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Moving forward with a new brand
B
ehind Villa’s latest visual identity lies a new future for the
Villa Group.
SA Grain/Graan
was invited to the Villa brand
launch held for their customers on 26 January at Emperors
Palace, Johannesburg.
‘Any business can only be successful if you are aligned with the
environment around you. The partnership with Land O’Lakes, Inc.
of the United States, Villa entered into in 2015, will help Villa to align
themselves with the changing environment. You have to invest to
be successful,’ Mr André Schreuder (managing director: Villa) said
during his address at the launch.
With this partnership comes key benefits. ‘We will be increasing
our stock levels significantly to provide a better service to our cli-
ents,’ Schreuder said. He added that you cannot be prosperous as
a wholesaler, retailer or salesperson if you need to rely more and
more on old products. Land O’Lakes will bring products, services,
expertise and insights under their crop inputs business, WinField
United, to complement Villa’s portfolio in South Africa.
Villa will be investing R40 million in product development in 2017.
They are focussed on repositioning and redeveloping old chem-
istry in the post patent phase and giving these chemistry com-
ponents. ‘Ultimately we need to offer solution packages. Villa is
aiming to have 900 trials done this year, where area specific issues
will be identified beforehand. Customers and producers will then
visit these sites across the country where solutions will be offered
to them.’
Approximately R1,5 million will be spent by Villa on bursary schemes
in 2017. ‘We must maintain the momentum when people retire in
the agricultural industry. The average age of a person in the agricul-
tural workforce is 55. How are we going to replace these people?
We need to be more proactive to train people with the new skills
required for the changing agricultural environment,’ he said.
Why the new Villa branding?
‘The new Villa branding is not just about a logo change,’ Mr Dave
Schumacher from WinField United, who is currently the general
manager at Villa, said. ‘This is a platform that will help us move
forward; to help producers achieve higher yields to feed a hungry
world.’
He said that the new slogan ‘Yielding a better tomorrow’ firstly
refers to helping producers achieving more output on their land and
secondly to bring more products, services and expertise into the
market for their retail customers.
In 2015 branding research was done amongst Villa’s customers,
producers, retailers and sales agents. ‘Three important aspects
were identified from this research that we used in the new Villa
branding development, namely: Villa’s strong brand awareness, our
broad portfolio and a lot of trust between Villa and its customers.
We retained two elements from the previous logo – the diamond
shield and the colour blue, but we gave the logo a more modern look
and feel,’ Schumacher explained.
In collaboration with WinField United, Villa will be running an ex-
citing new programme called ‘Villa Answer plots
TM
’. ‘A producer is
confronted with so many challenges annually and they have to take
so many decisions. With these answer plots we aim to apply the
research to those problems producers and retailers are facing.
‘I have seen that producers in the United States who attend
Answer Plots purchase more than producers who do not attend the
plots. If a producer understands the issues and different options for
controlling those issues, he will more likely buy the product as he
understands the return on investment. By utilising this approach
we are helping producers through their sales retailers to drive
higher yields and therefore there will be more sales,’ he said.
New website and simplified portfolio,
labelling and packaging
Together with the new Villa logo and slogan, Villa also has a new
website. Villa has increased the ability for its mobile compatibility
as well as the label search compatibility.
The Villa portfolio, labelling and packaging have also been simpli-
fied. ‘We received feedback over the years that the products were
difficult to identify by container. Pictures and colours are now
used to align each product. The packaging will be white drums, but
the lids will have a colour that is designated to the product type.
The implementation of the new packaging will take place over an
18-month period,’ Schumacher concluded.
109
March 2017
RELEVANT
RUTH SCHULTZ,
SA Graan/Grain
contributor
Speakers at the Villa brand launch in
January in Cape Town and
Johannesburg were André Schreuder,
Dave Schumacher, Marius Boshoff
(national marketing manager, Villa)
and Kevin Eye (vice president: Agronomy
and product development, WinField
United). Kevin elaborated on the
WinField crop input business and its
products.
Product information