What is the National average amount that Feed & Ranch Stores spend
yearly on advertising.  This is a family owned business with 2 clerks,
2 labor/loading people.  In a small town in Texas of about 250,000. 
How much advertising per year in dollars and cents would be about
average?  Store handles, feed, horse and cattle supplies, medicine,
fence supplies, chickens/turkeys in season, some plants, fertilizer,
dog/cat food, hay for horses and cattle.  This will be the second time
I have tried to post this question without any results, am hoping this
time it will work.

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 29 Apr 2003 22:48 PDT

Hi PPW ~

Googles Answers Researchers weren't and aren't ignoring your question.
The lack of any answer may simply be that there aren't any 'average'
amount figures for feed & ranch, feed & gain stores' advertising - I
certainly haven't been able to find any.

I live in an area where we have more than a dozen feed and ranch
supply stores within a reasonable distance from those who would use
them on a regular basis. I have done business with most of them myself
at one time or another within the last few years. A few phone calls
revealed that none of them are aware of a national "average" for
advertising. Their own amounts vary, and they all said they rely
heavily on help in the form of co-op advertising from their suppliers.

By the nature of your business, you have a pretty narrowly defined
market, and the way you have asked the question only allows for those
figures and nothing else.

We are glad you gave Google Answers a try. Don't think no one has
tried to find an answer for you, as I am sure others have, too. The
'answer' in this case may be that those figures just aren't available
for us to give you.

If you have a different question or need help with your own situation,
give us a try, and I bet you'll get a good answer from any of the
Google Answers Researchers.

Serenata

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Clarification of Question by ppw-ga on 05 May 2003 19:39 PDT

Serenata:

Thank you so much for attempting to get some information for me, and I
am sure you would give me a good answer -- if I knew how to give you a
good question.

Let me try and clarify my question and maybe you can answer it enough
to where I can make a decision.  I wonder if any of those people you
spoke to would give you a yearly average of what they spend on
advertising.  I am just trying to come up with some kind of number to
see if we are spending too much on advertising directly out of our
pocket.  I need some kind of guidelines as to how much advertising a
store like ours would do without getting out of control in a town the
size of ours. When you said the people you spoke with rely heavily on
help in the form of co-op advertising from their suppliers, I
understood that to mean they were assisted by the companies who supply
them with their store items on for advertising?  I assume that means
the companies mention where to obtain their items in the area or maybe
web page advertising. Maybe the larger company puts ads in the paper
and says where in town to buy the product? In other words they rely
heavily on advertising assistance from their suppliers.  Is that
correct?  If any of the stores around you would mention any ballpark
numbers on a yearly basis to you that would give me a gauge to assist
me in my decision of how much advertising we should be doing on a
yearly basis directly out of our pocket.

I hope this helps clarify my question for you, and I apologize for not
being able to give you a good question.  It is frustrating to have a
question and not be able to find any answers.

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 05 May 2003 20:28 PDT

Aha!

Thanks, PPW ... now we're starting to get somewhere that I *can* get
some quantifiable figure for you, that's much better.

I live in Tucson, Arizona, with a metropolitan population of +/-
750,000. We're surrounded on all sides by smaller agricultural
communities as well, so that is the area from which I have to draw.
I'll go ahead and check with those feed & grain store proprietors I
know well enough to get some figures for you (and any words of wisdom
they may have, too).

As for coop advertising. There are several types of coop advertising,
and I would hazard a guess that almost all the suppliers you carry
have some sort of a coop advertising plan.

Most of the coop advertising dollars here goes to help the feed &
grain store's advertising bill. That is, based on the amount of
product they buy from the manufacturer (as an example, let's say
"Purina" - it's the first name I could think of off the top of my
head). But if you run an ad featuring purina product, send proof of
the ad and the bill, Purina will reimburse you an amount for the cost
of advertising.

There shouldn't BE any charge for any supplier including as a source
in their own advertising. It helps THEM if they can show a
retailer/dealer in a location ... so that is not considered coop
advertising. If your local sales rep for any product you're carrying
isn't talking to you about coop dollars, it's time to pin him to the
wall to ask, because coop advertising is a very common practice.

It is easier for Purina to advertise through ABC Feed & Supply there
in Hometown USA than it is to run the big national ads. The people
KNOW ABC Feed & Supply, and they trust the owners, they're part of the
town. See?

I should imagine that 90 percent or more of your suppliers have some
form of coop advertising structure and it never hurts to ask, anyway.

Hope that helped on the coop advertising part.

Let me see what I can find out from my friends in the business ...
maybe that will give you some place to start, anyway.

Yours,
Serenata

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Clarification of Question by ppw-ga on 10 May 2003 12:50 PDT

Serenata:

Thank you so much for explaining coop advertising, it makes sense.

I will look forward to what kind of numbers you can come up with from
the people that you know to call.

I expect that will be about all we can do with my question, since like
you said there is no national average on feed store advertising.

I appreciate your time and assistance and look forward to whatever
numbers you are able to come up with.

Thanks, Patricia

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 14 May 2003 00:29 PDT

Boy Patricia ...

I haven't been ignoring you or this question, I am honestly having a
great deal of difficulty pinning down dollar figures for you.

I didn't merely call the feed and ranch stores, I went in and talked
with those I knew well enough to discuss the matter. This amounted to
six stores in our area. Even then, only two owners would actually give
me dollar figures, which were greatly supplemented by coop advertising
dollars. I found it interesting that all had a close 'percentage'
figure - either added to last year's figure (sort of a cost of living
increase) or as a percentage of their fixed expenses.

Tucson is a metropolitan community surrounded on all sides by
agricultural and ranch land. These surrounding agricultural areas grow
crops which include acres of pecan groves, cotton, soy, alfalfa, and a
lot of smaller vegetable, fruit, etc., farms.

They all use and order from the surrounding stores I was talking
about, and while competition is fierce, there seems to be enough
business to go around.

Yet none are really willing to openly discuss the dollar figure, or
even give me a semi-breakdown of what goes to feed, seed, fertilizers,
tack, etc. I asked each about trade publications or something where I
could get those figures, and none seemed aware of any national figures
for advertising dollars.

Therefore, I really can't come up with a suitable answer for you - try
as I might. The 'fixed' expense range is roughly 10-12% of their
operating budget; and even then not evenly distributed, but it is
seasonal to some extent (corresponds with planting/harvesting
seasons).

They all know their market, however, and not all find any benefit of
being on the Internet.

Sorry, Patricia - I really did give it my best shot, because I was
curious about something I have taken for granted for so many years.
The stores are just 'there', and I've never given them much thought
til I came across your question. And even after trying, I don't have a
much better understanding of how they budget for their businesses (as
opposed to other retail operations, for instance).

Perhaps another researcher can come up with dollar amounts or some
sort of figures which may be useful, I just wasn't able to get a
handle on the information you are seeking.

Regards,
Serenata