As Chile continues to grow its forest products industries, and specifically the value-added sector, the need for forest products marketing education and training will increase. Increasingly, Chilean firms are seeking to become involved in world markets and to increase the quality of their products to meet the demands of domestic and foreign market segments. Combined with the predicted dramatic increase in the volume of plantation-grown timber that will be harvested in the near future, these trends suggest an increasing and, in some sectors, urgent need for additional forest product marketing information and skills. In fact, every person interviewed as part of this work stated that more forest product education is needed in Chile.
With the growth of the secondary industry in Chile, there appears to be an effort among medium to large firms to place more emphasis on marketing. A member of the Virginia Tech Faculty of Wood Science and Forest Products visited the University of Talca in summer 1999 to speak on trends in the furniture industry of the United States of America. This was a one-day seminar for small- to medium-size companies interested in becoming more market-oriented. Attendance at the seminar supported the need for and interest in forest products marketing education.
Personal interviews also suggested that there is an increased awareness of the importance of current market information for making better decisions in the international market place. As the results of personal interviews began to converge, it became apparent early that there was a need for forest products marketing education that was not currently satisfied. The need is immediate for short courses and continuing education opportunities. A longer-term need exists for baccalaureate and graduate level education programmes.
The above is not intended to suggest that good programmes are not currently provided. Rather the need outstrips the supply of educational opportunities and new areas of training are becoming important. Traditional MBA and forest engineering programmes have and continue to serve a need. However, additional programmes may be needed if Chile is to be successful in adding value to products and marketing them worldwide.
In presenting recommendations for education programmes, it is important to recognize both the scope of forest product marketing and the varying needs of specific segments. Figure 4 provides a schematic (and not exhaustive) representation of the scope of forest products marketing. The field includes the marketing of both wood and non-wood products and is principally involved in primary product marketing activities. For example, on the wood resources side, forest products marketing is concerned with the marketing of logs and pulpwood to primary processors. Also, it is involved with the marketing of primary products to industrial users and final consumers. However, once the products become highly manufactured (e.g. furniture) the fact that they are wood becomes incidental in their marketing. The marketing of these products is within the scope of general marketing.
Figure 4. Simplified Forest Products Distribution System and
the Scope of Forest Products Marketing
Recommendations concerning forest product marketing also must recognise the varying needs of individuals at different levels of the company, different sizes and types of forest products firms, and primary versus continuing education.
Considering the needs described above, three types of forest products marketing education programmes are recommended: Continuing education in the form of short courses, intermediate degree programmes, and university level programmes.
Short courses provide updates on topics of immediate relevance. They are not a substitute for a background in forest products marketing. Rather, they can augment the knowledge of those people already working in the field. Accordingly, the target audience for such courses would be forest products company owners and marketing professionals.
Short courses in the industry should be developed around assessing markets, strategic market planning, developing new products, market research, competitive positioning, developing marketing plans and international markets. In other words, they should support the desire to diversify into foreign markets by being oriented outward. Since a large portion of Chile's wood products is exported, there is a strong need for education in all aspects of international marketing.
A basic schedule for such a short course for the industrial target audience should include the following:
· Forest products overview - types of products,
new products, competitive products within the market, and how they are currently
marketed;
· The forest products industry - different market segments
(including non-wood forest products), how they relate and compete, and trends
within each segment;
· Marketing and the four Ps as they relate to the
forest products industry (depending on audience);
· Marketing strategy
- marketing plans, market research, niche marketing and competitive
analysis;
· International markets - what countries, market
intelligence, how to enter new markets and basic international trade
information;
· Personal selling as it applies to the industry
(depending on audience); and
· e-commerce - how to develop and use the Internet for maximum marketing efficiency and promotion/sales of forest products.
The duration should be from one to five days, depending on the subject area and the location. Longer courses (i.e. five days) might offer a certificate of completion.
Sponsorship could be by industry organization, government agency and university. Courses should be developed in collaboration with a major university with an existing programme in wood science/forest products, a business school, Fundación Chile and INFOR. These last two organizations are currently involved in research and training in forest products and have an established infrastructure.
The most immediate need for short courses appears to be in the solid wood and non-wood segments of the industry. The location of such courses is critical if they are to reach small- and medium-sized firms in the solid wood sector. Specifically, they must be offered in multiple rural locations as the time and cost of travel to large cites for such courses can be prohibitive for some firms. Also, non-wood courses must be offered in rural areas where collectors and small processors are likely to be found. At this time electronic media of course delivery are not recommended and are unlikely to be successful in educating the target audience in forest products marketing.
Regarding non-wood educational needs: it is recommended that, initially, discussions of marketing non-wood products be included in courses aimed primarily at people involved in solid wood product production. This will serve to raise awareness of the potential for such products. At present, awareness is quite low. Later, courses devoted primarily to non-wood products should be developed for people involved in both solid wood and non-wood products. Courses aimed at the non-wood sector should place extra emphasis on market description and pricing. The challenges in delivering these courses will be in identifying the non-wood sector audience and the "missionary marketing" necessary with the traditional solid wood sector.
The organizations that were interviewed have a number of experts in the forest products field. This would indicate that there are individuals available to teach those segments of a short course. However, there appears to be a shortage of instructors for the marketing segment of the courses. Initially, instructors may have to be brought in to teach until the university programmes are developed to produce trainers for the industry.
The second recommended method of educational delivery is an intermediate length continuing education programme. The target audience for this type of programme would be people in industry who have little or no marketing education but find themselves in need of these skills. Forest engineers and small business owners are examples of people who may be in this situation. Again, people in the non-wood and solid wood segments should be the primary target audience. Intermediate courses would be from three to six weeks in duration and would serve people who cannot attend traditional undergraduate or graduate education. A certificate of completion from a recognised organization would be needed. One model for this type of programme is the Institute of Wood Science Certificate offered in the United Kingdom.
Sponsorship would be by industry association, university or government agency, although collaboration among two or more would be most beneficial.
The topics to be covered in an intermediate continuing education programme of this type should mirror those of the short course, only with more emphasis on basic marketing and of much greater depth.
The third recommendation is to develop a graduate programme at an existing wood science/forest products university that would train individuals who could offer continuing education classes and individuals to enter upper level marketing positions in the forest products industry. The suggested content of such a curriculum is described in a previous section of this document and in Table 8. To accomplish this, there is a need for a training faculty in forest products marketing. There are a number of universities in North America and Europe that could provide the training at this level for qualified Chilean graduate students.
There is a need to increase the forest products marketing content in undergraduate curricula. This would provide trained professionals at entry-level positions for the industry.
Besides training potential faculty members, an intermediate term goal would be to produce a Spanish language textbook on the subject of forest products marketing. In addition to Chile, there are a number of other Latin American countries that would benefit from a Spanish textbook.