The End is Only the Beginning

All good things must come to an end. 

John Deere Tractor

Big Names, Small Beginnings blog has been a fun way to look at section within the agriculture/construction business.  As this is blog post #10, it will be the last one of this series.  With this blog, the intentions were to share information about the large machinery industry and the main competitor's company history.

Case equipment working in the fields

To recap, the blog covered backgrounds for John Deere, New Holland, Doosan Bobcat Company, Kubota, and Case IH.  There were also sprinklings of other posts centered on crisis communication and communication campaigns.  After having reviewed each one over the course of these posts, the reader will be able to understand how each company started as well as learning about other topics related to machinery.  The links provided with each blog post were available for the reader to reserach on their own other sites to learn more about the blog post topic.

Bobcat Billboard

When driving, look out the window to see if you can spot any advertisements on the billboards, dealerships, or even machinery in the yards of field that resemble any of the companies I have researched.  You will be surprised how often these machines will seen and how many of them there are.  If you can't read the name at least you can see the color of the brand!

As this blog comes to an end, the research doesn't have to.  Below are links to other agriculture blogs or websites to start from.  Learning about new topics is always a good thing.

Read blogs about farming with an article on the Top 50 Farm Blogs.
Look into this website dedicated to agriculture news called the Ag Web.
Continue learning about machinery with the blog The Latest in Agriculture Machinery.

Remember, big names will always have small beginnings.  With hard work, trial and error, as well as patience, there can be a big outcome in the end.

References

Ag Web. (2016) Website.  Retrieved from http://www.agweb.com/blogs/
Bobcat Billboard (n.d.) Retrieved from http://thinktankads.com/services/outdoor/billboards
Case Equipment (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.caseih.com/northamerica/en-us
John Deere Tractor (n.d.) Retrieved from farmingweek.com
Patz. (2016) The Latest in Agriculture Machinery. Retrieved from http://patzcorp.com/news/blog/
Seametriacs Blog (2015) Top 50 Farm Blogs.  Retrieved from http://www.seametrics.com/blog/top-farm-blogs/ 

Bobcat Advantage

Advertisements are everywhere and it is incredibly hard to avoid them.  But what if you were actually seeking them out to learn more about a product?  This week's blog post is centered on a campaign a business has implemented to educate their audience about a topic and provide answers.  Bobcat Company is a well-known brand and image in the compact equipment world, but as a consumer, how do you know that a Bobcat skid-steer loader is better than the competitor brands?  Bobcat Company released a campaign series dedicated to showing their current and potential consumers the "advantage" Bobcat has over the other machines in the industry.

Take this video for example.  Perry Rust, the main speaker in the series, walks through the parts of the machine on both the Bobcat brand and the competitor brand equally.  He literally shows the differences between the machines in a way the viewer can understand and take as credible information.

Click the video to watch.

After a small preview, below is an example of one of their videos going over positives and negatives of Bobcat's undercarriage system (the tracks).  Pay attention to the non-verbal communication, the rock music in the back ground, and the tone of voice.  I get a kick out of it, it's entertaining and factual.

What did you think?  Bobcat Company is giving an insight to their viewers about their products to help their customers in the long run get their jobs more efficiently with less hassle by using Bobcat equipment.  There will always be reviews about products from consumers who have used them, but when a large name company makes their own video series to go over and review their products against other competitors, they are wanting the public to genuinely understand the components of the machines each company has to offer to help them make their best purchase.

Want to compare brands and see for yourself?  Become an expert with Perry Rust and learn about each of the competitor brands in the industry for excavators. 

There are plenty of resources to go around, look into the Bobcat Advantage YouTube channel operated by Bobcat.  They list videos of their equipment and create entertaining obstacle courses for the machines to interact with.

Resources

Bobcat Company. (2016). Bobcat Advantage. Retrieved from http://www.bobcat.com/compare-brands/advantage 

Bobcat Company. (2014) Bobcat advantage: Compact Track Loaders. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE4BF805D99093275

Bobcat Company. (2015) Compact track loader Bobcat Advantage. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHSOLU-svRM

Bobcat Company. (2012) Roller suspension comparison: Bobcat Advantage for compact track loaders. Retrieved  from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=607drYgr6WQ&index=3&list=PLE4BF805D99093275 

 Bobcat Logo. (n.d.) Retrieved from logonoid.com

Crisis Comm: John Deere Lays off Hundreds

Being laid off is nothing anyone wants to experience.  Factory workers at the Illinois John Deere facility are facing just that as 125 employees have been laid off this March.


According to the article UAW sanctions mass layoffs by farm equipment giant John Deere written by George Gallanis, there has been previous layoffs, "this is the third round of layoffs since last November.  A total of 445 workers have lost their jobs so far."

Freeze.

There are two points of view when looking at this article.  One side is the general public and another is the public relations section of John Deere.  From John Deere's perspective, there is a crisis communication plan that needs to go into effect immediately in order to maintain the Company's image and keep the worries of employees and consumers at bay.

This is where having a crisis communication plan in place is very important.  From the text Agricultural Communication in Action, A Hands-On Approach crisis communication is often used to describe an organization facing a crisis and the need to communicate about the crisis to decision makers and the public" (Telg and Tracy, 2012, pg 266).

But what does a crisis communication plan look like?  What are the components?

From the text Agricultural Communication in Action, A Hands-On Approach there are a few main points to keep in mind when dealing with crisis communication and communicating to the audience.

1.  Figure out who the audience is to which you will be communicating to
2.  Designate a spokesperson
3.  Develop messages and then communicate the messages and facts
4.  Anticipate tough questions, think of ways to answer
5.  Control the message by sticking to the message and the facts
6.  Control the flow of information
7.   Keep track of the media calls and requests
8.   Respond to the news media quickly and fairly

What does all of this mean?  Basically, create a message that addresses the issue at hand, convey the mission of the company and ways to revolve to issue, and leave the conversation with clarity and honesty.  Be upfront, straight to the point, and honest.  Nobody likes to be lied to or only given a small portion of the story.

Jumping back to the John Deere article, if I were on the PR team and came across this article written about my company I would need to take action right away.  I would work with my team and go over the items in the numbered list above to cleverly handle the situation.

To read the article on the John Deere layoffs, follow the link here.

The main goal of crisis communication is to combat negative statements or situations that are directed towards the company in a positive manner in order to maintain a good brand image.

Want to read up on more on crisis communication?  Check out Jonathan Bernstein's 10 Steps of Crisis Communication.

Resources

Bernstein, Jonathan. (2013) 10 Steps of crisis communication.  Retrieved from http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/the-10-steps-of-crisis-communications/ 

Don't panic button (2016). Retrieved from advantageconsultingservices.org

Gallanis, George. (2016) UAW sactions mass layoffs by farm equipment giant John Deere.  Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/03/14/deer-m14.html

John Deere Tractor (2016) Retrieved from www.deere.com

Nervous reporter (2016) Retrieved from aaronallen.com

Unprepared image. (2016) Retrieved from www.bairdscmc.com

 Telg, R., & Irani, T. A. (2012). Agricultural communications in action: A hands-on approach.

Delmare, Cengage Learning: Clifton Park, NY.

Get Techy In the Fields and Off the Fields

Using websites to reach consumers to educate, advertise, and sell products is a great tool that is commonly used today.  As technology advances, so does the expectation that the producer needs to supply endless information about a product or service in a clean, easy, and productive manner.

Today, I will be looking at two company's  "Home" pages to compare them against each other.  The companies selected are: Caterpillar and CaseIH Agriculture.  The criteria that I will be looking for on each site will be: organization, if there is a consistent theme, if it is easy to navigate and understand, visually interesting, informative, and evaluating the use of space.   I will look at what I see are positives elements of the site as well as the negatives  that can be approved.

Case IH Agriculture: http://www.caseih.com/northamerica/en-us

Positives:
Snapping a screen shot of the "Home" page of Case, the first thing I saw was the huge picture banner in the middle of the page.  This lead my eyes from left to right, down, and around.  The website did a nice job of getting the viewer to look at everything on the site by being lead with details designed to catch someone's eye.  The navigation bar on the top is easy to understand and can answer my questions quickly if I were looking for a specific item.

Case IH color red is consistent throughout the page as well as the font style.  The links and tabs all have the same style boxes creating unity on the page.

The content on the Home Page shows me that they are advertising some of their latest products and that serving their customers is one of the Case's main focuses.  This is prevalent in their "What can we help you with?" section.  This is unique because I don't see this very often on the front page of a large company, let alone in the "Contact" section.

Negatives:
White space.  Having white space in an article, in this case light grey, is good to have.  The presentation of this screen has a lot of empty space surrounding the "What can we help you with?" section.  This can be good so it won't confuse the customer but from an advertising eye, I could see room for growth by utilizing this space and tightening information.

Alignment.  Consciously or not, people notice when something is out of order.  I noticed on the grey tabs towards the bottom they are not aligned all together at the same height.

Spacing between content.  Looking at the bottom section again, I can see that the spacing between the articles are uneven causing me to think one paragraph is associated with another when in reality all three are separate entities.  There could be room for improvement here to ease viewer's visual appeal of the site.

Over all, a good site to look at.  Very clean, crisp, straight to the point and easily accessible.

Caterpillar 
http://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment.html 

Positives:

Understandable.  The site (once you find what you are looking for) is easy to understand.  The machines are categorized and within each folder there is a ton of information specific to that product.  This is great because then the consumer doesn't need to go looking for information.

Organization/appearance.  Caterpillar did a great job of incorporating their colors into the site to help guild the eye through the page.  The yellow bar on the top directs the eye to the main tabs on the site, then when scrolling down the eye is dragged to the products.  This is clever because the only thing to distinguish between the content on the page is by color.

Negatives:

Navigation.  Caterpillar offers a wide variety of machines within different markets, creating a need to break content into specific sections.  To get to this page, the user needs to click on "Products" at the top, select what they want, and then they can come to a home page dedicated to their search.  This is a very clean way of organizing a large spread of equipment but for users who want to find answers fast, this method isn't the best.  A way to fix this would be to have a tab already created to take a user to the product, ex. "Mining" "Agriculture" "Forestry."

Color.  Or the lack there of.  When I see this, I think it's crisp but bland.  The main cover photo on this page gives off a tone of professionalism but the tone is very serious.  Doing business and getting the job done is serious but you want to create a relationship with the consumer too.  Creating a site that is professional can work for some consumers but can also hinder others who aren't operating at such a serious tone.  Adding color pictures or another accent color can help to brighten the tone of the site.

Overall, great way to give the consumer information in one location (once you find it).  Nothing is better than getting the information you need quick and easy.

Conclusion

Websites are great for information about a product or company, just make sure that it is easy for the consumer to understand.  Clarity, organization, color, spacing, and content are all great elements to keep in mind when creating or editing a website.

I encourage looking at other ag company sites to see how well they understand what a good website looks like and where there can be improvements.

Check out 13 Quick Tips to Improve Your Web Design Skills to read up on other people's perspectives about website design and what can be done to improve your skills.

Resources
Case IH Agriclture. (2016) Home page. Retrieved from http://www.caseih.com/northamerica/en-us
Caterpillar. (2016) Home page.  Retrieved  from http://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment.html 
Glen, Katie. (2016) Case IH Agriculture screen shot.
Glen, Katie. (2016) Caterpillar screen shot.
Whittington, Rick. (2015) 13 quick tips to improve your web design skills.  Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/web-design-tips 

How do you pick the right equipment?

Learning about products in the digital age is easy, yet over whelming.

People can find anything they need to know about a product by typing into Google, looking at images, articles, and videos.

Picture of Movie (1)

Companies use media to their advantage by providing extra tools to help sell their products and make comparisons to other competitor's equipment.  By giving their consumers visual evidence of how products look and operate, companies are able to gain more consumer loyalty by showcasing everything about their product.  Check out this article How effective are videos? to learn more about how effective videos are on a company's web page.

Who doesn't like to know all of the facts before purchasing a large investment? I know I do.  There are plenty of people who dive into research while others skim the basics.  By having detailed or basic fact videos, a wide range of consumers can be reached based on their habits for consuming information.  Has it been tested to see if videos make a difference in selling habits?  From the article, Videos sell products - even if users don't actually watch them, one group of people conducted an experient and found that people who had seen an video on a webpage or had the option to watch a video were more likely to purchase an item.  Read the case study here to learn more about video marketing.

Relating the use of videos to my blog topic on machinery companies, they use media to help them compare against other companies too.  The video below showcases Bobcat machines verses other competitor machines, allowing consumers to get an understanding of the product. Click the video below to learn more.

     

Serviceability Comparison: Bobcat Advantage for Compact Track Loaders

The main take away from this post: media can be a great tool to use when selling or comparing products.

Using media is an advantage in an extremely competetive market and it can help the company to boost sales by creating better resources for consumers to use for research. 

1. Picture of Movie.  Retrieved from www.smartrenewalenergy.com 

2. Bobcat Company. (2011) Serviceability comparison: Bobcat Advantage for compact track loaders. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6m72pffkBQ .

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Kubota Has a Relationship with Bobcat Company?

Kubota Logo (1)

Competetor machinery companies and products never end!  In is field, there are many competetors, but also allies.  Take Kubota and Bobcat Company for instance.  In the previous blog, Bobcat Company's brief history was summarized and their products described.  But, did you know in older model Bobcat machines and select newer models are made with a Kubota engine?  How can this be?  Review the history below. 

For Earth, For Life

Kubota is is known for their compact equipment

and their wide range of machinery.  They offer

tractors, lawn mowers, walk-behind mowers,

 utility vehicles, construction equipment, hay

 tools, and even spreaders.  

In most situations, Kubota can help.

This short 3 minute video below gives a very 

fast, brief overview of the Kubota history and 

what their company is doing today. Take a look

 at Kubota U.S. 40 Year History Video (2)!

With the brief history of Kubota and Bobcat firmly in your mind, it is easier to see that these two companies have similar products, consumers, and even engines.  The difference between the companies is their engine.  Kubota's engines are well known by their users and competitor companies for excellent performance.  After an extensive search, it is unclear when the Kubota engine was introduced to Bobcat company but all models of Bobcat equipment, until recently, have had the Kubota engine.

Bobcat Skid-Steer Loader (3)

The main concern in the media for both companies is a breaking news.  Bobcat Company will no longer be using Kubota engines in their newer models as they have partnered with their parent company Doosan to reduce emissions and have Tier-4 compliant machines.  Tier-4 is a standard for equipment to be as energy efficient and green as possible under new stipulations.

Below is a screen shot of a statement found on the Bobcat Company website about their new transition from Kubota.

Bobcat Screen shot of Kubota relationship statement (4)

According to an article from The Construction Index online, Bobcat to switch from Kubota to own-brand engines (2014), Kubota will not be supplying Bobcat Company with engines for later models of machinery but will still continue to produce engines and maintain warranties on select machines.

Kubota Engine (6)

"Bobcat will continue to use Kubota engines in selected machines in the range and will provide parts and honour warranties on machines previously sold with Kubota engines.  As Kubota engines represent the largest population of engines in Bobcat machines, the Bobcat dealer network has strong competence in servicing these engines and will continue to service Kubota engines in selected Bobcat products"(5).

To read and learn more about the engine switch from Kubota to Doosan, check out the article here.

Never seen a Kubota engine before?  That picture above and on their Kubota Engine website can walk you through different styles and models they have available.  Check out Kubota's roaring engines.

References 

1.  Kubota Logo.  Retrieved from logosandbrands.directory
2.  Kubota Tractor. (2012)  Kubota U.S. 40 Year History Video.  Retrieved from
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIqB4ixttE
3.  Bobcat Skid-Steer Loader.  Retrieved from bobcat.com
4.  Bobcat Screen shot of Kubota relationship statement.  Retrieved from  http://www.bobcat.eu/bobcat/innovation-technology/bobcat-engine/bobcat-engine-faq.page? 
5.  The Construction Index (2014).  Bobcat to switch from Kubota to own-brand engines.  Retrieved from http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/bobcat-to-switch-from-kubota-to-own-brand-engines  

6. Kubota Engine. Retrieved from http://www.kubotaengine.com/

We Know of Bobcat, Who is Doosan?

Bobcat: One Tough Animal™

Bobcat Company has well-known machinery that can be seen used all over the world.  Did you know that headquarters for Bobcat is located in West Fargo, North Dakota?  It seems like an odd place to have a headquarters for a large business, but it is near the town where their company first started.  Staying close to their home roots sure has paid off.  Read on to get an over view of the beginnings of Bobcat Company.

According to Bobcat.com retrieved on the 28th of February under their History tab, in 1929, Edward Gideon (E.G.) Melroe from Gwinner, North Dakota invented the windrow pickup on his small farm.  He and his sons opened up a manufacturing plant in Gwinner, North Dakota and mass produced and invented new farm machinery.

After Melroe passed away in 1955, his son Cliff Melroe and his brothers took over the business.  But, what does this history have to do with Bobcat Company? The invention of the three-wheeled loader in 1957 is what started it all.  Keller Brothers, Louis and Cyril, were asked to create a machine that can maneuver and scrape out manure from the second floor of a turkey barn.  The machine created was light, could work in tight spaces, and be used for multiple purposes.  Once the Kellers were introduced to the Melroes, the inventions and business took off at a sprint (Retrieved from https://www.bobcat.com/company-info/history/corporate).

Bobcat Skid-Steer Loader

People mistakenly call a skid-steer loader "a Bobcat" because the brand name is so largely known.  Once the machine has been called "a Bobcat" it is hard to break the habit to start calling the equipment by the correct names.

Flash forward to 2007, Bobcat Company became a component of Doosan Infracore of South Korea. According to Doosan.com, Doosan owns and operates desalination plants, engine manufacturing, industrial machine tools and forklifts.  The four major components of Doosan include: Bobcat Company, Doosan Heavy Equipment, Doosan Portable Power, and Geith (Retived from http://www.doosan.com/en/main.do).

To break it down, Doosan is the parent company of Bobcat and are considered partners.

Visit About Bobcat Company to read more on the leading company in design, manufacturing, and marketing of compact equipment for construction.  Need more of a time line of the company history?  Check out this link to learn more.

Watch a commercial from YouTube that aired in 1966 to demonstrate Bobcat Skid-Steer maneuverability (Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF4X08cEaOU). 

The name is well known, the products are everywhere and it has become an icon in the industry.  Take a look at the equipment Bobcat Company has to offer on their website.

Want to learn more about Doosan?  Read up on their impact to the equipment industry here.