It was a rare sight to see this tractor return to the factory where it had been built nearly four decades earlier. But that was exactly what I saw while standing inside the R&D facility at Versatile’s Winnipeg tractor assembly plant earlier this winter. The one-off prototype model 1080 tractor, which became affectionately known as “Big Roy” had rolled out the plant doors in 1977, but now was back for a complete restoration.
As Country Guide web editor Greg Berg and I looked over the tractor, we were surprised to find that one of the mechanics working on it had actually helped build it 39 years ago. Hearing first-hand how some components had to be hand-fabricated while others were picked off the assembly line, and how everything was blended together to create this unique, eight-wheel drive tractor was a kind of adventure in tractor archaeology.
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Country Guide and our sister publication Grainews were given exclusive access to the plant for the duration of the restoration to document the process so we can show readers how it evolved. But why the tractor was there and what the brand has in mind for it are equally interesting.
In a sense, the tractor will return to doing the only thing it really ever did: generate attention for Versatile and provide proof of its forward-looking corporate vision.
“For us this is a branding exercise,” explains Adam Reid, Versatile’s director of marketing. “We want to really tap into the guys who have a long history with Versatile and may not have thought of us in recent years.”
When the restoration is complete, Big Roy will begin making the rounds to selected shows where it will be put on display to capture the attention of farmers and get those former customers thinking about the brand again. After a VIP event at the Winnipeg factory in July, Big Roy will head out to the Ag in Motion farm show at Saskatoon for its second major public debut, 39 years after its first one.
“It gives us an excuse to get farmers’ attention, maybe a little bit more than if we were just rolling out a normal campaign,” Reid adds.
But the upcoming marketing campaign that the tractor is being prepped for will involve more than dragging out a look-at-me museum piece. It’s also an anniversary celebration of sorts, because it was 50 years ago that the brand built its first tractor at that same Winnipeg factory, easily selling out its first-year production run of about 100 machines.
Adding to the eye-catching displays at farm shows this winter, Versatile will also be showing off the Legendary Limited Edition production models it plans to offer buyers for delivery in mid-2016. Sporting paint schemes similar to the Series II models of early 1980s vintage, only a few of these tractors will be built and sold on a get-them-while-they’re-hot basis.
This latest marketing initiative is happening in an environment that has seen overall sales of Versatile’s bread-and-butter product, four-wheel drive tractors, decline 28 per cent in Canada, 39 per cent in the U.S., and about 34 per cent in Russia, a significant export market for the brand. So the question had to be asked: with so much free space on machinery assembly lines at all the major brands, is this an example of a return to the importance of marketing for manufacturers?
“I think maybe it (marketing) will be more appreciated now,” agrees Reid. “I’m not sure it ever really went away. Obviously, we’re coming out of a condition where the phone was ringing. Our dealers were getting the calls and they didn’t have to be as aggressive as they will going forward.”
The fact that 2016, with its slower sales outlook, just happens to land on the 50th anniversary of tractor production at Versatile is a golden opportunity from a marketing perspective.
“You can’t celebrate your 50th anniversary every year,” Reid says. “I can tell you that the bringing back of Big Roy and the 50th anniversary editions, those were on the table anyway. We planned on doing this. It’s been years in the making. We didn’t necessarily say, OK, the economy is slowing down we need to do something to put our name out there.”
However, many marketing executives across the industry may actually be saying those very words and feeling the need to get more aggressive with their marketing campaigns. According to the global manufacturers association Agrievolution, there is a lot of pessimism in board rooms these days. Their Agritech Business Barometer survey of ag equipment manufacturers, published in October, reports 32 per cent of U.S. companies said they expect to reduce their workforce in the coming year, and 57 per cent rated the current business environment as “unfavourable.”
“The next few years are going to be a real strong indicator of how the agricultural landscape is going to look in the five or 10 years after that,” Reid suggests. “A lot of companies that have been enjoying success with the commodity prices and ag economy being strong are going to have challenges.”
“Marketing is going to have to work harder and smarter. We’re going to have to take those extra steps to make sure we’re servicing our existing customer and to make sure our staff sales people and dealership sales people are equipped with the knowledge they need, because without that it’s going to be really tough.”
How, though, do you work smarter when it comes to marketing?
“I think where it’s going is we in marketing are going to have to be a lot better at getting the customers’ attention, holding their attention and giving the sales department the tools they need to close the deal, whether that be features and benefits or competitive analysis, things we didn’t have to concentrate as much on.” says Reid, “That’s why I say marketing is going to be appreciated a little bit more. It’s just going to be a different environment going forward. We’re not going to be selling the volume that we were. We’re going to have to try that much harder to keep our name in front of the customer and make sure we’re on that list when they do go to make the purchase.”
For Versatile, what tactic could be better when it comes to keeping their brand name on the minds of potential buyers than rolling out what is arguably the industry’s most identifiable tractor, Big Roy, and building a marketing campaign around it? But the trick will be in getting customers to look at past accomplishments and still see the future.
“We don’t want to get lost in the heritage of Versatile,” says Reid. “It’s an important part of who we are and where we’ve come from, but we also now need to be extending that into the line extensions we have. We have a full product line. We need to use this 50th anniversary as a springboard to make sure those products are also at the top of mind for customers. Who we are, where we’re going and what we’ve done all tie into that 50th anniversary.”
In the short term, Reid notes that the lower value of the Canadian dollar is giving his company an edge when it comes to writing retail prices on window stickers.
“In Canada our competitors are having to put surcharges on or raise prices,” he says. “We’re enjoying a time period right now where we’re able to maintain our market share or even increase it.”
But in a volatile geopolitical world where so much hinges on the price of oil and how it affects the Canadian dollar, that advantage could evaporate just as quickly as it seemed to come. So the company can’t sit back and coast with the tailwind.
“I know our competitors aren’t getting any slower and they’re not getting any dumber, so it’s going to be really important that marketing step up its game,” Ried sums up. “All marketing in the ag sector is going to need to step up its game going forward.”
