Product line includes the use of owned brands, breadth of product
line and services and the use of origin (place, country or region) in promoting
products. The use of own brands allow firms to create value and
appropriate that value for shareholder in the long run, a wide range of
products and services is a feature common to companies implementing
a DS and the use of origin as a source of differentiation has taken much
momentum in the last few years. Eighty two percent of DS firms use
their own brands to a high, very high, or extreme degree, 73% have a
product line which is high, very high, or much higher than that of
their competitors and 76% report thatmake a high, very high or extreme
use of origin, either place, country, or region to market their goods
compared with 67, 45 and 70% respectively for NODS firms. Sixty percent
of the 82% reported above sells more than 75% of their products
and services under their own brands. One of the companies analyzed
a mango producing and exporting company started operations from a
very detailed market and business analysis deciding beforehand which
varieties to cultivate for each target international market. This is more
interesting if we compare that with other firm from the same industry
that decided only on the grounds of agriculture conditions the varieties
to cultivate. They discover very late that their variety choices were not
selling well in the target makers. La Canasta, a Salvadorian company
that sells powder beverages, species, and many other autochthonous
products stressed brand building in their implementation strategy on
the premises of their Salvadorian origin. According to the top management
of the firm this is done to differentiate and position their products
in the US market against competitors.
Agribusinesses use certifications as a marketing tool that provides
specific guarantees to potential customers about product or service
features. Fifty-eight percent of DS firms say they have a high or very
high, or much higher number of international certifications than their
competitors while only 33% of NODS state the same.