How To: Submit Your Branded Program Evaluation

Evaluations are due March 1, sixty days after the program year ends, and are mandatory for all participating companies. Reimbursements, future allocations and contracts will be held from companies failing to complete evaluation forms.

Before you begin completing the evaluation, make sure you have all the information listed below available:

• The total amount you spent to promote your brands in export markets for which you were not reimbursed.
  • This refers to activities or expenses that may have been denied, ineligible, or not submitted for reimbursement, such as:
    • The cost of product used in samples or promotions, ineligible packaging changes, in country travel to U.S. shows, Foreign travel unrelated to tradeshow exhibition, etc.

• Have the total hours you and your staff spent on the Branded program.
  • This includes time spent filling out the Branded program paperwork (applications, reimbursements, etc.) but also time spent planning, conducting, and managing the activities you were reimbursed for.

• Target Market achievements such as:
  • Actual sales you attribute to activity in your application
  • Projected sales as a result of the activities in your application
  • Foreign contacts made (count the business cards you collected)
  • New Agents formed (which of those cards resulted or will result in a deal?)

• For U.S. tradeshows answers should be based on export results.

This process should take 10 minutes to complete.
PLEASE FOLLOW EXAMPLE SCREENSHOTS (Please Note: Example dates may be different below)

Navigate to your Food Export Portal by logging in at www.Foodexport.org.

There are two ways the find the evaluation:

Option 1: On the home page of your portal, click the link that says “Complete Branded Program Evaluation” in the My Evaluations section.

Option 2: Navigate to the Branded Program section of the portal and click on the link that says “Submit Evaluation” under the appropriate program year.

The first section you come to displays all of the markets which you included in your application and/or added with an amendment. Clicking on the plus sign under Add/Edit Sales will open the market. Even if your answers are zero, please don’t leave any questions blank.

**PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR MARKETS WILL BE DIFFERENT**

To clarify the first two questions:

• Foreign buyer contacts literally means how many buyers did you have in front of you, not necessarily did (or will) they turn into customers.
• New agent relationships, however refers to actual customers.

Remember; if you exhibited at a U.S. tradeshow, or if you exhibited at a foreign tradeshow, be sure to include all the exports you achieved (or believe you will achieve) as a result of the show. For Example, ANUGA in Germany has many buyers from multiple markets. If you met a buyer from the UK at this show and ended up selling to them, include those sales under your Germany results.

If you click on “Cancel”, you will be returned to the list of markets in your Evaluation and any information you have entered will be lost.

Click “’Save” when you have filled out the information for this market, and you will be taken back to the list of markets in your Evaluation. A check mark will appear in the Sales Info Added column for markets you have completed.

Once you have completed all of market information you can click on “Next” to continue.

The next section refers to Contributions:

• HOW MANY HOURS HAVE YOU AND YOUR STAFF SPENT AS A RESULT OF CARRYING OUT THIS PROGRAM? (Example below).
• COST INCURRED: How much in (USD) have you and your company spent in preparing for and attending this program/service? (Ineligible expenses or any expenses submitted that were denied and money that you’ve spent on account pf your exporting ventures inclusive of 6% fee).

Hours Spent
For example, “if you have (1) staff employee that is dedicated to enhancing your international export sales for the year, that number would be 2,080 hours or more” 40 hours a week x 52 week a year.

Plus:

• Time spent administering the branded program. Time spent talking with staff, website and filling out paperwork.
• Time spent planning, participating in (including attending, traveling to and from show, and follow up) any activities.
• If the company did a marketing campaign this would also include that time, the time spent planning the campaign and administering it.
• Time is for their company, not just the person working on the branded program.
• If two or more employees attended a tradeshow it would include hours for all of them.

Finally you are asked to rate the program:

The last page will ask you about the overall performance of the Branded Program, as well the option to leave additional suggestions or comments.