We at MacFarlane Pheasants offer a variety of birds for a variety of purposes. This helps us stay relevant and in business despite the many twists the economy, and people’s interests, may take.
An example of customer’s preferences changing can look like this. Future prices of feed may influence a customer toward purchasing smaller birds that eat less. We have recently experienced an increased popularity of Kansas Ringnecks for precisely this reason. Partridges are smaller, and so more economical as well. It is for cases like this that we sell many different birds- enabling us to adjust where and when it is needed.
Though much of our business is geared towards raising birds to support the hunting preserve industry, we also sell into additional different markets. This gives us not only diversity but also stability in the marketplace. Recent data shows that hunter numbers are decreasing in the US because young people aren’t taking up the hobby. This means the number of hunters will fall in the coming years, which may impact the demand for our birds. This could be devastating to our business, but we also place a considerable focus on raising and selling pheasants for food. Even though people might stop hunting our birds they may still eat them, and need to purchase it more since they don’t hunt. This possible customer shift could cause a product shift for us, causing changes but not putting our business in trouble because we already cater to both markets.
We consider bird diversity a huge strength of our business. It is difficult to predict the changes that can occur, like customer preferences, new regulations, and marketplace changes, that can impact all companies. That impact can be increasingly troublesome if a company has all their eggs in one basket if that particular basket loses demand. By diversifying your product mix, or spreading your eggs among many baskets, you have more stability if one area comes under some pressure. A one-dimensional company runs a much greater risk of going out of business than a multi-faceted one.
Though not everything may be combated or foreseen, short of a large economic depression where all our products would be hit at once our product mix provides insulation for changes within the market. It provides us not only with an ability to switch if the changes swing takes us to a product we already have, but it also gives us time to adapt to an unforeseen or out of control change. (Source Information from Brad Lillie)