Marketing Strategies for the strongPrimary Sectorstrong An Empirical.pdf

European Research Studies, Volume XV, Issue (2), 2012 Marketing Strategies for the Primary Sector: An Empirical Study 1 2 3 4 L. Tsourgiannis , M. Warren , A. Karasavvoglou , J. Eddison Abstract: This study aims to profile the marketing strategies that sheep farmers follow in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace (EMTh) in Greece and the County of Cornwall in U.K. based upon their distribution channel selection, farm and personal characteristics. A survey conducted to 343 and 240 sheep farmers in EMTh and Cornwall respectively. Farmers in EMTh follow three marketing strategies: (i) cost focus, (ii) production orientation and (iii) return focus strategy, while Cornish farmers adopt the: (i) production Orientation and (ii) differentiation strategy. There are many differences regarding their marketing orientation, distribution outlet selection, farm and farmer characteristics. Key Words: Livestock Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Livestock Marketing Channels, Strategic Typology, Sheep Farmers JEL Classification: C12, M11, M31 1 Dr. Lambros Tsourgiannis is Head of the Procurement Department of Regional District of Xanthi/ Region of East Macedonia and Thrace and Research Fellow in the Department of Accountancy, School of Business and Economy, Technical Education Institute of Kavala , Greece, e-mail:tgiannis@otenet.gr 2 Mr. Martyn Warren is Director of the Rural Features Unit, School of Geography, University of Plymouth, U.K. 3 Prof. A