Marketing Plan prepares FFA members for future

■ Editor’s note: This is the second article pertaining to Imperial FFA’s first place teams at state competition two weeks ago.

    The FFA organization’s purpose is to improve agriculture, build character and foster leadership, citizenship and service, all with an eye on the future.
    Imperial FFA Ag Marketing Plan Coach Jeremy
Vlasin says he gets more feedback about how the plan affects students’ lives than any other competition in FFA.
    “Former students tell me how it continues to play a role in how it helps them career-wise, the benefits and skills it teaches,” he said.
    Vlasin said he most enjoys how the plan transfers to real life.
    Basically, the Ag Marketing Plan produces advertising for an agricultural business.
    “It’s marketing geared toward a section of agriculture, the ability to create a mechanism to get potential consumers interested in a product,” he explained.
    At the beginning of the competitive process, students pick a local agricultural business as their project. It can’t be one that has been used in FFA competition in the past.
    “They have to find a way to add value to it,” Vlasin explained, by adding another aspect to the business. “It’s painful, one of the hardest parts of the Plan.”
    For instance, in the recent first place win at State FFA, students selected Wineglass Ranch and added a hypothetical plan to sell grass-fed beef boxes.
    A few years ago, students selected Cox’s Pond Pumpkin Patch as a project. They suggested that excess pumpkins be turned into ready-to-bake pumpkin pie mix.
    Once in awhile, a business uses the Ag Marketing Plan blueprint, possibly not verbatim, Vlasin said. He pointed to a plan that included expanded greenhouses for Hartman Hydroponic Tomatoes, as well as sales in area grocery stores.
    “We look for realistic ideas that we think would work,” Vlasin noted.
    “If the kids are going into careers like marketing, this is what  marketers do. They brainstorm. It forces them to think critically.”
    “We then play devil’s advocate” to check the plan. Vlasin said the worst thing that can happen during the creation of a plan is to get halfway through it and then realize that it won’t work.
    The students need to research industry trends, determine if there’s a market in that area, create a budget, determine the profit, and promote the service.
    That all leads up to the actual competition. The Ag Marketing Plan team must create an eight-page written plan, present it in 15 minutes and prove an ability to answer questions from judges.
    One aspect of the Ag Marketing Plan that the public might not know about, Vlasin said, is that students use his ag marketing class at Chase County Schools to begin the development of the FFA plan.
    He said the FFA projects are “inter-curricular” opportunities, not “extra-curricular” activities.    
    Vlasin has been coaching Ag Marketing Plan for 13 years in Imperial. He’s coached six state winning teams in seven years.
    This year’s first place team consisted of senior Morayah Cupp and juniors Kambree Meeske and Nickolas Rau.