The following guidelines are established to aid student chapters to assemble effective marketing campaigns that may be judged on an equal basis by the panel of agri-marketing professionals.  Each accredited student chapter may enter one team in the competition.

I. MARKETING PROJECT CATEGORY

Here are the specific factors that must be incorporated into your marketing competition project.

1. Must be an agricultural product/commodity/service.

2. Your project can be considered input or output of agriculture and must emphasize a "value added" concept utilizing marketing techniques to increase value of an existing product/commodity/service.

3. Must assume that you are operating in an established market with a primary objective being the displacement of major competitors to gain market share.

NOTE:  If you want your product pre-approved, please complete the approval form and return to Deborah Brummel, NAMA Careers Competition Liaison, at debbieb@nama.org or by fax at (913) 491-6502.

The product/commodity/service you select:

Should be assumed to have great potential that -- marketing wise -- has yet to be developed.  Hence, your assignment is to design a plan that will make this product/commodity/service a profitable proposition.

Should be assumed to have unique properties and/or attributes differentiating it from the competition which -- through your marketing plan -- will be outlined to your customer as the "potential profit" reason and/or benefit derived for use of your product/commodity/service.

May be marketed regionally, nationally or internationally.

Please do not use existing product names or trademarks for the product/commodity/service you select.  However, existing names or trademarks may be used for competitive products.

II. MARKETING PLAN SCOPE - Design your plan within these suggested general parameters.

A. There are no restrictions to the geographic regions of your marketing plan.

B. You should work with a 12-month marketing time span, even if your product/commodity/service is marketed seasonally.  You should decide if your plan is based on a calendar or fiscal year and adapt all marketing factors to this annual cycle.

C. You must show financial evaluation and justification for a 3-year time period.  Sales projections, payouts, operating costs, etc., should be addressed in this 3-year time frame.

D. Set your own realistic market situation and objectives -- sales volume, market share, effective competition, distribution channels, capacities, anticipated profit or losses, etc.

E. Draw up realistic profit/benefit-oriented goals for your marketing plan and justify your goals and objectives.

F. Explain how you measure pre-existing conditions and monitor or evaluate results.

G. Your marketing plan is aimed primarily at generating and maintaining sales/service to your customers, increasing market share and building awareness among people that are influential in the purchase (i.e., lenders, county agents, vo-ag instructors, media and other influencers).

NOTE:  There will be a point deduction if the product and plan do not fall within the guidelines.

III. EXECUTION - Your marketing plan will be evaluated through the Executive Summary and your live presentation.

A. Executive Summary

1. Your Executive Summary report can be no more than 5 typewritten pages, plus a cover sheet that identifies your school and project name.  Any more than the 5 pages, an audience profile and cover sheet will result in a penalty.  An optional audience profile form is available in this book and can be included to clearly define the intended audience for this presentation. Chapters should not use this form to provide supplemental plan information.

Your report should create a professional presentation.  Please do not put your Executive Summary into a 3-ring binder -- they complicate handling and mailing.  All of the key information presented in the marketing plan should be highlighted in a clear, concise form.  Remember, this will be the only document the judges receive before they see your live presentation, so the Summary must be able to stand on its own.  Be sure that your school is identified on the cover sheet. 

Judges are not impressed by "summary reports" that use narrow margins and spacing, or small type faces, to allow for excess information. Please send 10 copies of your Executive Summary so the finals judges can receive a copy the night prior to the finals competition.

2. DEADLINE:  Submit 10 copies of your Executive Summary to:

Deborah Brummel
National Agri-Marketing Association
11020 King St., Ste. 205
Overland Park, KS  66210
(913) 491-6500   FAX: (913) 491-6502    debbieb@nama.org

All entries must be mailed so that submission is trackable (e.g., FedEx, UPS, U.S. Post Office overnight) and must be RECEIVED BY March 10, 2010.  Judges will deduct 5 points per day for late entries in the preliminary round.

Failure to observe any of the above Executive Summary Guidelines will result in a 10-point penalty.

HINT:  The Executive Summary should be developed after completion of the marketing plan.

B. TEAM NAMA (optional, chapter’s choice to participate)

1. TEAM NAMA offers your chapter an additional opportunity for a professional review of the Executive Summary prior to the submission deadline.  Chapters should submit information electronically for TEAM NAMA.  Please e-mail BOTH a Microsoft Word document (not locked) as well as an Adobe PDF document to allow any reviewer to have access.  You should e-mail your information no later than noon CST, January 29, 2010, to:  Debbie Brummel at debbieb@nama.org.  You will receive confirmation of receipt within 24 hours.  If you do not receive confirmation, it is your responsibility to contact Debbie (see contact information on page 16).  In your e-mail submission, please include a contact name, mailing address (NO P.O. Boxes) and phone number where you can be reached if questions occur.  This address will be the one used to return your review in instances where e-mail return is not practical.

2. In order to set up an adequate number of reviewers for TEAM NAMA, we ask teams to indicate preliminary intention to participate.  Advisors will receive an e-mail in mid-November asking for intention to participate. This is certainly non-binding, but will enable the committee to recruit enough reviewers ahead of time.

Please allow two to three weeks for review by two NAMA members and for return to your chapter.

C. Live Presentation  (see room layouts following this section)
All teams in the final round must use a handheld microphone to aid the taping of the finals
competition.

1. The live presentation of your marketing plan must be delivered in no more than 20 minutes.  You will lose 5 points at 30 seconds over and for each 15 seconds thereafter.  You will be cut off at 22 minutes.  The time begins when presenters arrive at the front of the room, face the judges and the first presenter begins speaking.

2. Your team consists of as many members of your student chapter as you wish.  They must be registered student NAMA members and full-time students in good standing with the university or college.  Your advisor may assist the presentation in a "behind the scenes" non-speaking capacity only (i.e., running the slide projector).  Graduate students may assist in the development of your plan, but are not allowed to serve as presenters.

3. If you use handouts in your presentation, make sure you have enough copies for at least 3 judges in preliminaries, 3 in the semi-finals round and 5 in the finals.  Copies for the audience are not permitted.

4. Design and focus your presentation as if you were addressing the top management of your firm (president, board of directors, chief financial officer, division manager, etc.), convincing them to adopt your plan.  However, you should assume these people have a limited knowledge of your product and market.

Suggestion:  Present your live performance in a practice session to members of your sponsoring professional NAMA Chapter -- get their suggestions and helpful hints!

5. Your presentation may include visual aids as well as audio aids.  Scoring will be based on how effective aids are used, not on how elaborate they are.

6. You must provide, set up, take down and protect any audio/visual equipment used in your presentation (no equipment other than that noted is provided).  Further, each team will be allowed only 5 minutes to set up before its 20 minute allowance begins and 2 minutes to reset the equipment as they found it.

7. Ad/promo materials and/or literature need not be developed beyond the initial "sketch" or "storybook" stage.  Taking ad/promotional material to the final stage of production is expensive and unnecessary.

8. The judges will ask questions to clarify points in your presentation when you finish.  The question period will last no longer than 5 minutes during the preliminary rounds, 7 minutes during the semi-final rounds and 10 minutes during the final rounds. Your answers and handling of questions could directly affect your score in the written and live presentation.  Be prepared!

Immediately following all presentations, the judges are allowed a two-minute period to prepare questions.

9. You must remove all props, samples and exhibits that may have been used in your presentation or shared with the judges at the conclusion of your presentation (this does not include any written handouts or documents).

10. An emergency equipment failure time-out of five minutes is allowed one time during the 20-minute presentation.

11. NOTE: Judges' decisions are FINAL.

 IV. COMPETITION ARRANGEMENTS

The student orientation for the competition will be held on Tuesday evening, April 20, 2010, at 5 p.m. Teams may sign up for practice rooms that are available from Noon - 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.  Each team is allowed one 30-minute slot and should be considerate of other schools’ practice times.

Preliminary competition begins on Wednesday morning, April 21, 2010.  Each team competes in one of six heats.  The previous year’s semi-finalists are randomly seeded into each of the six preliminary heats.  All other teams will be assigned by random selection.  The top two teams will be selected from each heat and advance to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals take place on Wednesday afternoon, April 21, 2010, from 12:30 - 3:00 p.m. There will be 3 groups of semi-finalists.  Each group will consist of 4 teams.  Semi-final heats will be assigned randomly.  Two teams from each group of semi-finalists will advance to finals.  Preliminary critiques will be held from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21.

The finals will be Thursday afternoon, April 22, 2010.  The top 6 semi-final teams will compete for first through sixth positions.  Finals will be presented to a new panel of 5 judges who have judged the competition in past years and the results will be announced at the student awards ceremony that evening.  Practice times will be assigned to the six competing teams for the morning of April 22.  THE ROOM WILL BE KEPT LOCKED WHEN IT IS NOT IN USE FOR THESE PRACTICES.

As a way to reward the students for their hard work, the winning team will be recognized during the closing general session, Friday, April 23.  An announcement will be made to the professionals to honor the winning team.

V. MARKETING PLAN CRITERIA AND JUDGING FORMAT

A. Judges are carefully selected from the agri-marketing profession with an attempt made to ensure that each of the following areas of expertise is represented on each judging panel:

1.        marketing/communication agency
2.        marketing
3.        communications management

B. Points are assigned from the executive summary and your live presentation in the first round and the finals round.  Semi-finals are scored on live presentation only.  Judges’ comments, whether written or oral, are simply general suggestions that might be pertinent to your plan.

C. The judging criteria and point system beginning below are used.

D. Judges’ decisions are final.

NAMA STUDENT COMPETITION
PRELIMINARY AND SEMI-FINAL ROUND ROOM CHECK LIST

Room Layout

AV check list:

Extension cord
Power strip
(Any additional AV is provided by each individual team)

Judges’ table check list:

Judging worksheets
Pencils
Water/glasses
Calculator

Room monitor check list:

Stop watch

NAMA STUDENT COMPETITION
FINAL ROUND ROOM CHECK LIST

Room Layout

AV check list:

Extension cord
Power strip
Hand held microphones (2)
* Microphones for judging tables (4)
Audio feed for computer
(Any additional AV is provided by each individual team)

Judges’ table check list:

Judging worksheets
Pencils
Water/glasses
Calculator

Room monitor check list:

Stop watch

MARKETING PLAN
	Written	Live
1. MARKET ANALYSIS - market size, potential, trends - customer profile, market segments, need - competitive analysis (positioning, pricing, market share, strengths and weaknesses) - other key factors impacting the market (regulatory, political, economic, etc.)	25	20
2. BUSINESS PROPOSITION - key planning assumptions - important facts and information drawn from market analysis that confirm the existence of a marketing opportunity (should be no more than 3-5) - objectives/goals - strategy statement - identification of opportunity within specific market segments that achieve your objectives	40	30
3. ACTION PLAN (tactics for executing 4 P's) - product positioning - price - place - promotion	25	35
4. FINANCIAL EVALUATION (must include for years 1, 2 & 3) - gross sales dollar (GSD = Units x Selling Price) - net sales (NS = Gross Sales - Discounts & Returns) - gross margin (GM = Net Sales - Cost of Goods Sold) - net profit (before taxes) (NP = Gross Margin - Marketing & Development Costs) - plus any other information that can enhance your financial position or product/service profitability	35	25
5. MONITORING & MEASUREMENT - how will you know whether you met your sales, communications, market penetration and profit objectives - contingency plan	25	25
6. WRITTEN PRESENTATION (Executive Summary of plan) - organization (flow, clarity, to the point) - free of grammatical and typographical errors - professional appeal - within guidelines (i.e., deadlines, number of pages, etc.)	50
7. LIVE PRESENTATION - organization (flow, clarity, to the point) - professionalism - style - enthusiasm - salesmanship - effectiveness of visuals - within guidelines		50
8. QUESTION/ANSWER - knowledge of product information - preparedness to answer questions		15
TOTAL POINTS	200	200

 

NOTE: No points will be awarded for completing the audience profile form, however you may wish to provide this information to help the judges more clearly define their “role” in the competition.

These are the 2009 point allocations.  The point allocations for 2010 may be modified slightly.  If so, student advisors and student chapter presidents will be advised by November 1, 2009.