As we end the year, we hope many ShotPak® SHOTs are part of your relaxing moments and let's contemplate an acronym for SHOT:
S = Spirit. We use the best available spirits in all our products. Our products can be enjoyed anytime including being the happy spirit for the occasion.
H = Health. We strongly suggest embracing our "Drink Responsibly" slogan and the lower alcohol contents in our cocktails means you can enjoy without over indulgence
O = Opportunity. Our StandUp pouch suggest you "Drink Different". The pouch can be taken anywhere for enjoyment meaning new opportunities to enjoy your favorite 10 products
T = Teamwork. Nothing is more satisfying than being part of a successful organization, or watching a colleague's recognition. Celebrate with a ShotPak®.
We have spent a lot of time in the past two years talking about green packaging. We are very proud that our StandUp pouch that is a true "Oil to Oil" product and never has to go into the landfill if handled correctly in the waste chain. Incineration produces reclaimable energy. The pouch is made from oil products and when incinerated produces energy.
Developing a sustainable brand package takes much more than the efforts of a single visionary. It takes a team of visionaries. We have had to make sure that all who handle our pouch recognize it as a true green package. This means telling all who ask that this is a Zero Land Fill package. By definition a different package made by responsible people.
Our PGS machinery group is driven by the same passion to supply machines that think for themselves. They identify errors and we can communicate with them from our corporate headquarters in Sarasota, FL and suggest solutions at the customer's facility. We offer intelligent Smart Machinery for busy production people. In the future, the machines will become more and more automated leaving the operator to concentrate on what is key -- the product -- and ensuring it is packed fresh, consistent and ready to enjoy in our Zero Landfill pouches.
Enjoy Shotsational Holidays from all of us at PPi Technologies GROUP.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Different and Exceptional
Have you ever sat back and thought the days of "business as usual" have passed? We are now in the history records as the generation that does it differently.
The new slogan for our ShotPak® brands is "Drink Differently/Drink Responsibly."
Same for our PGS machine group "Pouch Machinery/Fast and Different."
We have found great success using the new marketing approach of leverage. Our communication is to leverage our customer service and technical people. Leveraging our products and sales locations are the new normal for us. Basically sell what you have and not what you wish you had.
We have spoken for three years about viral marketing. We accepted "digital skin" as our way to communicate with customers and think of each person we touch as part of a large web-based jigsaw puzzle. These pieces are actually where we connect and thus allow us to service or inform the customer of our leverage plans. In the past five years 25% of the world has come to use a Smartphone and get most of their information from these handheld devices. In the USA the penetration exceeds 30%. What this means is that your potential customer can use APP's to get to your web site and look at video or look at the machinery and in turn can send these to friends. The social web experience starts.
In some cases we leverage by product. We have our Regional Brand Sales Manager, Kevin Tur, looking for ways to make ShotPak® products the new daily "Drink Differently/Drink Responsibly" brand in a pouch. So mixing with sparkling wine for a dry Spritzer or with champagne for the Ultimate cocktail are new ways to enjoy the products.
On the other hand, National SBU Manager for Machinery, Rob Libera, leverages people like engineers or brand managers into understanding that our pouch machines are "Different and Fast." It's all about speed and having an edge over the other machine guy, or a pouch that is better in the market place!
I have for years exhibited passion and enthusiasm for providing solutions for easy access to safe and secure beverages in a StandUp pouch and for machines that perform beyond expectations. This is how brands are born. Customers understand the game plan and welcome products that fit into today's lifestyle without worries.
The message is clear this month. We must finish the puzzle by connecting all the pieces around being Different and Exceptional. Customers will hopefully remember.
The new slogan for our ShotPak® brands is "Drink Differently/Drink Responsibly."
Same for our PGS machine group "Pouch Machinery/Fast and Different."
We have found great success using the new marketing approach of leverage. Our communication is to leverage our customer service and technical people. Leveraging our products and sales locations are the new normal for us. Basically sell what you have and not what you wish you had.
We have spoken for three years about viral marketing. We accepted "digital skin" as our way to communicate with customers and think of each person we touch as part of a large web-based jigsaw puzzle. These pieces are actually where we connect and thus allow us to service or inform the customer of our leverage plans. In the past five years 25% of the world has come to use a Smartphone and get most of their information from these handheld devices. In the USA the penetration exceeds 30%. What this means is that your potential customer can use APP's to get to your web site and look at video or look at the machinery and in turn can send these to friends. The social web experience starts.
In some cases we leverage by product. We have our Regional Brand Sales Manager, Kevin Tur, looking for ways to make ShotPak® products the new daily "Drink Differently/Drink Responsibly" brand in a pouch. So mixing with sparkling wine for a dry Spritzer or with champagne for the Ultimate cocktail are new ways to enjoy the products.
On the other hand, National SBU Manager for Machinery, Rob Libera, leverages people like engineers or brand managers into understanding that our pouch machines are "Different and Fast." It's all about speed and having an edge over the other machine guy, or a pouch that is better in the market place!
I have for years exhibited passion and enthusiasm for providing solutions for easy access to safe and secure beverages in a StandUp pouch and for machines that perform beyond expectations. This is how brands are born. Customers understand the game plan and welcome products that fit into today's lifestyle without worries.
The message is clear this month. We must finish the puzzle by connecting all the pieces around being Different and Exceptional. Customers will hopefully remember.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Delivering "Unique Value Proposition"
Each of us in some way has felt the effects of the recent great recession. These effects have been brutal on small businesses and their staff. As we begin to emerge, yes, eventually you hit rock bottom and have to go up, we are looking at our various Brands and assessing how they suffered.
One of the key questions is how do our brand's look-and-feel? Do they still deliver their UVP [Unique Value Proposition]? PPi Technologies GROUP has two main divisions, PGS selling StandUp pouch machinery and BPG marketing our four beverage products. PGS's new machinery and services are the majority of our sales.
Our strategy is to try and ensure our marketing is consistent across all market segments. We are also changing our business plan based on the industries we sell to. This new plan is to ensure our customers better understand our brands. We hope our new UVP's will create increased brand equity with the customer.
Our big change is that each machine performs a certain task and each beverage is for a certain lifestyle. For example; our new BPG SN HYBRID machinery handles form-fill-seal, premade pouches and several zipper types of pouches with spouts. The UVP is if you need different types of StandUp pouches we have a single machine that will do the job. We believe this will change the way customers look at our machine group.
We also have a UVP and a strategy for our beverage brand's evolution. This will highlight our beverage brand identities, which is to provide "Customer Ready Packaging". We know our ShotPak® pouches stand out from the crowd. They are ready for action, anywhere any time! We promote the fact that the pouch is all about being popular and is a sustainable, zero landfill modern package. We monitor what customers think about our beverage brands and the message is clear. The StandUp pouch is a preferred "Customer Ready Package".
To get the brand message out we communicate our two UVP's via viral marketing. We have to be careful because there is some confusion that social media marketing and social networking is the same, not true. Social media is a way to share information with a broad audience and uses social networking tools such as e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social networking is truly an active engagement with similar thinking individuals communicating together.
Social media is a system that disseminates information electronically to an audience. On the other hand social networking is a process of communication where groups of like-minded people join together to share experiences in a conversational style at meeting places.
For sure we want to use both communication methods for our UVP's, but we feel that social media has huge value from an exponentially growing network of brand loyalists that started with social networking based on "Tell a friend and inform a Nation"
One of the key questions is how do our brand's look-and-feel? Do they still deliver their UVP [Unique Value Proposition]? PPi Technologies GROUP has two main divisions, PGS selling StandUp pouch machinery and BPG marketing our four beverage products. PGS's new machinery and services are the majority of our sales.
Our strategy is to try and ensure our marketing is consistent across all market segments. We are also changing our business plan based on the industries we sell to. This new plan is to ensure our customers better understand our brands. We hope our new UVP's will create increased brand equity with the customer.
Our big change is that each machine performs a certain task and each beverage is for a certain lifestyle. For example; our new BPG SN HYBRID machinery handles form-fill-seal, premade pouches and several zipper types of pouches with spouts. The UVP is if you need different types of StandUp pouches we have a single machine that will do the job. We believe this will change the way customers look at our machine group.
We also have a UVP and a strategy for our beverage brand's evolution. This will highlight our beverage brand identities, which is to provide "Customer Ready Packaging". We know our ShotPak® pouches stand out from the crowd. They are ready for action, anywhere any time! We promote the fact that the pouch is all about being popular and is a sustainable, zero landfill modern package. We monitor what customers think about our beverage brands and the message is clear. The StandUp pouch is a preferred "Customer Ready Package".
To get the brand message out we communicate our two UVP's via viral marketing. We have to be careful because there is some confusion that social media marketing and social networking is the same, not true. Social media is a way to share information with a broad audience and uses social networking tools such as e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social networking is truly an active engagement with similar thinking individuals communicating together.
Social media is a system that disseminates information electronically to an audience. On the other hand social networking is a process of communication where groups of like-minded people join together to share experiences in a conversational style at meeting places.
For sure we want to use both communication methods for our UVP's, but we feel that social media has huge value from an exponentially growing network of brand loyalists that started with social networking based on "Tell a friend and inform a Nation"
Friday, August 13, 2010
Connectivity, Navigation & Functionality Are the New Digital Skin Communication Needs
Are you ready for this? Imagine for the last dozen or so years the language for writing HTML [Hyper Text Markup Language] pages (the language that displays our two web site's graphic information) is changing to HTML5.
Why change what works? The reason is simple: the iPhone 4, YouTube, Vimeo as well as other video technology need HTML5 to work properly. Can you guess who is driving the change?
A plus for brand owners is that HTML5 optimizes streaming video which means third party applications like Flash are no longer necessary. That's the plan. So the future is video and animation and that means real time information for customers and consumers. That's the new Digital Skin, Real Time connection and an immediate call to action!
HTML5 also makes geolocation possible. Geolocation an offline storage mechanism, (think Gmail) that allow web authors to better define their content, and making the web more available for more connectivity, navigation and functionality. The need is to know where our customers are, and how best to reach them so we have to change and use HTML5 features on our web sites.
Our customers can now see new pouch machines running and where we are selling ShotPak®'s in their town or other live information we want to provide as they need it. More information faster and more accessible. The result of this: once again we are on the leading edge of modern technology.
Now, as you move more into the digital world, leave email for the business folks and start onto Twitter as your communication text medium. You should be aware that you need additional applications like Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie, Twittererific, Tweetdeck and Twitpix in order to operate your Twitter activities effectively on your mobi. The written letter, fax and soon email are gone as far as personal communication tools.
Video, images and text messages are the new contact points. Be ready or be out in the cold. Brrrrr.
Why change what works? The reason is simple: the iPhone 4, YouTube, Vimeo as well as other video technology need HTML5 to work properly. Can you guess who is driving the change?
A plus for brand owners is that HTML5 optimizes streaming video which means third party applications like Flash are no longer necessary. That's the plan. So the future is video and animation and that means real time information for customers and consumers. That's the new Digital Skin, Real Time connection and an immediate call to action!
HTML5 also makes geolocation possible. Geolocation an offline storage mechanism, (think Gmail) that allow web authors to better define their content, and making the web more available for more connectivity, navigation and functionality. The need is to know where our customers are, and how best to reach them so we have to change and use HTML5 features on our web sites.
Our customers can now see new pouch machines running and where we are selling ShotPak®'s in their town or other live information we want to provide as they need it. More information faster and more accessible. The result of this: once again we are on the leading edge of modern technology.
Now, as you move more into the digital world, leave email for the business folks and start onto Twitter as your communication text medium. You should be aware that you need additional applications like Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie, Twittererific, Tweetdeck and Twitpix in order to operate your Twitter activities effectively on your mobi. The written letter, fax and soon email are gone as far as personal communication tools.
Video, images and text messages are the new contact points. Be ready or be out in the cold. Brrrrr.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Insight That Is The New Marketing Word
The desire of all Brand Managers is for repeat sales. As we all know repeat sales means the customer understands and accepts the product.
We enter year 15 of our machinery sales to find what we are selling today bears no resemblance to what we started selling? What happened? Our customers and the consumers quietly changed to Premade pouch packaging without any request to change. The Premade pouch was the solutions that drove the sales.
Our two-year-old ShotPak® ready-to-drink cocktail and spirit brands are in an innovative Sustainable, Safe, Secure and Social pouch package and thus repeat sales followed as it suited busy lifestyles.
What we have learned is that the consumer's product opinion can be vastly different from your market position or plan. Be aware of the market trends and be ready to change quickly.
We now know that our pouch customers like colors and lots of them, different shapes help brand identity recognition, size and pouch texture meets their personal needs to be different.
Our products connect because the pouch can be squeezed, dropped and opened easily which resonates with consumers as a friendly, modern and colorful package.
Our message has always been compelling and clear and thus the consumer is challenged to try the product.
The end result, sales and hopefully repeat sales in the future.
We enter year 15 of our machinery sales to find what we are selling today bears no resemblance to what we started selling? What happened? Our customers and the consumers quietly changed to Premade pouch packaging without any request to change. The Premade pouch was the solutions that drove the sales.
Our two-year-old ShotPak® ready-to-drink cocktail and spirit brands are in an innovative Sustainable, Safe, Secure and Social pouch package and thus repeat sales followed as it suited busy lifestyles.
What we have learned is that the consumer's product opinion can be vastly different from your market position or plan. Be aware of the market trends and be ready to change quickly.
We now know that our pouch customers like colors and lots of them, different shapes help brand identity recognition, size and pouch texture meets their personal needs to be different.
Our products connect because the pouch can be squeezed, dropped and opened easily which resonates with consumers as a friendly, modern and colorful package.
Our message has always been compelling and clear and thus the consumer is challenged to try the product.
The end result, sales and hopefully repeat sales in the future.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Social Networks,
RFID Surveillance,
Oil Spillage and Volcanos
What's the solution in the future?
Today you hear a lot about the social networks and the need to use them for marketing purposes. As you know by now we have used social networks to market ShotPak® Ready-to-Drink Cocktails. They have also allowed us to easily share videos of our PPi Technologies Group StandUp pouch machines with interested clients. So we know these quick 'touch the customer/friend services' have a place in our marketing arsenal. Can we rely solely on social networks and ignore other traditional marketing and still manage sales? My view is that we honestly don't know.
While dwelling on the social networks and how they help us, I received an email to visit Gizmodo magazine on line. They have an article about Facebook. Wow! They suggest considering quitting Facebook. Seems there are at least ten good reasons to quit Facebook, according to the article on Gizmodo. The article states for a variety of reasons, that some people now doubt that social networking will really help anyone-or inform anyone in a useful way. (By the way they ask if you have found social networking to be fun and or valuable?) The Gizmodo article is definitely worth a few minutes of your time. Eye-opening, to say the least.
Next on the technology front is that according to Northern Arizona University spokesperson Tom Bauer, NAU will use sensors to detect students' University identification cards when they enter classrooms. The data will be recorded and available for professors to review. Bauer is stunned at accusations that the new, RFID tag-based system is surveillance. He says it's "just recording attendance records". Is this any different from the Google system of identifying where you are using your cell phone?
We have a patent that allows for an RFID chip to be placed in a pouch. The chip will record the pouch's journey to the store, the expiration date and the pricing structure of the pouch. We see these features as a service to the consumer rather than surveillance.
Electronic surveillance and social networking are in their infancy and they will grow to monitor our every move. The next major decision is where and when do we want to switch off the system? The demand for consumer product information and the need for separation of our private lifestyles are going to become even harder. A consumer revolt for privacy would not surprise me.
Now that we know big brother is watching, let's consider that in the past four weeks we have had two major disasters that interrupted and will damage global economies for some time. Nothing electronic or social can save the day?
The BP spill or BP-Halliburton spill, as some are calling it, with initial estimates of 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil per day is skyrocketing to the current estimate of 5,000 barrels per day which is much worse than expected. Figures of 5,000 barrels per day could explode to 60,000 barrels or 2.5 million gallons per day. At that rate we're at Exxon Valdez levels by June. The disaster isn't restricted to the Gulf of Mexico. If you think you're 'safe' if you're on the East Coast of the Gulf? Think again, as there's a 'Loop Current' from the Gulf that could move some of the spill around the Southern tip of Florida into the Gulf Steam and up the Eastern Seaboard. Tourist beaches and countless marine wildlife could be affected. No beach tourists, no beach cocktails and we all suffer. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to the many fishermen and communities who will be affected by this disaster for many years. It appears there is no simple solution. Remember our earlier blog post calling for nuclear power? This for sure is the way to go with clean efficient energy and no environmental risks or damage.
The second disaster is not a man-made one but a natural one, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. It stopped all international flights for a week and thousands of travelers were stranded around the globe. The costs are measured in billions and now it is has started exploding again.
So what is the synopsis of all of this? We have access to Facebook and other social networks that place us on the cutting edge of communication but that didn't stop an oil disaster that will not repaired for many years and volcanic activity that in one hour can disrupt all air traffic entering the northern hemisphere. What is the message here? Perhaps we should slow down and think about where are we heading?
On the digital front these figures were just reported:
Users of Social Media are defined as active, interested and engaging:
Now that you see the concerns about Facebook, it is easy to see why they say Twitter by comparison is the next big thing, it's free and it's making a huge change in how people communicate. It's a format of private to public (you to your group) and a communication of one too many. It's immediate, short (140 characters), and to the point. You can build a community and gather followers and also follow whoever in your industry interests you. News of the volcanic activity and the environmentally devastating oil spill will reach many people via Twitter.
So, if the digital social activities still sound like the domain of college students, young professionals and those who should "get a life," you may be right. But, then again, you may be left behind if you don't at least participate!
Today you hear a lot about the social networks and the need to use them for marketing purposes. As you know by now we have used social networks to market ShotPak® Ready-to-Drink Cocktails. They have also allowed us to easily share videos of our PPi Technologies Group StandUp pouch machines with interested clients. So we know these quick 'touch the customer/friend services' have a place in our marketing arsenal. Can we rely solely on social networks and ignore other traditional marketing and still manage sales? My view is that we honestly don't know.
While dwelling on the social networks and how they help us, I received an email to visit Gizmodo magazine on line. They have an article about Facebook. Wow! They suggest considering quitting Facebook. Seems there are at least ten good reasons to quit Facebook, according to the article on Gizmodo. The article states for a variety of reasons, that some people now doubt that social networking will really help anyone-or inform anyone in a useful way. (By the way they ask if you have found social networking to be fun and or valuable?) The Gizmodo article is definitely worth a few minutes of your time. Eye-opening, to say the least.
Next on the technology front is that according to Northern Arizona University spokesperson Tom Bauer, NAU will use sensors to detect students' University identification cards when they enter classrooms. The data will be recorded and available for professors to review. Bauer is stunned at accusations that the new, RFID tag-based system is surveillance. He says it's "just recording attendance records". Is this any different from the Google system of identifying where you are using your cell phone?
We have a patent that allows for an RFID chip to be placed in a pouch. The chip will record the pouch's journey to the store, the expiration date and the pricing structure of the pouch. We see these features as a service to the consumer rather than surveillance.
Electronic surveillance and social networking are in their infancy and they will grow to monitor our every move. The next major decision is where and when do we want to switch off the system? The demand for consumer product information and the need for separation of our private lifestyles are going to become even harder. A consumer revolt for privacy would not surprise me.
Now that we know big brother is watching, let's consider that in the past four weeks we have had two major disasters that interrupted and will damage global economies for some time. Nothing electronic or social can save the day?
The BP spill or BP-Halliburton spill, as some are calling it, with initial estimates of 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil per day is skyrocketing to the current estimate of 5,000 barrels per day which is much worse than expected. Figures of 5,000 barrels per day could explode to 60,000 barrels or 2.5 million gallons per day. At that rate we're at Exxon Valdez levels by June. The disaster isn't restricted to the Gulf of Mexico. If you think you're 'safe' if you're on the East Coast of the Gulf? Think again, as there's a 'Loop Current' from the Gulf that could move some of the spill around the Southern tip of Florida into the Gulf Steam and up the Eastern Seaboard. Tourist beaches and countless marine wildlife could be affected. No beach tourists, no beach cocktails and we all suffer. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to the many fishermen and communities who will be affected by this disaster for many years. It appears there is no simple solution. Remember our earlier blog post calling for nuclear power? This for sure is the way to go with clean efficient energy and no environmental risks or damage.
The second disaster is not a man-made one but a natural one, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. It stopped all international flights for a week and thousands of travelers were stranded around the globe. The costs are measured in billions and now it is has started exploding again.
So what is the synopsis of all of this? We have access to Facebook and other social networks that place us on the cutting edge of communication but that didn't stop an oil disaster that will not repaired for many years and volcanic activity that in one hour can disrupt all air traffic entering the northern hemisphere. What is the message here? Perhaps we should slow down and think about where are we heading?
On the digital front these figures were just reported:
- 100million blogs are available
- 1.3 million blog posts daily (18 per second)
- 100,000 new blogs daily (2 per second)
- More podcasts than global radio stations
- They believe there will be 250 million active Facebook users in the next year
- And now there are 50 million LinkedIn profiles and growing fast
Users of Social Media are defined as active, interested and engaging:
- The average social network user is 37 years old.
- LinkedIn, with a business focus, has a predictably high average user age; 44
- The average Twitter user is 39 years old
- The average Facebook user is 38 years old
- The average MySpace user is 31 years old
- Bebo has by far the youngest users, with an average age of 28. From all of the above means your buyers are possibly using social media to make buying decisions, to compare products and prices and to see how current and relevant your products are.
Now that you see the concerns about Facebook, it is easy to see why they say Twitter by comparison is the next big thing, it's free and it's making a huge change in how people communicate. It's a format of private to public (you to your group) and a communication of one too many. It's immediate, short (140 characters), and to the point. You can build a community and gather followers and also follow whoever in your industry interests you. News of the volcanic activity and the environmentally devastating oil spill will reach many people via Twitter.
So, if the digital social activities still sound like the domain of college students, young professionals and those who should "get a life," you may be right. But, then again, you may be left behind if you don't at least participate!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Staying Ahead of the Competition
Our marketing team continually monitors how we keep our brands ahead of the competition.
There is no overnight decision and we have to keep reaching higher and higher to keep our brands exclusive. We believe 2010 will be a rewarding year for our efforts. The reason for our confidence is that over the years, to grow our machine and liquor brands, we invested a lot of equity in the company alongside a huge R&D program with all the key features patented.
Despite financial chaos around us and the surprising negative attitude towards business from our Washington DC officials, we are thankful that in the past 15 years we continued to strive to offer value as prudently as possible on each machine sold.
The repeat business our PGS machine division enjoys supports our theory of offering features beyond expectations. Customers buy because we offer crazy big solutions.
The current economy is just plain bad and we now know brought on by greed in the insurance and banking centers. As a result we are all suffering and so we are pleased that we made those earlier investments in our brands.
The PGS machine lines — including Laudenberg, PSG LEE by Leepack, Meurer and PSG ABT by Abtech — are all recognized as brand leaders in their pouch market segments and we have not had to sacrifice brand value or pricing as yet.
We continue to innovate, register patents and be open to new ideas. Customers recognize this and it is important for them to know we are still going strong, even in the face of stiff economic turmoil around us.
We are always looking for something to introduce that can be called 'crazy big'.
In 2010 will it be our new high-speed fitment machinery designed to seal the green EnvoSmart™ kid-friendly spout onto a shaped pouch? Or will it be the new 10-pouch multiparty shots for our ShotPak® ready-to-drink fruit cocktails? Could it be our new VinoPaQ™ wine pouches? The customer will decide.
You all hear every day about being green or sustainable or having a low carbon dioxide footprint and again we are way ahead of others with our ZERO LANDFILL pouches. That's right! Use them and burn them for energy! Now that's a crazy big feature!
In closing, the message is clear; we have to keep ahead of the pack and all the copy cats that monitor our every move. Therefore we know that we can change quickly as we are small and lean to meet every challenge.
There is no overnight decision and we have to keep reaching higher and higher to keep our brands exclusive. We believe 2010 will be a rewarding year for our efforts. The reason for our confidence is that over the years, to grow our machine and liquor brands, we invested a lot of equity in the company alongside a huge R&D program with all the key features patented.
Despite financial chaos around us and the surprising negative attitude towards business from our Washington DC officials, we are thankful that in the past 15 years we continued to strive to offer value as prudently as possible on each machine sold.
The repeat business our PGS machine division enjoys supports our theory of offering features beyond expectations. Customers buy because we offer crazy big solutions.
The current economy is just plain bad and we now know brought on by greed in the insurance and banking centers. As a result we are all suffering and so we are pleased that we made those earlier investments in our brands.
The PGS machine lines — including Laudenberg, PSG LEE by Leepack, Meurer and PSG ABT by Abtech — are all recognized as brand leaders in their pouch market segments and we have not had to sacrifice brand value or pricing as yet.
We continue to innovate, register patents and be open to new ideas. Customers recognize this and it is important for them to know we are still going strong, even in the face of stiff economic turmoil around us.
We are always looking for something to introduce that can be called 'crazy big'.
In 2010 will it be our new high-speed fitment machinery designed to seal the green EnvoSmart™ kid-friendly spout onto a shaped pouch? Or will it be the new 10-pouch multiparty shots for our ShotPak® ready-to-drink fruit cocktails? Could it be our new VinoPaQ™ wine pouches? The customer will decide.
You all hear every day about being green or sustainable or having a low carbon dioxide footprint and again we are way ahead of others with our ZERO LANDFILL pouches. That's right! Use them and burn them for energy! Now that's a crazy big feature!
In closing, the message is clear; we have to keep ahead of the pack and all the copy cats that monitor our every move. Therefore we know that we can change quickly as we are small and lean to meet every challenge.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Interactive ...
The New Realities of Marketing
For sure in 2010 and in the future we will have to move beyond speaking AT the consumer and preferably engage them in our actual brand marketing program.
Everything in the marketplace today generates information and the success is turning this data into product sales.
The social platforms are great news makers. Mobile texting is growing and thus we are looking at how we can further bring the consumer into our sales plan using these electronic digital platforms. [Recall my belief in having a digital skin.]
What we have learned, as the only ready-to-drink cocktail using exclusively the web and viral marketing to advertise, is that we must offer up a steady stream of engaging content to keep interest high in ShotPak®.
We recognize consumers engage with ShotPak® brands and thus our point of view is important and must be simple and easily understood.
Twenty something's [21 to 45 market segment] are tech savvy and glide seamlessly between business and personal items in the digital world and so we have designed our brand plan elements into a cohesive social media experience for our consumers.
We will still use some print and develop our basic bare ORANGE pouch shape to tease consumers into our world.
We are very keen on using "Apps" following their success in the market, viz. choose a car, find a recipe etc. We think developing a "Select the next cocktail" App is a must!
Monitoring conversations about the brands is crucial and we will use either Scoutlabs™ or Radian6™ the leading monitoring tools, to keep on top of e-talk about our brands. We want to reply as it is read on our side. Timing is everything!
Video has a small place in our plan, but takes time. We know time is not available when you have a message to give to the consumer. No way, no more information advertising. Only action and success attracts attention. Our preference is a short sharp memorable reality happy event with ShotPak®.
We believe Smart phone technology will grow and grow. We will develop ShotPak® "Apps" for Facebook, Loop'd and Twitter on a new separate mobile friendly web site.
For 2010 we have a new viral advertising campaign that is in a shape of our ShotPak® pouch with an ORANGE background and with no brand name only a code number that invites the consumer to enter our ShotPak® web site. We have found that people like to examine challenges. On the site they will have a tip to buy a product in a six or 12 pack and on the outside of the pack is an email address to claim your prize for the effort.
We will develop this idea further and let ShotPak® consumers taste our new products and ask them to chase down leads and get free tickets to movies, dance clubs and T-shirts.
We want to develop a level of new product interest and get consumer participation at the beginning as we introduce them to new flavors while we increase our sales along the way.
Everything in the marketplace today generates information and the success is turning this data into product sales.
The social platforms are great news makers. Mobile texting is growing and thus we are looking at how we can further bring the consumer into our sales plan using these electronic digital platforms. [Recall my belief in having a digital skin.]
What we have learned, as the only ready-to-drink cocktail using exclusively the web and viral marketing to advertise, is that we must offer up a steady stream of engaging content to keep interest high in ShotPak®.
We recognize consumers engage with ShotPak® brands and thus our point of view is important and must be simple and easily understood.
Twenty something's [21 to 45 market segment] are tech savvy and glide seamlessly between business and personal items in the digital world and so we have designed our brand plan elements into a cohesive social media experience for our consumers.
We will still use some print and develop our basic bare ORANGE pouch shape to tease consumers into our world.
We are very keen on using "Apps" following their success in the market, viz. choose a car, find a recipe etc. We think developing a "Select the next cocktail" App is a must!
Monitoring conversations about the brands is crucial and we will use either Scoutlabs™ or Radian6™ the leading monitoring tools, to keep on top of e-talk about our brands. We want to reply as it is read on our side. Timing is everything!
Video has a small place in our plan, but takes time. We know time is not available when you have a message to give to the consumer. No way, no more information advertising. Only action and success attracts attention. Our preference is a short sharp memorable reality happy event with ShotPak®.
We believe Smart phone technology will grow and grow. We will develop ShotPak® "Apps" for Facebook, Loop'd and Twitter on a new separate mobile friendly web site.
For 2010 we have a new viral advertising campaign that is in a shape of our ShotPak® pouch with an ORANGE background and with no brand name only a code number that invites the consumer to enter our ShotPak® web site. We have found that people like to examine challenges. On the site they will have a tip to buy a product in a six or 12 pack and on the outside of the pack is an email address to claim your prize for the effort.
We will develop this idea further and let ShotPak® consumers taste our new products and ask them to chase down leads and get free tickets to movies, dance clubs and T-shirts.
We want to develop a level of new product interest and get consumer participation at the beginning as we introduce them to new flavors while we increase our sales along the way.
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