Breningmeyer lays out John Deere’s growth plans

Orlando, Fla. – The John Deere Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Division recently appointed Gregg Breningmeyer to director, commercial segment marketing. He plans to drive the growth and profitability of the commercial mowing and golf and turf businesses, as well as integrate sales and marketing activities for the John Deere commercial product line.

To figure out what it takes to set up a system of customer recognition and appreciation, John Deere is launching a pilot program.

“From here, we hope to reorganize the organization more around our customer segments instead of basing it on how much more product we can sell,” Breningmeyer says, adding that the commercial group includes landscape contractors, government and golf professionals.

The pilot program has three parts. First, John Deere plans to invest more in market research to learn about its customers. Second, Ken Taylor, the division’s business segment manager, is going to spend the next six months figuring out specific client recognition methods that can take place at the dealership.

“Even if we have a very strong relationship with a customer in one market segment, we don’t feel as if that’s enough – we want to give them more,” says Breningmeyer, who has served the Commercial and Consumer Equipment Division in many roles since joining John Deere in 1988. “Ken is going to try different things and figure out how we can collect the right data in order to enable us to become unique partners with our customers.”

The company’s third focus is on continued product development.

Because Breningmeyer realizes the customer experience ultimately happens at the commercial dealer’s shop, he says John Deere also will continue to focus on making improvements in this area.

“We have a Gold Star program where we have dealer standards in place, and we audit their performance and motivate them to do better,” he says. “We will continue to use these methods to ensure that our customers have consistent experiences at all John Deere dealerships.”

Though Breningmeyer feels John Deere customers are already extremely loyal, he says the company wants to build a better alliance with them.