Remember to Reposition Your Brand - The Market Changes

Every once in awhile brands need to be repositioned allowing companies to change the way customers associate with their brands and products. This event allows for the brand promise to be revised.

Provided this reposition is done effectively, the result should be a renewed customer perception. The concept is for the brand to compete with a new distinct message.

Ask your sales team if customers see the company, and brands, as being authentic leaders. Every brand needs to have a marketing plan for being sold. The plan needs to be 100% proprietary, actionable and believable.

The product pipeline is usually an evolving non stop event. SN recently changed their machinery design to Hygienic. This change has huge potential and we now need to get the message out. PSG LEE machines changed their duplex width sizes to match the changing market. These new ideas now need marketing to reposition both brands. Brand promise and product development can’t be out of step.

Finally you need  to be mindful that emerging competition is forever on the horizon. Constantly analyze the positions of your competitors’ brands as they will shift over time. This is often overlooked. Make time to pause and think.

Building Customer Loyalty

Store owners everywhere are wondering what to do next as they have to compete with online channels. Brand managers are concerned how to jump out of the social media story to get your order. Who would have thought sales would grow in this manner?

Some retailers are looking at turning their stores into destinations where consumers can spend some time looking, and hopefully spending money. These destination add ons can include: restaurants, cooking classes, how to do clubs etc. 

Brand loyalty now really plays a part in sales. Ambience around the selling point is going to be key. More samples to taste, more coupons or special offers to entice, and of course reviews from the social media are going to become the norm. 

Sampling products is a start. Very soon in the future people will be buying the prepared meal with the sample to take home and finish cooking at meal times. 

Building supply stores will offer solutions and technical staff to come and install. Car dealerships will use the web to show safety, comfort and payment plans that you need never own the vehicle. That will create a customer for life as they just keep handing back the vehicle for a new one. This is the perfect solution to brand loyalty. 

Our customers for our packaging machines are becoming more demanding and want to know the cost from purchase to selling the machine. How many units can be produced in a machine lifetime and at what cost per unit. How much downtime, what are the material losses and of course energy savings and carbon dioxide footprint. Price is an indicator but the story sells the machine. 

The current focus today is on premium brands, and they have to outperform the competition. 

The future looks bleak for the ‘me to’ brands or those without many consumer benefits. Brands are now required to prove their value in order to survive. 

Our approach is to showcase our heritage, and the support of our brands. We will also continue to introduce new distinguishing brands, and products, with many consumer and environmental benefits. 

Gauge the Temperature of Your Colleagues

Great managers do not assume anything.

They pay attention to the company culture details. They spend time daily observing how people treat each other while working, while meeting and while problem-solving. Making a common postal area, beverage center ,or outside smoking area, and possibly a play area, allows for these quiet observations. They check in with players at all levels regularly to gain a broad perspective of how relationships and beliefs are being developed.

Many companies are using employee surveys and other methods to gauge the “temperature” of the company. But how many of them actually take the “temperature” of the individual employees on their teams? Important is how many actually report back what they find or suggest how to remedy any deficiency.

I was privileged to work with an excellent mentor years ago. He was an engaging leader in so many senses of the term. One of his strengths, a practice that I still use to this very day, is what he called a “One-to-One” or, more loosely, a “Temperature Check”. I have used the latter term more commonly over the years, partially as it plays on the daily functions in the hospitality industry where I worked for many years, but also as a true indicator of how hot or cold a particular person is in the organization.

The purpose of these checks is to drive down to the core feelings of the team, both individuals, and as a whole. It is a great opportunity to not only find out more of what was happening in the company, but to also build relationships and stronger working bonds that ultimately brings the team closer. To make the most of these checks, we discovered a few guidelines to make them most effective:

1. Make “Temperature Checks” informal and light. These are meant to be open communications. Have them in the cafeteria and not your office.

2. Let employees know your commitment is to make them, the team, and yourself better, so work can be both enjoyable and productive.

3. Qualify the 3 F’s – Feelings, Facts, and Fault. You’ll be confronted with all of these in most every temperature conversation. This type of discussion is a breath of fresh air, and will go a long way in bridging any trust gaps between the team members. Find out what folks think will help solve problems. Tell them to use the company suggestion box with their ideas. Then follow through. By keeping them up to date, they see you are taking their concerns seriously, and respecting their input.

4. In the conversation, make sure that the person knows their value to the company, and that you recognize it as well. Lead them to be inspired to better action, attitude, and trust, by letting them know you appreciate them and that it’s a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside them.

Remember that temperature checks can be great, informal ways to have a dialogue with your people and get their views on your culture and what’s working, or not. By following the above steps you can transform your culture, deepen employee engagement, and build stronger levels of trust by simply valuing your people’s feelings, thoughts, and skills.

Future Leaders Are Not Just Managers

I like managers and employees who ask questions. There is nothing better than working with staff who are curious about why things are done the way they are done. Ask any Manager what they want in new staff and it is some sort of leadership characteristic or behavior. It is always a good sign when you, as the leader, suggest something and instead of complaining why, the staff actually want to learn and test your idea. Your leadership comes into play to guide the team, or individual managers, without stopping their eagerness to know why or how.

Looking at how to build future leaders, it is important to ask for innovative ideas. This benefits both the work place and the product. Make sure the relevant managers understand the leader's needs and have open communication with all people involved. This atmosphere leads to better team performance.

So how does a leader encourage staff to ask why and how? Let’s be clear it’s our job as leaders to encourage everyone to regularly ask these questions about everything regarding our product and our workplace.

The questions and the explorations, as well as the discoveries are all fascinating. Of course, what we as organizational leaders have our sights set on, is realizing changes that promote positive outcomes. These positive changes come from the hard work of channeling ideas and concepts into actions.

What leaders have to be careful of is managers who don’t like change and could harm the program by not leading! The excuse is always we have no time. Time is an asset that has to be managed for best results. I often tell my team take these words from my piece of paper, or the white board, and turn them into action.

The marketing team should invest time, effort, and budget on thinking through how it can innovate using process change, structure, data, technology, social media and other tactics in upcoming projects. Should marketing fail then the leader has to find and train a new possible leader with a reward incentive program amongst other "please join us offers…". You have to go out and look for leaders based on what they have done before. Generally you find the best leaders are leading motivated teams in delivering new innovative products, or inventing ideas for the future.

Curiosity is the future with experimentation, and these ideas are what you want in the future leader.

Pet Parents

The latest news is that the pet food, treats and accessories category is worth $70 billion plus!

Companies are continually finding new ways to serve pets and their pet parents.

The most interesting is Natural Wellness food-based solutions for some of the most common pet ailments — a space currently owned by traditional old type thinking pharma and veterinary-based brands.

Smaller pet food companies are delivering healthy foods free of fillers and chemicals. Pet parents love this as it fits into their lifestyle. Major traditional pet food companies are seeing double digit loss in market share as pet parents change pet food and treats.

The challenge for our Pets-B-Safe brand was introducing four new healthy treats for dogs amongst the many meat based brands. We decided to cover the total health spectrum in this space and created a wellness natural platform with credibility to build trust with customers.

We identified and designed a four product solution that bridges the gap between the traditional vet brands with more choices from an all newer natural brand. In doing so, Pets-B-Safe was able to bring the best of both worlds to pet parents, giving them the confidence they need to solve their pets’ health issues.

We offer a natural healthy hemp based treat for aging dogs and help with skin irritations, and a diet treat for over weight unhealthy dogs. Moving to more body care concerns, we have a Lactoferrin based treat for blood and bone disorders. The fourth product, our CBD recipe for dogs with arthritis and inflammation problems, has incredible potential to assist in their recovery.

We have implemented a new color strategy with the Pets-B-Safe pouches to differentiate the brand and four products. The use of silver, gold, white and red with green theme provide a strong connection to hemp. We selected these strong colors and imagery of happy healthy times between pets and pet parents to emphasize the natural wellness recipe behind these products.

DATA

Most folks working in flexible packaging are not aware of the state, or size of our industry. Recently the Flexible Packaging Association presented preliminary figures that are startling to say the least. 

In the US the total packaging industry is estimated at $167 billion with flexible packaging at 19% or $31 billion. Flexible packaging is now second only to corrugated paper 24% and ahead of rigid plastic and bottles 15%. 

There are 420 companies employing 79,000 people. The average sale per employee is $221,000. 

For us as a machinery supply company, the end user flexible market segments are important. 

Personal care / 1%

Beverages / 5%

Dog and cat food / 2%

Food / 69%

Home care products / 1%

Hygiene products / 5%

Tobacco / 17%

Looking ahead we as an industry must communicate the sustainable benefits and work towards a solution for more recyclables. 

The Florida FPL Waste To Energy plants are a huge success and should be encouraged country wide. 

Our 21 year old S. E. C. A. M. P. (Sustainable Environmental Conscious Approach for Machinery Pouches) ensures that we offer lightweight pouches, and machines that use reduced energy but leave no carbon dioxide platform behind. This helps make us an industry leader. 

What is needed to get a small company onto the stock market today

The internet, bank regulations, and customer choices now dictate how companies will be run in the future. Financial health and growth opportunities will be the main areas of concern for the entrepreneur, or deal maker, to get things moving and product growth secured.

It is virtually impossible to consistently get your projects completed without available cash and liquidity. Deals that promise soon to-be-delivered value in exchange for the investment mean you have to have a really desirable product. Startups must have a culture of financial discipline and frugality. Operating on a shoestring is suboptimal, as the desperate need for investment often has deal terms that are not in strategic interest of the company.

A great solution for new companies is to “strengthen the balance sheet” through an outside capital raise. When a deal opportunity arises through strategic partnerships, big marketing campaigns, decision to grow-by-acquisition, it is essential that a strong balance sheet be available. This strong balance sheet allows a more strategic analysis of the opportunity’s value, versus financial jeopardy or weakness. 

Finally, as you decide to go public because of the inherently higher value placed on companies competing in hot markets – crypto, artificial intelligence, cannabis, e-commerce, mobile – make sure you are in one of these segments. Companies within these segments will be offered more high quality deals and better payment terms by partners and buyers.

Non-Toxic All Natural Skin Protection Products

A personal mission three years ago turned into a movement. Penta5 USA created 25 brands of all-natural, non-toxic wellness products. For example in the skincare segment, our Technical Director defined the next generation of skincare with three all natural unique lotions. These products prove that natural is incredibly effective and doesn’t have to live in the realm of dangerous chemicals to protect your skin and future health. In a distinct move away from the chemical competitors, we positioned the ANYTIME brand as the most prestigious and safe mosquito no-bite, sunscreen skin protection. We also added a combination of the two lotions as the new skincare (natural or otherwise) no-bite mosquito and skin care solutions on the market. To give the ANYTIME brand clear direction as it continues to evolve and grow, we have promoted the natural No DEET chemical feature in the two no-bite lotions and emphasized the skincare hemp oil feature with the sunscreen. We are Leading the way with all natural wellness products. 

We worked together with each of the regulatory offices in each state to ensure registration and compliance for the patented formulas and packages emphasizing the small-batch processes, ingredient stories and complex formulations. Of note, on farms in Australia sunburn is not a problem but in the city with different lifestyles cancer of the skin was prevalent. We promote heavily that in the independent laboratory skin tests not one of 500 reports had any discomfort. We have a clear reason for being proud that no other brand could authentically replicate. 

Customer Communication and Purchasing Changes in the Market Place

Prospective customers are changing their spending from just buying any products to determining how they work in real life. The new term for this behavior is ‘personalized moments'. According to Deloitte, experiential spending is rising on recreation, travel, and eating out. This spending is dropping on durable goods such as cars, household items and even clothes.

This is good news for Redi-2-DrinQ cocktails and BevPaQ Nutracis hemp nutritional products, but it also presents a challenge. The emphasis on how these products help improve life experiences means users have high expectations when they buy them. Are they enjoyable and do they work as per product claims?

As Deloitte points out, “Technologies such as AI and machine learning, IoT, and our near field communication (NFC chips) are coming of age, and together share the potential to create personalized moments that matter and bring joy to the user e.g. no pain after use of a CBD oil, or more tenacity after drinking a hydrogen water, or pleasant experience with a redi mixed cocktail, etc.”

Today the emphasis on “personalized moments is important. People use the internet to tell of these happy moments and the brand gets a reputation amongst peers rather than from advertisements.” Using the technical features of the product or the packaging can further enhance personalization and focus on significant moments of use by the customer from purchase to ease of opening. They are also concerned with how to use it, if it works as described and finally, how it affects the environment upon discarding it.

Most people start their shopping experience online, researching the products or stores they want to visit or buy from. They shop around and read reviews to determine what to buy at what prices, and rely on online reviews. Make sure you check the web for these comments on your products.

To help create personalized moments, make as much information as possible available 24/7 as customers search for information at all times of the day and night. Today start thinking how to win over future customers by enabling web-chat. AI-driven chatbots can answer questions, whiteboard videos help explain usage. These practices can increase customer satisfaction.

The call center follows up at a predetermined interval via text message and offers concierge services, such as shopping and delivery to you. It can alert customers to special pricing or events, such as free demonstrations, samples or technical literature, etc.

Today, social media wields great power. If something is bad, customers often broadcast their complaints on Messenger, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. It is essential that the call center’s system, can see issues on these before they escalate. They also should have the option to chat with the customer directly via social media, a text message or a phone call. To keep things simple, all these options can be accomplished from a single dashboard.

It is widely reported that when all customer communications are integrated seamlessly into the call center, the customer experience is vastly improved. Marketing and sales staff should monitor daily to be aware of good and bad news.

Company Culture and Mission Statement must align!

We are just back from our sales meeting and have come to realize that all of our staff must understand what the company stands for and how they are expected to help reach our mission.

Many hours have been spent thinking and talking about our mission statement. We hope that the staff now understands what the company plans are.

The Mission statement is critical to the organization and must reflect the CEO's vision of what has to be done.

Our Company Culture is based on:

“The PPi Technologies GROUP of three divisions offers the best StandUp pouch machines in the world, along with trays, stickpaqs, vialpaqs and end of line systems including checkweighers and X-Ray machinery from the PGS machine companies. The Redi-2-DrinQ Group distributes liquor in pouches and Penta5 USA leads the wellness product revolution with its no-bite range of MosquitoPaQ products, hydrogen infused water, and Canadian hemp seed omega 3.6.9 foods. PPi Technologies GROUP has reinvented the StandUp pouch industry with its revolutionary high speed form-fill-seal and premade pouch machines. It is defining the future of home food and liquor on-line deliveries using pouches and trays, as well as replacing harmful chemical items in the household, beauty care and pharma industry segments, by offering an all-natural wellness alternative products solution."

The company culture definition helps to ensure that the mission statement works. This means everyone must have a clear vision of what they need to accomplish.

The Mission Statement is:

The mission statement can be broken down into “PPi Technologies GROUP offers high speed performance machinery, liquor distribution in pouches, and all natural wellness lifestyle products.”

The culture of the company and message to customers and the world is, “best pouch machinery available with lowest cost packaging, liquor distribution that is environmentally friendly, and wellness products that help extend human life”.

Our culture and mission in life is to offer the best packaging machinery, environmentally friendly liquor , and wellness all natural products. Not only is that clear and inspirational, it gives everyone plenty of scope for the business to aim at over the next several years.

Is The Marketing Plan Working?

First make sure you have a product you plan to introduce to the market. The product should have some unique selling points, be new, and make the customer just want it. Does the product make sense? Does it work? Does it solve problems? Of course having a multi-product plan makes sure something in the program will work. Your product plan had better be good. Try to describe the new product/s in simple terms explaining what it is (and is not). This is the first step to gauging the market potential. See if your explanation was understood.

Remember you must ensure that there is a market for your product. What kind of market segment do you plan to enter? Is the market segment moving up, standing still, or worse, in decline? Where does the product best fit? Should your product be for sale in selected stores, or online at Amazon? Make sure you have done some market tests on the product and the packaging. Are you entering a price driven segment or a weather driven segment?

Make sure that the market segment testing is spread across various demographics. Getting customer feedback is very important. Make any necessary changes and improvements based on these results.

Gather the product specifications from the marketing team led by the CEO. The combined skill sets of the CEO, lead marketing, sales, business development, and engineering teams, along with vendor support are all essential. This marketing team must have a critical date path and each member a specific task to complete. Move people who do not do what is required as soon as they fail. Remember, appointing weak, inexperienced and poorly prepared people will be the main cause of product failures.

A marketing plan needs an action oriented blueprint which all departments adhere to. Remember that an investor, or member of the executive team, may find that the road plan is not yet be fully implemented. This is where the team steps in and makes sure that it all comes together by the packaging production date.

You can expect product failure if any of the above items are missed.