Agroindustrial project analysi

50 AGROINDUSTRIAL PROJECT ANALYSISmust often design promotion for both the purchaser and the endconsumer.Promotion directed toward the end user is a critical componentin a "pull" strategy to stimulate consumer demand so that endusers will demand that retailers offer the product, thereby generatinga backward demand and pulling the product from the producerthrough the distributors to the consumers. Promotion can also bedirected at wholesale and retail distributors in a "push" strategyby which the firm attempts to convince distributors of the product'sadvantages so that they will move the product through to the consumer.Promotional strategies should be designed to avoid adverselyaffecting low-income groups. Some researchers have asserted thatadvertising directed toward marginal consumers creates a negativeincentive to save and thus diverts scarce resources from needed productiveinvestments to consumption goods." 0 The influence of afirm's promotion on a country's economic development depends onfactors such as those suggested by Nielsen: wealth of audiences,degree of commercial differentiation in products, extent of primaryversus secondary demand, and luxury nature of the goods. 1 "Promotion of food products should also be designed to avoidadverse nutritional consequences. The analyst should assess theeffect of increased product consumption on the nutritional wellbeingof the low-income groups. If the product can displace others,the analyst should estimate the relative costs to consumers incaloric or protein content if nutritional intake might be decreased.Infant formulas, which have replaced breastfeeding in some developingcountries (even though breast milk is cheaper, of superiornutritional value, and more sanitary), exemplify the adverse nutritionaleffects a new product can have. 12 Media advertising andother sales techniques were among the factors that led manylow-income women-through appeals to convenience and status10. See the second section of the bibliography for selected readings on thisissue.11. Richard P. Nielsen, "Marketing and Development in l DC'S," ColumbiaJournal of World Business, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter 1974), pp. 46-49.12. Alan Berg, The Nutrition Factor (Washington, D.C.: The BrookingsInstitution, 1973), pp. 89-106. The author estimates that the lost economicvalue of reduced breastfeeding in developing countries is in the range ofhundreds of millions of dollars.