through decades of building ag brands, we’ve learned a lot, and built a library of our own articles and reports on how to navigate the field. You can get a glimpse of what we’ve written below. For full copies, contact Wes Neuhaus at 402-492-3233.

Producer’s Attitudes Towards Dealers
The information presented in this original paper was gathered in a study conducted online to select BEEF magazine subscribers. From the report, you will learn what ag customers said about:

• Influences on capital equipment purchases
• Influences on crop and livestock inputs
• Relationships with dealers and manufacturers
• Roles and characteristics of local suppliers and how they can improve
• The “best” dealers

Measuring the Effectiveness of Marketing Communications
Unfortunately, there is no magical answer to that age-old question, “Is my marketing communications program effective?” However, there is a way to establish a framework from which you can begin evaluating efficacy. This report can help you do that. It will take you through the steps in the marketing communications effectiveness measurement process and help you develop realistic marketing communications objectives in an ROI environment. You’ll get a look at how marketing communications is viewed from an accounting perspective, as well as evaluation of tactics versus total program as a whole.

Marketing Communications for Uncertain Times
During economic hard times it can be hard just to survive, let alone grow as a company. How do you protect your bottom line and your brand at the same time? How do you battle in a faltering economy and stay intact? This white paper will address these and other questions and provide you with light at the end of the tunnel.

Paid Search Advertising
The number one activity on the Web? Searching. Which is why paid search is becoming an increasingly important part of any marketing mix. In this report we explore the benefits of paid search advertising and offer a primer on how to build a targeted, measurable, compelling campaign.

Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is
Penned by our very own Parker Stoner, Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is explains how to refocus your communications. Too often, marketers walk away disappointed from communications strategies that have too little credibility to impact their audience. In this book, we lay out a new Hierarchy of Marketing Communications Effectiveness, and explain how to strategically build and deliver messages that forge a Real Connection™ with your audience.

Harvest Online Intelligence
These days, a company’s frontline is not the salesperson; it’s the Internet. Conversations about your brand and your products are happening, on social media networks, blogs and anywhere in between. And the better you understand those conversations, the more informed your communications strategy will be. In this report, we walk through the concept of “conversation mining,” and how it can help build your brand.

Refocusing Scarce Resources During Tough Times
When Swanson Russell and employee Parker Stoner set out to write Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is in 2007, nobody knew what tough economic conditions laid in waiting. The ideas in the book, however, turned out to be a valuable resource for companies facing tough decisions necessitated by flat or reduced budgets. In this paper, we expound on some of the book’s ideas, and apply them to recession-era situations. We can’t predict the future, but we can better prepare you for it.

Our Approach to Branding
“Brand” has become a ubiquitous term in marketing. While it means a lot of things to a lot of different people, at its core, a brand is a company’s ability to authentically define itself to its core audiences. There isn’t a company on the market that couldn’t benefit from a good brand, which is why we’ve developed this roadmap to the branding process.

Strategies for Social Media Success
Anymore, social media is more than just a planning meeting agenda item. The phenomenon of social media requires constant exploration, dissection and critical thinking. Its benefits are completely unique from any other medium’s, and its capabilities are still being discovered.  In this paper, we’ll walk you through the state of social media, including recommendations on how to decide what social media program is right for you. Read through case studies, measurement techniques and budget considerations and learn how to make social media part of your brand’s messaging mix.

Blending Traditional and Digital Media
In the same way that consumers sometimes feel inundated with marketing messages, we as marketers may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communication avenues we have at our disposal. With so many different forms, how does a brand achieve function? In this report, we survey the landscape of traditional and digital media. We'll show you the work we've done in each medium, and what we learned along the way. We'll also cover eight key steps for blending them all together.