AGCO’s Marketing Mgr. Provides More Info On Brand Reduction

AGCO’s Brand Marketing Manager for North America, Phil Jones, in a recent interview with AgriMarketing magazine, provided more details about the reduction of the company’s brands of ag equipment.

Going forward in North America, the company will be eliminating the orange AGCO Tractors brand and the AGCO name from those dealerships. “We are working closely with the AGCO dealers to help them determine their future with us,” Jones said. “In many cases, they will transition to becoming Massey Ferguson dealers and in some cases Challenger,” Jones said.

There are currently more than 200 AGCO Tractor dealers in North America. Jones said they will continue to build orange tractors through 2010, but end production by 2011. The company said it will continue to service the tractors and provide parts for years to come.

In addition, AGCO has begun “co-branding” some of their equipment lines. The main example of this approach is the Massey Ferguson/Hesston line of hay harvesting equipment. Meaning, in the North American market, the company will have two sets of dealers. Massey Ferguson, which carries a traditional mix of farm equipment products, and Challenger which offers principally tractors as well as combines and application equipment sporting yellow paint.

In the global market, the company will have four brands: Massey Ferguson, Challenger plus Valtra and Fendt. Valtra and Fendt are marketed globally, but Valtra is especially strong in the Nordic countries and South America, while Fendt is the number one tractor brand in Western Europe in terms of dollar volume, Jones said.

“By focusing resources on fewer brands. AGCO can improve the impact of its marketing and engineering, and also improve its global competitiveness,” said Jones.

When asked why the Massey-Ferguson brand name was chosen, Jones said the brand has a much larger footprint globally, while the AGCO Tractors name was being used only in North America.