Until two years ago, each Business Unit had its own marketing department. Since the switch to ONE Marketing, the team has been working across all crops.
ONE Marketing
Transformation delivers unity
KWS is constantly evolving – as is now the case with the switch to Customer Centricity. Some things may start off as a challenge, but in hindsight the decision to make a change often proves correct. As was the case with ONE Marketing in Germany exactly two years ago.
New cross-BU content formats such as KWS Stories and Fail Friday have been added to the portfolio.
In September 2022, a new department working across all crops was created out of three Business Unit-specific marketing teams. “The preparations actually began almost a year earlier,” explains Sarah Blüher, Head of Marketing for Germany and Austria. “We wanted to create a marketing department whose teams are organized according to marketing topics, channels and projects. Our specialists focus on the year-round needs of farmers instead of confining themselves to individual product areas.”
The new Marketing department consists of five teams: Print, Event & Brand, Online Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service, and Sales & Process Development. In addition to traditional marketing measures, they also focus on strategic and project-related activities. All the teams work closely with other departments such as Sales, the specialist departments and Order Processing.Standardization of processes
To begin with, every employee was only familiar with the working methods, measures and culture of one Business Unit (BU). It soon became apparent that many processes and measures were similar – so standardization progressed faster than expected.
Differences in the external image were particularly evident in the printed matter and other materials, the websites, social media channels and events. Marketing has gradually standardized many brochures and materials. One example is “Blickpunkt”: The customer magazine is now a cross-crop medium. However, internal processes are also changing and being simplified. In online marketing, for instance, a monthly social media editorial meeting was introduced and new cross-BU content formats were tested, such as KWS Stories, Fail Friday and Quick Questions for consultants.
Our Marketing team addressed cross-crop topics for the first time at the German Agricultural Society Field Days.
Change becomes visible
Visitors to our German Agricultural Society Field Days this year could see and feel the difference. All BUs have always been involved in this format. This time, we also addressed cross-crop topics together for the first time, with the three thematic blocks “Conserving resources,” “Seeding the future” and “Promoting growth.” The Field Days illustrate how the new marketing structure made it possible to quickly adapt experiences and results from measures in one area to other crops.
Sales & Process Development has also become agile and has a new setup. The team’s activities mainly comprise strategic and technical project management. The team is already trying to think cross-crop in terms of the BUs’ requirements and implement them in global collaboration. One example is the “Connecting Sales” project with the goal of jointly designing a cross-crop-capable system landscape. The objective is to create a cross-BU experience for our customers. “Connecting Sales” aims to automate and simplify our sales processes in Germany and Austria. To achieve this, the team works closely with all related international projects in the fields of IT and sales.
The project is also the foundation for a ONE Sales interface in Salesforce. Customer Relationship Management is driving the standardization of customer data, for example with a common customer classification.
Customer Service is responsible for optimizing the web shop and the myKWS platform, as well as for customer support for these two areas: The hotline and support expertise have been bundled in order to provide comprehensive support. As a result, our customers now have dedicated contact persons who can answer many questions directly. What often used to be done manually is now being increasingly automated so that customer inquiries can be answered more quickly and transparently together with other internal departments such as Logistics, Sales and IT.
“ONE Marketing is the right way.”
Sarah Blüher
New structures are being established
ONE Marketing shows how synergies were created after just a short time thanks to the changed structure and that it is easier to measure and assess actions and derive improvements. “The new structures had to be created alongside our day-to-day business. That takes time.” The reason: While goals, visions and clear responsibilities as well as close cross-departmental cooperation help with implementation, they also increase the need for communication. “That’s why we’ve not only improved communication with our customers, but also further enhanced our internal collaboration. We have set up new workshops, networks and working groups with the sales teams and specialist departments of the three Business Units.”
Customer Centricity will now align the structures between ONE Marketing and the departments of the three BUs. “This will enable us to create uniform approaches, processes and goals across all departments, and that is the basis for achieving our vision: Farmers are at the center of our activities and are supported by us all year round, regardless of the type of crop.” |
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
