AnchorMart linkup eases access to net

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Body1: Hewlett-Packard has launched an "affinity marketing" programme with AnchorMart-owned dairy farming portal RD1.com

RD1.com is targeting 20,000 farmers with a package deal comprised of an HP Pavilion 6700 or 9705 PC, with printers, scanners and an ihug Ultra satellite-based internet connection.

The deal follows a similar partnership between Dell and Kiwi Dairy, which allowed farmers joining the Kiwi Dairy's internet portal fencepost.com to buy Dell PCs at preferential rates.

But Juliana Moss, alternate channel manager at Hewlett-Packard, said the PC/internet packages would be offered at the same prices as other outlets. She said the point of the promotion was so that farmers could get online without going out of their way to buy a computer.

Farmers would be able to view the computers at 26 rural AnchorMart stores and they would be billed through their AnchorMart accounts.

RD1.com says the Hewlett-Packard deal is non-exclusive and the company plans to offer packages in association with other manufacturers next year.

Its general manager of sales and marketing, Annemarie Mulder, said dairy farmers had asked for help in connecting to RD1.com, which offers farm-related content, including daily weather forecasts, farm research and a rural supply shop.

"Farmers are becoming increasingly computer-savvy, with many already using the PC as an essential farm-management tool.

"They have seen that more and more services are now offered online and want to be able to access the internet."

Research by RD1.com showed that around half of New Zealand farmers have PCs, and 35 per cent of those surf the net regularly.