MARKETING PLAN FOR PROPOSED PINE TIMBER PRODUCT

GAYATHRI ABHAYARATHNE

Afforestation of Pine in Sri Lanka was commenced in 1965, aiming to minimize the soil erosion in barren land and to prevent encroachment of these lands. Pine is a major plantation species planted by the Forest Department and so there is a considerable volume of Pine timber that is released in to the market. But as a result of lack of knowledge on preservative and treatment techniques and lack of information dissemination, most of the Pine logs are sold for temporary construction purposes ( Ex: Shuttering ) rather than using them for sold in a value added form.
Hence under this marketing plan, it has been proposed to manufacture a “Chest bookcase”, which has three drawers at the bottom and two small drawers at the top. Consumes only 37.5 cm width, so it is easy to handle and more books, magazines as well as other small goods can also be kept on the shelf. Product will be freely delivered after purchasing. Competitiveness can be raised from same class timber species such as treated Rubber. But new Rubber clones are available in small girths where large girths are possible for taking from Pine.
A marketing plan for the developed product can be given by four P’s which consist of Product, Price, Place and Promotion. At present one cubic foot is about 170 rupees at the State Tiber Cooperation Depots. Hence after calculating the transport costs, labor costs, treatment and seasoning costs, this product can be sold to 12,900 rupees keeping 4000 rupees of a profit. The company will be located at Kandy, because most of the Pine resource is available in plantations found in Kandy. Hence the transport cost will be minimized and so the product can be sold at a reasonable price. Also the possibility for attacking blue stain is really less. The product will be promoted by advertisements, distributing brochures at furniture exhibitions and launching a web site.
According to the product-market strategy analysis, the new product can be sold to the existing markets as Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Moratuwa etc and it can be sold at new markets which consists of exporting markets where countries as Western Europe, Eastern Europe and North America. The timber has its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats.
Due to the information dissemination of proper treatment and preservation techniques utilizing Pine timber for furniture manufacturing is significantly low. Hence it is really urgent to organize promotion campaigns to disseminate information among respective stakeholders. Also it is necessary to develop a marketing information system for Pine wood in order to create appropriate demand among the end users. So such actions should be implemented as possible to avoid unnecessary waste of large volume of Pine which expected to be released to the markets in the incoming years.