Q&A WITH Brian Thompson

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Brian Thompson, turf marketing manager at BASF, explains how the 2022 Early Order Program has evolved to offer the most powerful benefits for superintendents.

1Can you talk about what the BASF theme POWER-FULL means for your customers and what their expectations should be for this year’s program?

Our 2022 EOP is full of innovation and full of savings. One thing that was very clear when I took this role is that our customers want programs that are easy to navigate and that offer customization, because it's not one size fits all. There's some fatigue in the marketplace for pre-configured pallets and combinations of products that may or may not fit customers' needs. What I like about our 2022 EOP is that we really have the ability to add more. In this day and age, when our customers have to overcome challenges with labor or price increases, we're adding more rebates and more opportunities for our customers to save.

2How is the BASF 2022 EOP different from previous years?

The big difference in 2022 is that we're giving customers an opportunity to trial our new products by adding what we call “innovation kickers” to the rebate levels. With products like Encartis™ fungicide and Alucion™ 35 WG insecticide, we’re giving superintendents an opportunity to heighten their rebates. We’re offering an additional 2% if they buy minimum quantities of both products. We really feel confident that these solutions are valuable for our customers. They get to trial some new innovations and put them to the test, and we get to reward them for their confidence in BASF. We've built this legacy that our customers trust — that new products from BASF are something they can rely on right out of the gate.

3If you had to give one reason why turf professionals should start their season by ordering through the BASF 2022 EOP, what would it be?

We've upped the ante with our innovation kickers that heighten the rebate levels, and this is the time for the best rebates on the best products on the market. I really feel like our products — specifically in the Design-Your-Own Program fungicide portion of the EOP — deserve to be in a rotation because of their performance. We see a lot of smiles on customers' faces once they use Lexicon® Intrinsic® brand fungicide, Navicon® Intrinsic® brand fungicide, Maxtima® fungicide and Xzemplar® fungicide, and we feel very strongly that with Encartis fungicide they’ll feel that their program is strengthened.

4What role do Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide play in 2022 EOP?

We certainly feel like there is more opportunity to gain a broader acceptance of these two technologies, proving to the marketplace that [they’re safe] to use on all turfgrasses, under any conditions, in any weather. They’re cornerstones in our product recommendations and very important fixtures in a sound disease management program. I think that we're giving our customers the best chance to be successful. You take products like Maxtima fungicide, Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide, Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide, Xzemplar fungicide, and now Encartis fungicide, and we really feel like we have a great rotation.

5How can the online EOP tools help customers know exactly what to expect during the BASF 2022 EOP?

The online calculator is a great tool for customers and distributor sales representatives to build their EOP plans. Every customer has a different volume of acreage to treat, and they all have different pests and diseases that are prominent at their own facility. It's a great tool to help lay out and organize a program that's unique and customized to that property. It's also something that gives us some ability, in the future, to catalogue how our customers designed their programs the previous year so they can design their programs easier in years to come.