Analysing the poultry farm products and services of peer businesses helps you see beyond your interests.
Knowing what they do and why they do it can give great insight.
Importance of analysing the products and services of your poultry farm peers
Here are 2 perks of doing this kind of analysis:
- Value gap identification
- Foresight
Value gap identification
Learn about your customer’s value perception by seeing what works for other poultry farmers.
This can open up your eyes to new doors of opportunity.
You might find poorly-served area of value to fill in and develop an authentic USP.
This can make all the difference to future successes.
And you’ll begin to see niche benefits which otherwise you’d have missed out on.
Foresight
Now, proceed with caution here.
Whilst I’m not saying that you would allow products and service traits of peer farms to lead your thinking,
I am suggesting that thoroughly examine them.
Why?
To learn a few important lessons before you invest.
(A bit like comparing notes with class mates before taking an important exam.)
Take note.
Because you might just see something that is either a missing link or a warning that correct lurking mistakes or oversights in your business plan.
Example
Following on our case study of an organic poultry farmer, Senthilvela from Tamil Nadu, we examine a close peer business: Happy Hens Company.
In an interview with the founders of, Happy Hens, we discover these product and service traits:
“…the company that produces and sells one of India’s first brand of free range eggs“
“The egg is the most wholesome food in our diet, if it is produced in the right manner.”
“The first two years were just about identifying the right breed and standard of production, because there was no precedent for free range eggs at that time…”
“Happy Hens produces 4,000-5,000 eggs per day…”
“Happy Hens produces eggs that are brown to off-white in colour. This is a key indicator of the egg being free range, says Ashok. Anything that is conventionally produced will be evenly white, and weigh more or less 50 grams to a piece.”
“And, contrary to popular opinion, brown eggs aren’t more nutritious either. The colour of the egg shell is actually determined by the chicken’s diet. And since our birds eat anything from our special feed to worms or termites, their eggs have different colours, clarifies Kannan.”
(Source: The Hindu)
Take home points
- Happy Hens have first (early) mover advantage in the free range eggs market in India.
- Prior to their start-up, there is no reference for a strictly free-range marketed product.
- However, they have not necessarily stated that their eggs qualify as organic. Nor have they mentioned the breeds of chicken they use.
- To develop what they consider to be ‘close’ to optimal product they have gone many rounds of research and development (R&D). Selecting breeds and tweaking the production process.
- Currently, their daily production output is about 4,500 eggs.
- They are no bothered about uniform colour. They say this represents the varied diet of their hens. Perhaps a USP on the commercial egg market.
