The Razor and the Blade

The Future Is Remember Your P's

2012-01-10T15:09:00.006-05:00

Most of the electronic and social media companies were started by Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are fortunate today in that there are a lot of smart people out there with unique skills that they can hire.

For sure to be successful you need the talented people in place ready and able to fix the Entrepreneur's mistakes!

The new Disruptive Technology is how entrepreneurs handle talent management and how they teach the Five P's.

Talented staff is taught the five P's all over again. Who would have thought these P's would be so important 50 years after they were first introduced.

PEOPLE - ensure that all employees know how they contribute to the success of the company. Every employee must be able to contribute and talented Managers know this or they get rid of them.

PRODUCT - it must fill a need. It can be unique or mundane but it must be needed. Customers must need or want it and of course the more frequently the better. Think of the cola market. Why Coke over Pepsi? Some claim it is the "thirst satisfaction" solution others claim it's "a modern fun drink solutions" all the time. What's your need "flavor" or "action & fun"?

PLACE - so much today with social networks is about where we can get the product? Can it be used anywhere? Why wait for it? It must be freely available whereever the consumer is. Think aspirin for example, available in stores, pharmacies, airport stores, vending machines all over the place in all types of packages and price points. Is your product available everywhere?

PROMOTION - no question print advertising in magazines and the press is long gone. It's all about social media today. How can the company find out where the consumer is so they can be reached with a specific promotion? GPS tracking is going to grow beyond all recognition. Think your cell phone, car radio, home computer, credit card payments and tracking devices in shoes and on your body. In the future with that information, a brand owner can design specific promotions around a consumer's needs.

PRICE - used to be number one! Why pay $0.50 for water in a chain store, $1.29 at the service station and $3 at a sports game, all for the same product? It's the 'need it now' syndrome. So how can the manufacturer get top dollar all the time for their products? The answer is in the other four P's.

Business plans have to be written about availability, package size, convenience, social recognition and recommendation and, of course, enjoyment when using the product. Just this past month Coke announced it made an error with its new white can replacing the old traditional red can. The new white can became confused with Diet Coke’s white can with devastating confusion in the marketplace. Result, new white can gone! Tropicana had similar confusion with a design that made this Premium product look like a store brand and resulted in consumer rejection. What was the result? Bring back the old printed package.

So for 2012 and beyond Brand owners have to mind their P's.

People
Product
Place
Promotion
Price

A very successful 2012 to all our supporters.

What Are We Trying to Achieve in Business?

2011-11-17T13:47:00.001-05:00

The sad death of Steve Jobs has brought to mind some words of one of their marketing gurus or evangelists, Guy Kawasaki.

Guy was pretty clear in stating if you are in business for money you probably won't be successful. However, if you have a purpose in your business you are likely to both make money and be successful, a clever conundrum.

The corporate mission for our PGS machinery group is to supply the best StandUp pouch machines from around the world.

This past month, as we started planning for an endeavor to raise money for future growth of Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ LLC, I was asked by the investor what our mission was? Pausing for a moment, I replied, "Drink differently and have fun moments doing so." He seemed stunned at the reply that had no money making plans.

So let's think for a moment: neither of our mission statements mentions making money or the next sale -- only customer satisfaction objectives.

Pressed for more information by the investor, I reacted by saying we are leaders in what we are doing in a tough, heavily regulated business run for decades by the same families.

The questions never stopped and finally I came up with the summary that seemed to fit:

Our machine group is number 1 in its machine segment in the USA and Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ is number 1 in its market segment and will grow tenfold.

Seems our mission is working. Let me know!

Staying on course ... when all hell breaks loose around you!

2011-10-24T09:55:00.003-04:00

Most entrepreneurs like to do things themselves rather than delegate. People skills for entrepreneurs are not very high. Micromanaging the jobs delegated often takes place especially if the job goes wrong. Result, a 24-hour day suddenly becomes 30 hours! Two jobs at once. Yours and a few others because you become fearful that all hell will break loose if you are not involved.

Our PGS machine group have introduced as part of their five year plan new high speed machinery. A quantum leap from 40 to 100 pouches per minute. So the worries start, how are we telling the engineers and customers about this achievement? Do we have enough internet contacts? Will potential customers read about this and suddenly you are involved? To prevent chaos from breaking out the entrepreneur who led the disruptive change in technology has to leave the slog work to the professionals and move on to the next earth shattering event. Tough but that is the truth.

Our Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ™ company is having huge success with 12 states open and another 4 on the way. Welcome South Carolina, Colorado and Connecticut customers. Same problem here for the entrepreneur who designed the successful market plan and is now concerned who is telling the liquor stores, nightclubs, golf clubs, bars and boat clubs that we have 7 types of packaging available? Do the stores know that the BrandPaQ™ has one six pack from each of the 10 products available or that bars can buy a CocktailPaQ™ of 60 loose pouches [15 per cocktails type] for mixing in-house cocktails. Each pouch makes two drinks. Do we use twitter to tell followers that the ShotPak® Hummer is on the way to Texas to a huge weekend party with music and fun girls and guys. The entrepreneur is keen to educate the consumer with the vision of the product and often can't wait for what seems to be forever.

So the advice to entrepreneurs is stay the course and avoid all hell breaking around you as you try to micromanage the professionals you put in place to handle the mundane work. Keep moving forward for the next great idea.

Focusing on Our Core Competency

2011-08-15T15:21:00.003-04:00

At a meeting last week I was amazed to learn that Florida's biggest trading partner is Brazil. A staggering $16 billion passed between Florida and Brazil in 2010. This is twice the next partner, Columbia. What was the next surprise is that Brazil is now the world's number 5 economy and is predicted that their GDP will pass Germany in a dozen years. What a success story.

Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." In the light of today's global economy and our own problems at home with both parties in congress undecided in what to do, one thing for sure is the outcome will not be successful. It seems we have taken success out of our business vocabulary hoping just to get by and stay afloat.

On our side ignoring the turmoil around us as much as we can, our three companies are looking at ways to find strong long term partnerships and investing in the future so we can bring meaningful solutions to them. Companies are reinventing themselves and thus partnerships are going to be needed to ensure growth and success.

We believe we have to stick within the core competency of the three businesses to ensure that it's hard for competitors to imitate what we offer. We offer our partners a market advantage and finally our products must satisfy the purchaser.

For example, at PPi Global Sales, our core competency is StandUp pouch machinery. We offer all speeds and all types of pouches and today we offer intelligent machinery with our SmartSource™ electronic systems that tell the customer if the machine is running out of specification and if necessary will shut the machine down. We still sell machinery, but we present the sale in a different way. We patented many of these systems to give our customer an edge and the technology ensures the consumers buy a pouch with no defects. This makes for a successful partnership.

Our Beverage Pouch Group competency is to provide beverages always in a sustainable low carbon dioxide footprint pouch. You can buy our water pouches with spill proof spouts, small juice pouches from South Africa and France, wine from countries where we support local co-operatives [who buy from small farmers] and bring container loads of wine back and then fill and pack into USA patented BarrelPaQ® pouches in Florida. This means we support friendly countries, small farmers and also have American labor to pack a resource we don't have in Florida. This competency is very hard for a competitor to follow. The consumer gets a new taste in wine with pricing that reflects small company purchases.

Finally ShotPaQ™ and its ready-to-drink ShotPak® cocktails and the premium global STR8UP® spirits continue to grow and can be found at many liquor stores, bars and over the internet. It's the same product delivered in a variety of ways and the consumer can drink it in the pouch or as part of a mixed cocktail.

So you can see we consider partnering with our end user as the reason for our success.

Entrepreneur or CEO ... you decide.

2011-07-01T13:26:00.004-04:00

Last month I received several comments on the entrepreneur blog. It is so difficult for others to understand that most entrepreneurs make bad CEO's. Every now and then I wonder as the company grows if I am the right person to take it to the next level and if I can be called an entrepreneur or a CEO in order to do this?

For example, our plans for the PPi Global Sales Machine Group are to be the leader in the supply of 50 high speed pouch machinery systems a year. For the ShotPaQ™ LLC products our plans are to be in 30 states and 10 countries with sales of 100,000 cases a year. That's the NEXT LEVEL of growth….

Now rising to the blog requests for more news on entrepreneurs and how to grow a new company to the next level, read on.

It appears that the best entrepreneurs are those that are able, through experience and training as well as some luck, to succeed in their endeavors. What is important to them is what stage of development the Company is at when the risk is taken.

The South African golf player, Gary Player once said "The harder you work, the luckier you get." Probably applies here.

It is often said that entrepreneurs always move quickly as they plan to produce profits from the ideas they implement. After efficient execution they begin again with new ideas and then back to the revised plan to grow even more. They make plans and they work them, but are not dedicated to them. Always moving forward could be the theme.

Most entrepreneurs work nights, weekends, sometimes way over 18 hour days and even if they are ill. Nothing stops the machine that is an entrepreneur looking for success. Good entrepreneurs attract and empower good people and develop support teams. These teams are motivated to understand the dream and learn quickly.

Some entrepreneurs are focused too heavily on ideas and don’t subject them to the marketplace, thus failure is common. If we look at some well know entrepreneurs out there, we find that they are considered true risk takers and their goal is not to run a business forever. Interesting they are not big personal spenders. In fact wealthy lifestyles are frowned upon. They are driven from the 'Success of the Risk' and the huge financial rewards from this action.

Again, if you look at the top 50 entrepreneurs we find some that are often too slow to react to fast-changing technological conditions and miss other opportunities. They depend on information and plenty of it. They enjoy the electronic world and make sure they have a 'geek' on board to keep them ahead and task-focused. They understand that great businesses are inspired by ideas, but their success is counted in cash. They are, in essence, "idealistic capitalists," believing that the best ideas, the best products, and the best services are also those that make the most money. It is here where the difference between Entrepreneur and the CEO starts to enter the picture.

First difference is the CEO has for sure the ability to see around corners and make sure the business is leading and not following.

The CEO has another quality that is important in his leadership; watching the business grow by leading the team rather than telling the team. The CEO is also very capable of solving problems and not leaving them for others to fix. The CEO always puts the Company first rather than the problem and this means he is often not seen to be solving the crisis.

Using the above points Entrepreneurs run successful businesses every day. However, businesses run by CEO types are normally financially sound and the CEO is capable of seeing trends or problems and solving them so that the Company can continue.

So what am I an Entrepreneur profit seeking type or a CEO who worries about the success of the Company?

Daily enthusiasm continues…

Living the Dream:A Vision for the Future!

2011-05-09T08:09:00.001-04:00

Entrepreneurs usually build businesses around what they love to do. It’s sometimes described as, “Enjoying a passion while earning a living.”

The secret with entrepreneurs is that they love to innovate and this is the Holy Grail of business. Their success in the future is the vision they have of what they want to achieve. However, at all times in the back of their minds is the question, "Is the brand being leveraged to its full potential?"

Entrepreneurs like diversification as it spreads risk and allows brand promotion as long as that promotion matches the aim of the vision.

Our two businesses, the PGS Machine sales group which formed new partners and added patents as well as innovations to ensure they covered the total customer spectrum for StandUp pouches and ShotPaQ™ and its ready-to-drink ShotPak® cocktails along with ready-to-mix STR8UP® spirits created new products and a market niche and now has 10 “Zero Landfill Deep Green” six packs for the market place. If you look at our strategies, the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket rings true.

We have aimed at becoming a one-stop shop for our customers by offering all they need to be successful so they will return time and time again.

It might be boring, but at all times we have focused on what we know best, providing a top class products and top class customer service. So what is our vision, our picture of success at a particular time in the future? How big should our organization be? What are we known for? How many customers should we have? The greater the vision the more excitement in the organization, whether it’s just to beat budget or it’s to reach a long term goal. What we know for sure is that we have a reasonable shot at getting there.

So entrepreneurs know vision articulates where they are going and the organization follows the strategic plan that shows how they are going to get there. Having a vision makes decisions easier. So many opportunities appear daily and it takes discipline to follow only those that help attain the vision. In our case our vision is repeat business. We want to create value which of course makes it harder for customers to walk away from us. We want each contact to be an event beyond their expectations. Intelligent machinery and enjoyable cocktails, now that's “Living the Dream”!

Is the Sky Going to Fall?

2011-03-24T14:40:00.003-04:00

We all run into unexpected obstacles and problems when launching a new business or home project.

Take for instance when we started our PGS Machine business 15 years ago, we were so confident we had the best and latest pouch machine solution for the market only to find no customers for the first three months and eight months before the first machine delivery. The struggle, the anxiety and the need to survive pushed us to another level we never knew we had and then to eventual success as customers started buying. Amazing what you can do in the event of possible personal failure.

Our ShotPak® brands business was so cool and so modern. A social pouch that is safe, secure and "deep green." We felt it was bound to succeed when we introduced it three years ago. What we found out was that we couldn't sell where we wanted to in the USA and our customers couldn't buy our product s in some states.

As an entrepreneur these unexpected setbacks made it fun and challenging to beat the system. My belief was to build both businesses as if they were going to be sold, even though we had little interest to do so. That meant all these years we have looked at the business as potential buyers would and that has kept us ahead of the game.

So we pushed creativity in both businesses, took several risks and created an invitation to customers to join us for wonderful beyond expectations experiences. Our daily theme was innovative machinery and parts backed by outstanding service and always available Ready-To-Drink cocktails made exactly to recipe using premium spirits. We were uncompromising in business deals, our integrity was never in question and we were accountable for all sales. Customers liked this approach.

We never had concrete goals, but targets that continually moved to another level. Our personal strengths and resources contributed to achieving customer satisfaction which was top of all goals. We made sure we could do it and then did 50% more. Our market plan was to make sure customers wanted our products and came back for more.

We don't believe in predicting the future, hence is the sky going to fall? We prefer forecasts and operate on ready, aim, fire then watch all the good things happen. We developed a tremendous rapport with engineers and plant personnel, while the ShotPak ambassadors concentrated on, "It's ready, it's safe and enjoy yourself by Drinking Different!"

We treat customers as investors in our business and now they become our best sales people. We operate on the fringes of both our machine and liquor businesses; we push Unique Purchase Decisions and entice partnerships with the products. We have always been eternal optimists and this has shown through all the challenges we have solved these past years including the bankruptcy of a major machine supplier last year and the ShotPak® challenge of finding new distributors. We never gave up and our customers never knew of these disturbances.

Now look at the world as the turmoil in the Middle East continues and we see oil prices increasing immediately due to the speculators. What happened to the oil pipe line, storage inventory etc.? When the oil price drops why does it take weeks for gas prices to decrease? These speculators are hurting the economy and the general public should speak out.

In my spare time, with a group of friends, the following conversation points arose and not all the answers were available as we discussed, if the sky is going to fall -- because of oil prices, money or stock market issues, how to take advantage of the best kept energy secret [natural gas] in the USA, food for China and the new Healthcare bill -- who knows?

where to invest at this time? and be cautious with municipal bonds with your spare cash / stock market, possibly oil, beverage and food shares
there is no doubt that oil at $100.00 a barrel is sustainable, but will that hurt the economy if it goes above this for long periods then call your Congressman
The USA has lots of natural gas and thus cheap nitrogen needed for fertilizer production which will give us an edge in food production / China needs food
The China food base was starch and is now becoming protein, based on the ratio of grain needed it is one starch at present to four starches for protein and starch based foods like wheat, corn etc.
The new healthcare systems are going to be based on molecular medicine which will look at your genetics and individualize tailor made products which in turn will lower health care costs

Getting Ahead in 2011

2011-01-11T16:17:00.001-05:00

It's 2011 and there's ample reason to feel upbeat for the coming year.

Buoyed by a very strong holiday spending period we are very optimistic about 2011. Corporate earnings are up, there's growth in manufacturing and even investor confidence is up. What this means is consumer confidence is leading the rally.

What we plan is to introduce more digital support systems in our PGS Machine division concentrating on the highest efficiency production at the lowest cost. We have five new products and we are ready to offer solutions where ever needed.

ShotPak® ready-to-drink cocktails is launching in the UK with their Yankee Cocktail™ brand and the French market is up and running.

In the USA, the new original formula Margarita cocktail will be available later this month. The field tests were outstanding with the ShotPak® Margarita winning all the taste tests.

It's all positive, let's keep it going for the rest of the year.

Shotsational and happy digital regards for 2011.

Green Packaging andAutomatic Machinery for 2011

2010-12-16T10:24:00.003-05:00

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.

Different and Exceptional

2010-11-18T09:51:00.002-05:00

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.

Delivering "Unique Value Proposition"

2010-10-04T12:30:00.002-04:00

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"

Connectivity, Navigation & Functionality Are the New Digital Skin Communication Needs

2010-08-13T10:24:00.002-04:00

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.

The Insight That Is The New Marketing Word

2010-06-23T16:19:00.005-04:00

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.

Social Networks, RFID Surveillance,Oil Spillage and Volcanos

2010-05-25T10:17:00.010-04:00

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:

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!

Staying Ahead of the Competition

2010-04-06T13:42:00.002-04:00

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.

Interactive ... The New Realities of Marketing

2010-03-04T14:31:00.001-05:00

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.

What Defines a “Small Business”?

2009-12-09T15:57:00.001-05:00

The year closing and it seems all we are hearing is of the talk about healthcare and what it will do to small businesses.

What is the best definition of a small business? $5 million or $20 million in sales or under 50 people employed? Does 100 employees grant a big business?

Who actually knows the answer? We prefer to define small business as those that are under 50 employees and innovate quickly, introduce unusual products to differentiate themselves or their products from others and operate year round without losing or laying off employees.

We refer to this product differentiation as a fusion of product design and technology.

For example, we actively seek out innovative designs and new products and receive many emails back about our 'cool' designs and as a small business owner we see these comments as positive and our gamble to innovate as a success story.

(Cool used to describe the new VinoPaQ™ wine BarrelPaQ® pouch and very cool for the new graphics on the draft beer StadiumPaQ™. The variety 12 pack was described as the ShotBox)

We operate a very diverse business in that we sell to the liquor, food, chemical, household segments and across many global markets. Nothing is the routine or the same here!

Each year at this time we look at what went wrong during the year, and ask could we have prevented it and how to recover for next year.

This new business plan is very tough in that we only want to include items that are innovative or use a patent and that the sale can be achieved with the least disruption by competitors.

For example how many machines can PGS sell in 2010? What brands can we sell? What markets need our machines and then we decide what innovation disruption our competitors will throw at the customer to stop the sale. After that, we finalize our budget.

In the BPG market we look at how many more states will be approved for ShotPak®? How can we find the right distributor and partner? How can we convince 100 outlets to buy our 22 Ready-To-Drink cocktail products on a weekly basis? How to introduce our new very GREEN 'Bag-without-a-Box' to the wineries? What's the theme for our new nutraceutical waters? What sport or stadium would be the best to introduce the CarboPouch® for draft beers designed to replace paper cups?

Both divisional plans are fully discussed, scenarios are played back and forth and then we analyze what we think the competitors will do to disrupt our sales team's efforts.

From this we have learned over the years all about disruptive activities in today's commercial world. Big emphasis is made on the new social networks and how they can disrupt plans.

Think how quickly a bad experience can be broadcast by Twitter or a video of an event posted on My Space or Facebook.

Simply said, we ask what can go wrong to prevent sales, rather than how many can you sell and to what disruption can occur to stop the sale?

Imagine our sales team is thinking why won't we sell, rather than we can sell so many units and then hope for the best.

This disruption technique approach forces us to design and be innovative to stay ahead and make the sale and as a small business we can introduce our ideas much faster if competitor disruption becomes a headache.

So next time you wonder why you lost the sale ask yourself what was the disruption that caused failure and how could you have prevented it?

Best wishes from our staff for the Holiday Season.

Our Brands in The Next Dimension...

2009-11-20T09:07:00.003-05:00

Throughout the past months one of the most common questions asked is, "Where are we heading with the Beverage Pouch Group and PPiTechGROUP machinery brands?"

We have spent the past 18 months explaining that the Beverage Pouch Group [BPG] is a unique company in that it markets beverages in its own patented sustainable, green, eco-friendly pouches filled on PPiTechGROUP machinery all over the world. A one of a kind company!

You are all probably aware that this past month Shot Spirits Corporation [SSPT.pk] changed hands with Greenbridge Industries acquiring 51% and thus management control and they will, when the dust settles and the various agreements are completed, own 15% of the Beverage Pouch Group. Within BPG we see this as a very positive alliance and we have not sold our stock in SSPT.pk as we believe only good things can come from this new venture.

The biggest brand in BPG is ShotPak® our nine ready-to-drink products are now available in California, Nevada, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana. The next dimension..... is the launch in the first quarter of 2010 of thirteen more ShotPak® products bringing the product line to 22 under the theme "Take your best Shot!"

Just released by the BPG VinoPaq™ division is a double gusset BarrelPaQ® wine pouch with tap that replaces the traditional and environment unfriendly bag-in-a-box package. The next dimension.... for VinoPaq® is that they will not only sell these patented "Bag-without-a-Box™" pouches to wineries all over the world, but also buy wines packed in our pouches from our customers and sell them in other regions including the USA. The proverbial double whammy!

Starting to bubble within BPG is our patented CarboPouch® for draft beers sold cold at stadium or celebrity events. A truly unique invention, that keeps draft beer fresh, uncontaminated and safe. The next dimension.... is the development of the shelf stable CarboPouch® and a post application HandiTap2 opening device. The beginning of the end of glass packaging.

Personal health has never been so important and the elixir of life is water. Good water is at a premium. However, bottled water is now perceived by the consumer as wasteful and the BevPaQ™ division is ready to step to the front of this debate with their patented pouch and EnvoSmart™ spout fitment, filled with nutraceutical health water products for men, women and children. These are definitely the next dimension.... in the water category.

The Beverage Pouch Group is ready to become the market leader in each category it sells products into and will be setting the standard for the next dimension.... in eco-friendly, green, pouch packaging.

The PPiTechGROUP machinery has all been redesigned with sustainable SECAMP standards of operation and we offer flexible, fast and efficient systems with pouch material from FlexSource™ USA.

The PPiTechGROUP machinery division offers the top-of-the-line premade or form-fill-seal systems and their next dimension.... electronic machines that are intelligent and run without operators. The machines fill directly onto returnable store shelving, without any secondary packaging, a really green, sustainable, eco-friendly solution.

So where are we going? What's the next dimension? .... For our brands, we as a small, family-owned entrepreneurial business have done much in the past 15 years, but as we look ahead we still can't stop our enthusiasm from showing. We have strong, unique, sustainable, eco-friendly green pouch solutions that are needed in every country in the world and we have plans to exploit our technology and go global with several joint ventures in 2010.

Welcome, Generation G!

2009-09-30T14:21:00.002-04:00

Following up on our story last year about being wired or now more commonly referred to as being part of the online social networking revolution we introduce Generation G.

Brand Managers take note: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, QZone from China, Hulu online video and LinkedIn operate freely disseminating and exchanging views, and videos as well as good and bad news 24/7.

Today's old fashioned Brand Managers want to maintain contact with Generation Y (born between 1970's and late 80's so 21 plus age group) and feel comfortable. Boring....

Modern Brand Managers spend all their time online trying to reach Generation Z, born After 1990 who hardly use email and are our future market. Remember 30% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. Tweets on cell phones are real time and imagine a bad customer experience!

Advertisements are no longer trusted with 70% preferring peer recommendations. Good bye newspapers....

The new revolution is that in the future the news will FIND the consumers. That's the ShotPak® model.

We try to be everywhere we can in the 12 states and export markets we sell in. Our goal is to send out good vibe video and happy pictures of our customers enjoying the product.

Our plan is simple and shows small down-town store promotions in Northern California to huge turnouts on San Diego beaches, we have consumers enjoying our ready-to-drink products.

In the center of the country we have our band Early Pearl performing in rural towns and in Tennessee we are at all the street summer parties. What are we learning from this is that from the barrier islands in Texas to small island bars in Ohio and the sunny beaches of Florida the message is clear, ShotPak® is a fun easy to socialize product. Now in Jamaica it is becoming the drink of the bars. One advertisement is not responsible for this growth but the world wide web social networks. Amazing and powerful. We recognize the need for over 21 support and diligently follow this requirement.

Now by year end we will offer 10 cocktails, plus 6 Premium drinks in the Near Year with Vodka energy and first time ever Tequila caffeine Buzz-A-Rita's including the recently unbanned Absinthe products. More variety and easier socializing. One of the tweets said the other day stated "these are not your father's drinks". Nice words, but explains the need to try them.

Let this message go out to consumers tired of the bottle and the old fashioned distribution methods.

This is an appropriate time to introduce you to Generation G.

They are disgusted with greed and current consequences for the economy. They are looking for companies that care. They like our Safe, Secure and Social ShotPak® message with a single six-pack sale and not a bottle. This Generation G is an online fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers. In fact the message is clear and the new status symbol has replaced 'taking' with 'sharing a passion' and receiving recognition.

They don't want to drink all night, they don't want bottles of the same liquor, and they want environmental friendly American products. This extends to their car choices, no dependence on oil from foreigners, and this product list goes on. Unsure about this change and if it is happening just talk to the cola companies, look at Seattle coffee shops, and what burger chain is growing and their all new menu. The list goes on.

Remember you read it here first, our PPiTechGroup machinery and FlexSource USA pouch group have altered their selling modes, our BPG ShotPak® retail products group have all recognized this societal/behavioral shift and we no longer push devotion to the company, but to the consumer needs they require from a brand.

Change; recognize you can't do it the old way. Welcome Generation G.

We are ready.

Change in Status Quo 2009

2009-08-17T09:57:00.004-04:00

In the future liquor packaging will be dictated by lifestyles.

Out of interest (also out of touch) a Senior Vice President of a well known USA distributor stated, “When you go to dinner, you want to bring a nice glass bottle of wine. Can you imagine a waiter bringing over a PET bottle?”

Honestly, think about his statement. When was the last time you looked at or touched the wine bottle at the dinner table in a restaurant? The waiter opens, pours and keeps the bottle until needed. This VP is just plain out of touch missing out on today's lifestyle choices and when his competitors grow the segment he will wonder why? He probably does not have a Blackberry or i-Phone either! Dead scared to think of a new package, and hanging onto the old way until retirement.

For busy people, or people on the go, people concerned with eco-friendly green earth decisions are all aware from the world wide web news, that all grades of wine in South Africa, New Zealand, France (yes, France), Sweden, UK, Italy and soon USA are served on a daily basis in StandUp pouches and in large price favorable patented double gusset BarrelPaQ™ 1.5 and 3 liters pouches without the box.

These are lifestyle changes.

Going to the beach and need wine? Take a VinoPaQ™ pouch...... Having a pool party? Serve a BarrelPaQ™ wine complete with easy open tap pouch..... Travelling and can't carry wine on the plane? Place a multipack of wine Selects™ in your checked bags without risk of breaking. It's called lifestyle needs and satisfaction.

In Oklahoma, Grape Ranch just launched this month a wine that is filled into a one liter StandUp pouch. This is a frozen wine variety with all the fun of mixing and pouring when you are ready to drink.

Looking at the beer industry and a cold one at a ball game. Often wondered how the vendor pours three cups at one time and not a drop is spilt? Where’s the foaming head? Think Grease (ugh)! Coming soon is CarboPouch™, a patented system of tubes of draft beer sold to you sealed and fresh and uncontaminated. Be trendy, modern, healthy and call for the eco-friendly CarboPouch™ tube at your next game!

And now to ShotPak®, who started the revolution and rode the wave with their new patented StandUp pouch and easy-tear feature filled with ready-to-drink cocktails and premium shots.

Every day our ShotPak® pouch sales increase, the 11 states we are selling in now have 1,000 stores, night clubs, c-stores, bars and stadiums offering singles or six packs.

This week the Freedonia Group published a report on alcohol packaging and predicted that by 2012:

Beer in plastic will grow from 300 to 600 million units.

Wine will grow from 25 to 100 million units.

Distilled spirits will grow from 1,800 to 2,575 million units.

For the Shot Spirits Corporation (SSPT.PK and www.shotspiritscorporation) their investment in the Beverage Pouch Group is sure to reap many rewards if plastic packaging grows at the rate forecast by the Freedonia Group (www.freedoniagroup.com) in the next three years.

The Beverage Pouch Group (www.beveragepouchgroup.com) are leading this pouch plastic package revolution and its parent PPi Technologies Group (www.ppitechnologies.com) are selling pouch machinery in over 20 countries.

Believe me, the status quo has changed. Consumers want convenience, safety, earth friendly green pouch packages in their new, busy lifestyles. The glass bottle - just like the can - has a definite place in future packaging, but no longer owns the segment. The pouch is joining and offering another choice.

The Future....

2009-07-20T07:51:00.002-04:00

Running three different businesses in today's economic conditions is a challenge. However, because our entire product portfolio is very strong and our customers are brand loyal, we are seeing growth.

Recall that we have said all year that we are planning to come out of this economic downtown stronger than ever and with improved capabilities to serve our customers. It is working!

ShotPak® has taken a leadership position in the ready-to-drink cocktails segment in 11 states. USA case sales in 2009 are ahead compared to 2008.

Our PGS pouch machinery group expanded into the detergent market with high-speed, eco-friendly systems.

Our pouch supply group, FlexSource™ USA, has launched the BarrelPaQ™ a green, low carbon dioxide footprint pouch for wine in several overseas markets and this will be available in the USA later this year.

Taking care of our customers is critical to our success. Using the internet to communicate news, show new product details and benefits has proved to be popular. Viral marketing at its best.

The events section of www.shotpakinc.com is a most popular spot and the three guys feeding it, Pfunk Ramirez, Noel G and Vinnie Pryme are capturing the spirit of the streets. ShotPak® is all over the place.

So looking into the future, we continue to see bigger, greater results all round.

BPG ShotPak® will launch by year end another eight products ranging from Mojito to Absinthe in their patented, one-of-a-kind 1.7 ounce pouch.

PGS machinery will introduce systems for packing new organic baby foods in a pouch with reclosable zipper to energy drinks in a StandUp pouch with spout fitment.

FlexSource™ USA will introduce their patented double gusset pouch for wine, paint, home chemicals, food service products and water.

Exciting, new, leading edge stuff that makes people comfortable and want to buy or be part of. Think positive, be positive and grow, grow!

Shot Spirits Corporation's investment in BPG is a winner and the future is bright once you analyze the news and the future in this blog.

R. Charles Murray

Perspective on the Future....

2009-04-28T12:06:00.003-04:00

We seem to still be surrounded by doom and gloom. We are trying to get away from these people and the negativity they preach.

For example, our machinery group is experiencing many new inquiries for machinery and looking forward to implication of these future orders.

Our FlexSource USA flexible pouch group is expanding with new products like BarrelPaQ™ for the paint industry to replace metal cans, VinoPaQ™ elegant shaped StandUp wine pouches to replace glass bottles made overseas and "The pouch without a box" development for wine and any liquid needing a new concept, all of these are brilliant eco-friendly opportunities.

Then throughout all this uncertainty our ShotPak® brands have continued to grow and are now available in 12 states [CA, NV, AZ, IN, KY, OH, TN, TX, OK, AL, FL, GA].

So we see opportunities all over and are chasing these where we can.

To quote Wolfgang Grulke of Future World, "The future's so bright, you've got to wear shades."

Our approach in this bright sunny environment is to manage our way out of the 'current mess' in the financial world by concentrating on our customers and our brands. Keep the customer satisfied and they will support and continue to buy.

As the CEO of the group it has become the perfect time for me to build optimism in the management team running the PPi Technologies Global GROUP as we move forward.

We immediately started to study the three types of customers our three divisions are exposed to, we found our biggest challenge today as brand managers is that we now have several categories of market segments and all require different approaches.

First we found Boomers who are due to retire in the next five years from strong companies and looking for the message that this product works for you.

Civics who are very conservative and have been around for a lifetime like brand names and support them.

Gen X don't put a premium on formal dress code and prefer informal approach at business and in stores and have zero brand loyalty. They believe clearly that they can use new technology in their lives and you have to market brands in a way that they have contact with them in order to sell to them. They ignore traditional products especially if their parents use them!

Not to be outdone in difficulty is the Gen Y someone from 25 to mid 30s, where traditional marketing is about controlling the message and Gen Y utilizes the internet for most decisions misses the message all together. They use blogging and social networks for their news. The Gen Y also likes products that create praise and how wonderful they are when using them. They love technology and text messages allow them to be in touch with a huge group all day.

So armed with all of this customer knowledge we then had to decide how we were going to get a simple message across to our three types of customers?

Our machine group decided to invite engineers and project managers to visit other customer plants running our machines for on the line touch and feel. Message here is tried proven and trustworthy machinery.

Our pouch materials group decided to make samples up with all the logo printing and let the customers do market tests before buying the final product. Message here is let all groups in the market try the product before making the final choice. Let the customer choose.

For Shotpak® brands the decision was to make the brands available in happy relaxing venues like nightclubs, swimming pool or beach bars, golf clubs and of course the biggest market the celebrity events where the internet is doing the marketing for example www.rockontherange.com where the customer can touch, smell and taste the product while enjoying themselves.

In 90 days I will let you know the success or not of these three approaches.

Enjoy spring as summer is just around the corner.

Shotsational regards,
R. Charles Murray
PPi Technologies Global

A Growing Recognition of What SSC and BPG Have to Offer

2009-04-02T14:36:00.007-04:00

Every day I get emails or comments on the SSC website or calls from investors asking when will SHOT Spirits Corporation (SSPT.pk) stock go up?

I guess just like the person asking the question I really don't know, but have a basic idea that unless we have huge increase in sales of the ShotPak® brands by Beverage Pouch Group, the market sees little advantage in owning the SSC stock at this time. I guess the easy marketing 101 reply comes to mind, sell more and be recognized more.

However, it goes deeper than that. Very few market makers understand what SHOT Spirits Corporation acquired when they invested and concluded the technology deal with Beverage Pouch Group. Both SSC and BPG are not your father's beverage company! All other beverage companies in the market today are in one or two segments, normally closely allied to their top brand. BPG is a one stop beverage company and is in the liquor segment, ready to drink cocktails segment, nutraceutical water, fortified water and natural spring water segments, wine segment and draft beer segment. All this plus pouch patents and relevant machinery business. These various segments could all be stand alone companies.

What most investors don't take into consideration is that the base point of SSC on 1/1/07 was zero value and with huge losses and debt. The company actually had Caveat Emptor status and was bankrupt as well as having a share with little value.

BPG took it over on 1/1/08, after closing the technology deal (which included the use of the exciting ShotPak® cocktails) with SHOT Spirits Corporation and started to build our two ShotPak® brands using the principles below.

We planned to work with distributors and consumers to build our two brands so that they got noticed and drew fanatical consumer support from across the country. We emphasized the sensory features of the pouch and quality of the products.

We decided to build new innovative flavors with our distillery partner, Imperial Brands, for long term growth and for both the domestic and international market places. We now have 20 product lines. We decided to offer our patented pouch design to other liquor companies and pack for them. Our first contract is with California Blue® Tequilas.

We decided to build both of our Brands with the mission to stand the test of time and truly stand out as niche products. We had to think outside the glass and can 'box' traditionally used in the liquor industry. We saw the opportunity to create a modern, eco-friendly American Global StandUp pouch package with two different brands viz. ShotPak® 34 proof ready-to-drink cocktails and 80 proof STR8UP® spirits.

We invested in viral marketing and built a website that has become an online destination for all to learn about all our brands and the BPG company range of pouched beverages.

We also emphasize our good citizen mission and strongly support charities helping injured children, families needing nutritional support and recognize that alcohol needs to be dealt with as an adult beverage through education. We do not advertise in the press or on bill boards. We introduced six and 12 multipacks pushing the price point beyond $7.

Back to the stock question and why no movement upwards.

Let me say I am unashamedly what the market calls a Baby Boomer. We were the first generation to recognize the value of brands and growth by association. Thus now you understand why we decided to concentrate on ShotPak's growth in year one.

Remember we Baby Boomers invented 'growth'. That's the tool by which we are always measured. So we had to get the pouch in as many hands as possible and watch it grow from there. Our marketing themes were relentless, "Party in a Pouch / Share with your friends / Take your best shot" to get the adult beverage pouch into night clubs, celebrity events, golf courses, the transport segment, hotel pool areas and beach resorts as well as selected liquor stores.

As a Boomer our measurement of a Company's success was the stock market and their demand for ever increasing growth. No one bothered to really look inside a company, only that it grew.

This I strongly believe is the answer to the price question and the reason why our share is not moving. We are a sleeping giant and not fully understood! We are measured on growth alone and not potential. Our five parts can't be compared to any other company and we are missionaries in this regard. A beverage technology company.

Today as I reflect back on my previous 17 years in the beer industry, everything we did as Boomers was driven by the desire for maximum growth above all else. Each quarter had to be better than the last. More stores, more consumers, more export countries, reach higher and higher targets.

And then crash...

Now, suddenly in 2009 it seems, the new demand from investors is will you be around in six months? How strong is your brand? What is the depth of your company's intellectual property?

The indications are that brands that can deliver modest and measurable results are back in favor with investors, compared to say those that predict huge sales with doubtful bottom lines.

In addition to owning up to being part of the 'Baby Boomer' generation I have added another label of entrepreneur. I am finding that our beverage businesses is suddenly attracting venture capitalist interest.

Why?

Maybe they recognize that most entrepreneurs will continuously innovate regardless of the chaos around them and that winning the game is the very definition of entrepreneurship.

So suddenly what do or have they seen in Pink OTC SHOT Spirits Corporation (SSPT.pk) and its 15% investment in the Beverage Pouch Group?

Why the telephone calls? Why the visits?

I believe that they now see BPG as a unique one of a kind hard to duplicate small beverage company, with patented products and huge domestic and global potential.

A major plus for shareholders in SSC is that the Executive Committee has kept the free trading shares under a minuscule 45 million and a very positive benefit considering that year on year the SSC loss was reduced by over 60%, the assets were increased fivefold and this was done with no outside investors. Thus buying shares from this tiny pool of free trading shares is going to be harder as the second year results are reported.

It is not lost on the analysts that in the worst economy in 50 years, in the most regulated industry in the USA that both ShotPak® brands grew and now in 2009 have started to reach cult status. For example ShotPak® cocktails will be the exclusive ready-to-drink liquor at several major national concerts this summer (first is www.rockontherange.com). BPG is now working with celebrity industry partners like AEGLive, Sam Coplin Associates and Global Music. This exposure to hundreds and thousands of willing thirsty happy consumers will hopefully continue to support our market plan of further developing a niche and cult status and 'must have product'.

There is no question that our positive trend results and first year market penetration has awakened the interest of some forward looking money managers.

As they look closer they will find our BevPaQ™ Company will begin to offer nutraceutical health waters in a eco-friendly pouch in the third quarter as part of a technology collaboration license with a major pharmaceutical company. Same time we will start collaboration with The Nevada Bottling and Beverage Company and offer a range of their fortified and natural waters.

The VinoPaQ™ Company has already proven itself with its patented wine pouches and stand alone half gallon BarrelPaQ™ pouches are now being sold internationally. Suddenly the thought that in the USA we will be able to offer a 5 oz StandUp VinoPaQ™ wine pouch with open and close spout for consumption at any outdoor venue, will allow the wine traditionalists in this very conservative industry a chance to grow their events party market segment without harming glass sales.

Finally the catch phrase "toss me a tube" at a ball game, will hopefully be on everyone's lips as the CarboPouch™ from our BeerPaQ™ company starts to replace paper and glass packages at stadiums. This innovation allows breweries to sell fresh unpasteurized draft beer to thirsty consumers fast, and without the handling and pouring nightmares at present. Fresh beer, safe package, fast service, low carbon dioxide footprint and a Brand Managers dream of a pouch. The kind of stuff that made USA Brands famous around the world.

So now why won't SHOT Spirits Corporation shares go up in price? I don't know why, because we are doing all the right steps. What I do know is that there are a small number of shrewd investors who are not selling shares, because they understand where we are heading and the potential upside in the future.

A Shotsational April.

Creating the "WOW Factor"

2009-03-20T10:52:00.003-04:00

Earlier this month we were at the Nightclub, Bar and Hotel Show in Las Vegas.

This show really tests a liquor product’s ability to stand out and create the WOW factor amongst so many competitors.

With more than 100 products to catch the imagination of the show visitors, there is only one message to the brand owner, get it right the first time or lose it!

For the consumers at this show the product decisions are endless.

With all this in mind, we needed a "WOW factor". We had a corner booth with 3 high table bars, stools and existing ShotPak® brands for tasting, plus a full range of the 8 new cocktails for tasting in plain silver unprinted pouches. The new product on its own would have to do the selling!

At the end of the show it was a pleasure to hear all our personnel reporting that the new and existing shots were a big hit with the consumers.

Imagine for 6 hours a day the booth personnel never stopped serving shots. The new Mojito created an instant fan club, as did the three caffeine enhanced cocktails. GRAVITY®, our 100 proof vodka with infused caffeine, was strongly supported by the Californian Blue infused caffeine Tequilas called Buzz-A-Rita natural or strawberry, and we instantly created a new ready to drink segment of caffeine infused ready to drink products in our StandUp pouch. Consumers tasted all three products were very impressed. They are all different but, in fact, complement one another.

The Cosmopolitan and Pomegranate martini are going to be welcome additions to any social occasion and our web site and e-store have been flooded with requests for when these will become available.

So, as we wrapped up after two busy days we learned that hard work pays off and that the consumers were more than satisfied with our new product additions.

On the selling side, we are available in 7 states and licensed in 5 more. Applications in another 11 states are underway.

By year end we will offer 12 ShotPak® cocktails and 12 STR8UP® spirits. This list of 24 products are the WOW factor of our www.shotpakinc.com web page. We await government approval of the label copy before we can sell these products. Hopefully, as you get your taste buds exposed to the new products and spread the word of how good they are, viral networking takes us to the next level.

Shotsational regards,

Charles Murray
PPi Technologies Global

The 30 hour day!

2009-02-09T07:32:00.003-05:00

How many of you feel like you have too many 30 hour days?

Competition for my time is increasing, and the abundance of digital software makes it virtually impossible to hide. Think emails, voice messages, texting, pictures, videos, messages, phone calls, faxes and just plain old hand writing notes makes it impossible to do this in a standard 8 hour day. Everything is double viz. Answer phone while watching video. Answer emails in meetings etc. Is 30 hours enough?

No I am not indulging in some of our new ShotPak® cocktails in front of the fireplace as I write this blog, but on a plane thinking some days it just never seems to end.

Who misses the 8 to 5 office day, stop for a cocktail on the way home to miss the rush. Then the family at dinner and some after dinner activities followed by the news and bed at 11pm the latest. Up at 6.30 and the easy repeatable boring day.

Today up at 5.30am and on the cardiovascular machine for 20 minutes and opening the Blackberry for overnight text messages, emails as I run at a fast pace. Now 20 relaxed minutes become 40 active minutes as you do two projects at once. (20)

Shower, shave and leave by 6.45 with 30 minutes to the office and start returning calls while driving, another double activity and thus 30 minutes of double activity.

50 additional active minutes already and I am not at the office!

The office, no longer a refuge of cups of coffee, sports stories around the water cooler, but a race track of digital activities.

I log on and look at the emails in, emails requiring answers and meeting appointments flash across the screen taking up another 2 unplanned hours of the day. The phone message light is flashing and the number 4 shows we have a catchup game to play as well.

Start breathing slowly as I sort the work load. 70+ emails, 6 urgent from the day before, 4 telephone calls to return. I decide to walk to my mail box and find some letters, internal mail and a fax. Who longs for the days of the fax machine and no email?

7.15 I start on the 6 urgent emails and its 8 as I finish and the phone starts.

Next off to the first meeting of day and with my trusty Blackberry start answering emails whenever the meeting drifts from my sphere of business. Netresult one hour meeting and 20 minutes of double activity emails. (70)

Back to the office emails have crept up to 85 which in my business is 85 opening and 85 minutes replying. What happened to my secretary and her shorthand and 150 minute typing skills?

The phone starts and conference call for 30 minutes and I am opening and reading mail at the same time. 30 double activity minutes. (100)

Email and calls and its lunch time. What happened to the one hour lunch break?

Start eating joined by others and discussion heads to the afternoon meeting. Finish lunch and back on the job after 40 minutes to get ready for that meeting.

Email back up to 60. Between telephone, mail, meetings faxes and visits to various offices it is 6 pm. All the time double tasking means 150 minutes of double activity. Where did the day go. 20 from lunch and 60 after 5pm means I have worked already 250 double activity minutes.

Drive home and answer messages and another 30 minutes of double activity. (280)

Dinner, open my home private email and wish I hadn't. Finally while watchingTV holding a yes/no conversation with my better half I open the daily news paper.

Relax with the newspaper and one eye on the 11pm TV news I take one more look at the Blackberry to find 30 more emails and text messages. 80 minuteslater = (360 minutes or 6 hours of double activity time I am ready for bed).

Midnight fall into bed and the 5.30 alarm seems to be just too early.

So from 5.30 until wake up the next day my body has 24 standard hours and 6 hours of double activity action which is the perfect 30 hour day.

How did this happen?

Let's move to viral marketing, which we mentioned a year ago was our chosen method of marketing ShotPak® brands.

What does viral marketing mean?

Internet advertising or marketing messages that spread exponentially whenever a new user is added. Viral marketing assumes that as each new user starts using the service or product, the advertising will go to everyone with whom that user interacts with.

So now I realize part of my 30 hour day is caused by viral marketing news reaching me. Imagine as this develops, is the 50 hour day far away?

In conclusion, each email you send gets you two more back and it never stops.

We Americans are already one of the hardest working nations in the world and now with viral marketing we will some day not sleep longer than 3 or 4 hours a night.

USA Economy and the Future

2009-01-06T16:28:00.001-05:00

With the health of the immediate economy tied to a government bailout package and some people planning the obituary of the USA industries, it is probably time to look at what the true picture is.

The statistics show with just 5% of the global population, the USA accounts for 30% of global domestic product and produces more output in a single year than the next four economies viz. Japan, Germany UK and China. In fact America's economy is more than four times the size of China's.

The USA is still a manufacturing powerhouse and the 2006 global manufacturing output data has hardly changed from the 22% in 1990. China ranked a distant second at 13%.

As for marketing, the USA has more than half of the worlds top 100 brands and of the top 10, eight were American.

At the same time the USA remains the most innovative economy in the world.

This is a good time to talk about our PPi Technologies Global packaging machinery and BPG-ShotPak® product lines.

Our proven pouch machinery allows many of the top food and beverage companies to get their products to the consumers at best price and quality. Similarly the ShotPak® ready-to-drink product pouches are modern and often feared by our competitors.

ShotPak® has grown about 30% in 2008 and is sold in only 5 states.

In 2009, we hope to have ShotPak® distributed in a dozen states with all the benefits of the larger market place.

Amazingly all this growth with no print advertising, only articles through the internet and appearances at public venues like golf courses and rock-n-roll dance clubs has spread the word. An incredible story that demonstrates our American innovative capabilities in production and marketing of a new regulated consumer liquor product.

So based on the above comments our view is all is not lost and the USA remains the most competitive and resilient economy in the world and we are happy to be part of the recovery. A strong 2009 to all of you.

The Truth About the Portman Group

2008-11-26T16:13:00.005-05:00

The global economy is, to put it mildly, in a fix. For a new package launch this was perhaps not the year to be changing the packaging and introducing ShotPak® into new markets?

Look around you, credit has tightened, stock markets are in freefall and through all of this despair we are proud to announce that North American ShotPak® consumers continue to buy our products. A signal of their strong support allowed us to grow month to month for the past three quarters. Our eight products launched in our new patented Standup pouch in the first quarter of 2008 was be a momentous occasion for us and fully supported by our million plus consumers.

Despite the gloom we are still introducing new ideas. Our Holiday 12 pouch variety packs is a great gift box for the season and is being well received by the trades.

However, just as sudden as the financial crisis appeared, we were thrust into the limelight based on the so called "attractiveness" of our product to people under 18 in the United Kingdom, accusing us of encouraging binge drinking to young people.

Even though we do not market to young people in the UK, we were "tarred and feathered," tried and found guilty without a chance to defend ourselves in the UK market by the officious Portman Group.

Who is the Portman Group you might ask? They are an organization of liquor industry members who act as a watchdog group. There they oversee a code of practice on the naming, packaging and promoting of alcohol in the UK. By the way, we fully support the principle of no underage drinking or out of control binge drinking sessions, but the judgment on these acts must be honest and unbiased. Read on for the truth as to what happened to ShotPak®.

As an introduction, let me explain one of the Portman Group's latest rulings. They condemned and banned a Scottish beer called "Skullsplitter" on the grounds it would encourage violence.

(My Scottish ancestry and character did not take this childlike decision so well!)

The fact that this beer is over 20 years old (ShotPak® is five years old) and is not available in UK supermarkets (ShotPak® is also not available in UK supermarkets) was totally ignored by this group of apparently out of touch committee. These are people, who probably never have had to work and balance a budget in their entire life. The harm they cause to other companies in the interest of always being right is actually shocking. The lack of commercial understanding makes me wonder about fiduciary duty and harm to a brand they ban with little or no evidence of any wrong doing. The damage to our group could exceed a million pounds by the time we are finished with our lawsuit.

The so called Portman Group justice for the "Skullsplitter" brewery was, "off with their head" (sorry a pun) a total ban, as well as the end of an era. Do the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland come to mind? (My apologies to Lewis Carroll).

I am personally enraged by the Portman Group's report about ShotPak®, because they have allowed a UK product called "Sidekick" the ultimate shot to remain on the market. The "Sidekick" Ultimate shots have all the negative attributes the Portman Group complained about, compared to our eco-friendly pouch with a lower alcohol product content. We were banned and they were allowed to remain. Consider that in London, at several sports pubs every weekend, alcohol is served in pouches. There is no doubt we were selected as a competitive US product and for sure as a threat to a member of the Portman Group supporters (actually our competitors).

The Portman Group first raised its concerns about ShotPak®, following a single complaint from Sally Keebles. She is a controversial British Labor MP, who advocates a variety of issues including banning fox hunting dogs and smoking and so on. She is desperately trying to find something to hold on to her seat after a unproductive term in office, where she has done nothing, but try to stop her constituents from enjoying themselves (these views are not mine but according to reports on various internet blogs). She suddenly found that the liberal party opposition published a manifesto about underage and binge drinking, which actually makes sense in that if you break the liquor laws you must be punished. Ms. Keebles, with no liquor policy in place, immediately countered by saying that ShotPak® encourages binge drinking in young people, in fact we have less than half the alcohol of the miniature liquor bottles including less than "SideKick" shots readily available in stores.

To show her bias even more, she claimed that children will mistake the pouch for fruit drinks. So we wonder where or what her actual thought process was, only to think what she saw was perhaps another US idea that our very upper class MP (from a blog) decided was unacceptable for adults. No questions were asked. A complaint was made and we were banned.

Back to the Portman Group, we explained all of our benefits to them, including the reduced alcohol cocktail formulas and our efforts to diminish the effects of binge drinking, but with regret to no avail. Really, ShotPaq® is a positive solution to the so called binge drinking problem, which is mentioned in their report, because after four drinks you are still well below the legal limit for a normal sized person.

We cooperated with them all the way. However as they are so full of, well you know what, and their hidden agenda which is probably the need to correct the labor government perceived mistake of 24 hour licensing, they looked for non UK products to be the scapegoats for the binge drinking problem. Why not take on and ban the 40% alcohol miniature bottle that can compared to our 17% alcohol pouch product? This is simple math, but taking responsibility for screw-ups is not their strong point.

Remember we do not target the young market, we sell the lowest alcohol product at the highest prices on the street (£15 a six pack in the UK) and to adult clubs and yet we were banned.

We presented the new labeling on our pouches incorporating the UK Government alcohol consumption guidelines as requested, without any approval or comment on our efforts from the Portman Group.

We pointed out that we offer the eco-friendly, lowest carbon dioxide footprint package on the market, but to no avail. What are they going to do when major groups change over to the pouch? Will they invite Shotpak® back? They are just out of touch with any modern market developments.

Under the Beverage Pouch Group marketing policy, we have always promoted a responsible attitude towards underage or binge drinking and we are not the problem in this regard. In fact, our cocktail sales in the UK is a small percentage of the national consumption of cocktails.

My biggest concern with the officious, out of touch, self important Portman Group is that they did not bother to check if ShotPak® has been named by any Police Chief as having a direct link to binge drinking or appeared in any court or hospital complaint as a result of heavy drinking of ShotPak® cocktails.

Remember ShotPak® pouches are not sold in Sally Keebles' area. Do you see the bias coming through?

Another concern is that the Portman Group is ignoring CE trade and US trade relations with the UK?

We continue to wonder why they do not look at more high profile drinks with higher alcoholic contents than ShotPak®. These high profile products are sold in miniature bottles and freely available in supermarkets and traditionally used for binge drinking. If we are banned, then all similar products should be banned. Is this an attempt to protect home packaged UK drinks to the detriment of the UK drinker being exposed to so-called lower alcohol Yankee cocktails? In addition, they are less likely to be harmed if they drink a few Shotpaks®

I personally believe that this is the case with the Shotpak® ban.

Please look at the above pictures of the "Sidekick" shots packed in glass and allowed to remain for sale in the UK and then think about Shotpak® pouches being banned. No glass and no weapon with our pouch. Comments about Shotpak® brand names being attractive to the young people market is really stretching the imagination.

The Portman Group has used its considerable influence to recommend the banning of ShotPak® brands based on the names of the products and the package style based on just this single complaint.

Of course when we look at the "Skullsplitter" beer ban and "Sidekick" shot approved stories above, we find that large breweries and our British cocktail or STR8UP® spirits competitors are totally ignored by the Portman Group, who know that if they clash with them that will be the end of their mission and possibly the Portman Group. Imagine a single complaint about one of the products of a major organization could lead to a ban of the product. All hell would break loose.

For example and to illustrate my point about the level playing field I do believe that in Westminster that the pubs still allow smoking, but no where else in the UK and so it is one law for the haves (Sally Keebles and the Portman Group) and another for the working class.

Sooner or later the credibility of the Portman Group will end as people realize they let their own members break their code of practice without any comment or bans. I can think of several beers well above the alcohol content of "Skullsplitter" and still trading alongside the miniature bottles or shot glasses of "Sidekick" with little Portman Group concern.

My suggestion to the Portman Group is get your act together, stop being so righteous when you are wrong, so keen to bend over for a British MP, because of the "old boys club", stiff upper lip British approach, because if you truly looked and vetted ShotPak(r) you would find we are not a product that encourages binge drinking. If "Sidekick" and PET miniature bottles are allowed in the market then we should also be allowed to participate.

We intend to fight this terribly biased commercial attack by asking the one million plus Shotpak(r) consumers and their friends, via our internet chat rooms to stop buying British gin.

It might be a small revolution and take time, but we hope it will show our contempt for the Portman Group's completely biased and tilted playing field approach to our new modern American cocktail products in pouches.

Think about it, no more British gin and tonic! We have some great US gins which we will advertise for free on our website.

In closing, a tough blog, but we have families working at ShotPak® and at our customers outlets who do not deserve to be blamed for the UK problem of binge drinking, particularly as we actually have a better solution to help curb this practice.

Remember tell a friend; tell your local club, your local bar, bottle store, golf club, we want fair play. Pass on the message "No more British gin until ShotPak® is allowed back in".

Help the boycott, one gin substitute at a time, until we get a fair deal from the Portman Group.

Send this message by e-blasts to all concerned.

Global Branding - It's not easy when you're small and the new guy on the block!

2008-10-28T13:43:00.004-04:00

Building a global brand requires very strict goals and repetitive assiduous attention to detail.

There is no room for mediocrity and everything must always be the same or better. Product, printing, pouch and people must be available. Day in and day out our business model is ensuring customer satisfaction, through our 'we care' service and the desire to maintain our goal of being the best in the category.

We had great plans, and then suddenly our daily routine of building a strong chain for our machinery and liquor brands was interrupted. We were rudely awakened by the global financial mess and its negative effect on our customers.

What a time for this to happen, because during the past month, despite all the bad news about greedy bankers and questionable political decisions, our company received news of several awards to celebrate.

Our machinery group, PPiTechGlobal received three awards. The first from the prestigious Inc. 5000, Best Private Companies competition, we were ranked number 2950. Then, runner up for the EDC Florida Manufacturing Companies Award and finally the Top Manufacturing Company Award in our hometown of Sarasota.

Considering these awards have occurred in the toughest economy in 50 years, it was a wonderful way to recognize this group of dedicated machinery people led by Stuart Murray.

The point of these comments is this, if you have a goal stick with it and adjust to meet the new conditions around you, even if the sky is falling. Branding is the identity of a business and our plan is for ShotPak™ brand to create loyalty and an emotional bond and with our consumers.

If we look at the Beverage Pouch Group, our ShotPak™ brand reached a commendable 10,000 cases sold in our first nine months, from sales in only seven states and exports to England. What is more of a feat, is that this has been accomplished with little advertising other than viral internet marketing and the support of the band, 'Early Pearl'. Promotion at local sports events from cricket to paint ball as well as golf has also helped our growth. The pouch was delivered to participants at each of these functions and this allowed sensory marketing (touch, taste, smell) of the product and that translated into purchases.

This 10,000 case success is phenomenal in the strictly controlled liquor industry, where everything is against the building of a major global brand by a small company.

These large incumbents mercilessly defend their turf where survival means total consumer support. The product and package cannot vary in any manner. Our aim has been to create a modern brand around our consumer's profile.

Remember BPG ShotPak™ also has huge responsibilities to support education and preventing underage drinking, and still keep our product awareness in the market place.

To this end we introduced the six pack box to ensure that at least $9.00 was needed for the retail purchase of our ready-to-drink cocktails and STR8UP's. All the literature we use refrains from any underage marketing practices and we promote within liquor stores to reduce youthful exposure to our product posters or product.

What concerns us greatly are the accusations that our patented StandUp pouches look like a soft drink box or fruit drink pouch for children. Wow, are the public being mislead by these comments. Our six and twelve multiple pouch boxes are totally different and have the 'alcohol included' message all over them and sold solely in liquor outlets. While bar sales are always one or two shots. Also, should negative references to our colorful pouches and their modern names be interpreted as adult drinkers should only be allowed to see dull and dreary packs? It makes one wonder who writes this stuff, and if they even believe what they have written. But more importantly would it stop underage drinking if ShotPak™ was sold in brown paper bags?

We believe that we must encourage parents to play a more active role in keeping alcohol out of the hands of our nation's youth. The liquor industry cannot do it alone.

Few people realize that the future of global brands is going to be based on the reading of demographic (people), industrial (money to spend) and social megatrends (parties and alcohol). A real Triple Bottom Line (TBL) that we must plan for.

This TBL simply means looking at how much of the disposable family income is available to purchase our BPG ShotPak™ and water products given the hundreds of choices available.

We continue to learn all we can about the TBL and will continue doing so. While at the same time we all can help rebuild our nation's financial infrastructure (through our tax dollars at work). We see this as an opportunity to also build our ShotPak™ and fortified water brand awareness in another dozen states, so that when the economy returns to normal, we will be ready to celebrate our success again.

Whoever said global branding was easy?

The Challenges of Growing a Business in These Hard Economic Times Without Traditional Advertising

2008-09-16T16:03:00.003-04:00

This past month we have had huge publicity and debate about the Shotpak brand and the patented StandUP pouch we use and whether it encourages underage drinking.

Syndication meant the LA Times article including a colored picture appeared in hundreds of local papers throughout the USA and on several TV news shows. We reminded all and sundry that we agree that anyone under 21 years of age should not drink and also reminded all that the family is in charge of this behavior and not Shotpak!

It is interesting to us that Shotpak has been around since 2003 and in our BPG pouch since last August. The total sales are still small compared to other liquor beverages and we have only just introduced the Shotpak brand fulltime into 7 states and some overseas markets. The store count in USA is under 1000. In other words we are tiny brand, but we were discussed as if we were an industry leader. This is a compliment to our viral marketing program if nothing else.

The key points of the viral program are that our pouch is like a slim flask designed to fit in a purse or back pocket and to fit snugly into a unique marketing niche.

Shotpak is a social drink designed for consumption in settings such as parties, bars and dance floors where glass is a danger.

You don't get a second chance to make a first impression and we are aiming to make Shotpak an iconic brand where the pouch, in its essence, becomes a signature part of the overall brand. In a nutshell our aim is to create loyalty and love for our patented StandUp pouch.

We want to hit a nerve with the consumers as regards the flavor and the package. Our pouch is simple with strong graphics and has an edge to be memorable and unique on the shelf.

In summary, we have a simple, distinctive package, with great products inside and this is the message we want to get across.

Growing a business in hard economic times is already a challenge and if you take our decision not to use mainstream press or TV to advertise and promote, it is unbelievable how we have managed to maintain growth each month via the internet and social functions.

What this nontraditional marketing exercise has taught us is some very clear direction and we share some of these points of our assiduous attention to detail plan, with our Shotpak supporters:

Rule 1 / If you can do it yourself then do it.

Rule 2 / Don't be afraid to wear many hats so that you can ensure the message gets out.

Rule 3 / absolutely essential to surround yourself with honest, passionate, qualified people, who believe it can be done. Keep pushing home what you expect of them and try not to get moved off the path. This will be your biggest challenge.

Rule 4 / Manage limited resources (think cash flow) effectively.

Rule 5 / simultaneously as you launch the new package and product, ensure your next product development idea is ongoing. You will need these stage 2 plans to keep the product in front of consumers as they test your new innovations.

Rule 6 / Create a campaign to communicate brand message in a nontraditional way that is exciting and people want to return to your web site and read more. It is this part of our plan that is working.

Rule 7 / Make sure that your product message is fun, energetic, innovative, and has a personality.

Rule 8 / Broaden customer base to encompass the upwardly mobile professional and sports fan segment of the market place. This has been our mission.

Now in these tough times we have found that users of our products talk by email to each other more frequently and make a lot of buying decisions based on what their peers are drinking habits.

It has not been lost on our supporters the increase in the numbers of celebrities drinking Shotpak on social occasions, as shown on the MySpace web site 'Party in a Pouch.

Early Pearl, the rock band we sponsor, is doing a tremendous job on the road showing the safe, secure drink responsible side of the product and the product message. Texas, Florida and Georgia are part of their tour this month.

Using our viral marketing we are trying to make contact with our consumers on a level that is very emotional.

We try to get in front of our consumers with a face to face and touch the pouch approach, so it resonates with them through a taste of brand event. For example our efforts at golf courses means consumers touch the product before buying and enjoying real time.

A new message is Standup for and talk, touch, enjoy our products in our 'oil to oil' eco-friendly pouch. We are a 21st century product.

It's an aesthetically pleasing pouch and it is hard to describe why, but people just like it.

MySpace was used to launch our viral campaigns and to generate a huge amount of awareness about people drinking Shotpak.

The MySpace site run by The GuyZzz, has been flawless and has managed to elicit the appropriate brand impression of success and Shotpak go together.

Daily we get asked how to reach the 'Party in a Pouch' site and this tells us the message is working as we build a niche brand!

We have also been creating an intimate environment conducive to developing an emotional response to the brand, an olfactory excursion, relax and enjoy life with Shotpak.

We are in stores, bars and clubs where the pouch can be touched before purchase. The success of the pouch is in the way it so beautifully captures the essence of the brand as a high end, unique, friendly and colorful flavorful product. This aspect is what has led to all the press around Shotpak!

We are trying to orient the consumer to the sense of the 'touch' of the pouch, a sensorial significance of this aspect of the package and then after opening remind them and excite their sense of 'smell' and 'taste' of sweetness or bitterness to the palate. The exquisite printed designs invite consumer to feel the pouch and hopefully fall in love or be fully comfortable with it.

We all have five senses and we aim to use all of these on seducing the consumer in our sensory marketing campaign.

We are not a new product, but we want pleasant and surprise emotion when consumers touch, open and drink our products, we prefer to say nothing at all on the web site other than consumers enjoying the product at social functions.

Emotion, joy of drinking, touch, taste, smell, sight and sound are all part of the sensory brand experience and brand loyalty.

That's our message in the campaign. We use all of these tactics and hope to engage the brain link to memory and emotional response to the brand eye-catching colors

Now back to how to introduce a product in a tough environment, we believe get the consumer involved and invite them to touch the pouch and enjoy the products. Let the consumer do the marketing for the product.

It's All In The Numbers

2008-07-23T12:58:00.002-04:00

WOW, 8,516% in case sales growth in the first six months of the year, compared to 2007, that’s a pretty powerful number for our ShotPak™ brand of cocktails.

It is well documented that companies that continued to be aggressive in sales and marketing during economic downturns also made sure they stayed in sight and top of mind with their customers, consumers and prospects in order to be successful.

Our philosophy with the ShotPak™ brand has always been publicize, advertise or we perish! The next quarter we are placing more marketing dollars into initiatives that have direct and measurable numbers impact.

These resources are going into highly targeted tactics at both P.G.S. our machinery division and B.P.G., our beverage division. We are trying to generate demand for both products, through more support for the sales forces, providing strong leadership and additional promotions at trade shows, increased customer visits to the plant, supporting many charity events so we can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This includes more use of online web tactics to explain and detail our products.

It has been reported by “B to B Magazine” that the web and e-mails etc. are far and away the most popular of the interactive tactics. However, these messages must reach end users who want news, otherwise the spam box is the final destination!

One of our ‘Big Numbers’ used in selling premade machinery is minimum waste at under 0.25%. This low figure gets immediate attention. Remember you buy the machine once and the premade pouches for the next 20 years. So minimum waste is the number that makes the sale.

With our ShotPak™ brand, one of the key numbers we mention is that if they want to stay one step ahead of the competition, they need proper pour control or a ShotPak™ pouch. This pouch is a fool proof, pour control system in place as soon as you introduce the pouch behind the bar. Zero loss, is the number that gets attention, compared to bar habits of over-pouring, to poor inventory control, to outright theft – that can drain bottom line profits. Remember the bar often represents 30% or more of the cost of doing business. As an example if you have 100 pouches in the bar, 30 are sold and 70 remain in inventory. No shrinkage with the pouch. Now that’s a nice number!

We should point out that another feature of the ShotPak™ cocktail pouches is they follow accurately their various recipes. Drink recipes are about a balance of ingredients. Remember 20% more alcohol does not make a drink better, just like 20% more salt will not improve your soup!

Now to energy, a pet subject of mine where another interesting number about energy usage is that solar and wind have been around a long time and they are not going to make a difference long term, if you think we have to consider them as an alternative source. So very close to zero input from these socially polite must support energy sources and of course corn ethanol is a fraud impressed on us by the politicians. Even if we used all the corn in the USA it would not add up to 4 million barrels of oil a day and many animals and humans would starve. We must think nuclear reactors to reduce our oil dependence on others and now the numbers will really count in our favor with this change.

Some ideas about both our machines and the ShotPak™ Brand. Based on the market place we now live in, we are under going brand reinvention, so we can continue to lead the market. Remember it is my philosophy and thus current strategy to get the ShotPak™ brand right and increase distribution in order to get more value as a multiple of cash flow. Only this way will we see the stock price increase above present levels.

Looking ahead we will continue to push our outstanding quality for both machinery and ShotPak™ brands. Our re-brand theme is as a purveyor of “quality products”. For the ShotPak™ brand we will continue to launch new cocktails, ensure distribution throughout the USA and in a 100 + countries and the state of the company will be in the numbers!

Digital Skin…Are You Ready?

2008-05-13T07:59:00.005-04:00

We held our sales meeting in Miami this year and introduced everyone to the Digital Skin concept, explaining that we need to embrace this technology and use more of what the web has to offer in all of our business practices.

Just think, each day we are exposed to some sort of electronic message. Do you nostalgically look back and think, how did we function in the business world without all of this electronic media at our fingertips? How did we get by communicating only by telephone and snail mail?

Today most e-information services operate under Web 2.0 and social networks, like MySpace and Facebook, interlinked data is the new business model.

I recently came across a business networking site, LinkedIn. This is a great social site to connect with former classmates, old and current colleagues. LinkedIn also allows you to recommend people you have worked with in the past. LinkedIn has millions of visitors and allows me to pose any type of question to anyone in my network, suddenly I can have feedback on our products or business methods.

Friendster used to be the social network, but Facebook (which used to only be open to individuals with a .edu email) upgraded their profile and many marketing professionals are starting to use the site. Large corporations like Proctor & Gamble even have a Facebook page.

Instant messaging is nearly 10 years old and teens have suddenly found a close friend in Twitter, which allows members on some social networking sites to broadcast real time updates in under 140 characters. As a business you can Twitter-scan and see what folks think of your products if they have been exposed to them. Imagine real time complaints can be corrected as they occur. We developed something very similar 4 years ago called ControlSmart™ which alerts machine operators by email the moment a pouch machine starts deviating from the agreed standards. The money saved from this real time alert system can be counted in millions.

As an entrepreneur, I see many opportunities to plug our companies in to this social media or digital skin. The only cost appears to be time, as we spread our name and products throughout web forums, online networking sites, wikis, blogs and podcasts.

However, be warned I have found that after four months with new web sites updates, our web traffic is up, but not staggering.

After much analysis as to why we need to build our digital skin, we realize we are going to have to be more proactive and think reciprocal—one message out and two in—hopefully.

Our MySpace site is run by 3 talented young men, known as the Shotpak GuyZzz (an actor, a radio show host and a rapper). Our page now has over 2000 friends and many are global. The ShotPak website (www.shotpakinc.com) also allows visitors click over to our Beverage Pouch Group, the machinery division at www.ppitechnologies.com

Since starting in earnest to develop my digital skin I have found a number of other sites you might be interested in for business purposes like gather.com, digg.com, twine.com and tbd.com. Each of these sites has a web position and suddenly we found additional members through these sites.

The following are a few other sites I have been exploring: ning.com allows me to set up in-house social network, basecamp.com, allows users to keep track of how much time groups are spending on tasks, Jigsaw.com allows me to have an online directory of business contacts and Jobscore.com allows me to exchange resumes of job candidates we have not hired, with other business people.

Finally as I move from my east coast head office to the west coast sales warehouse about every 10 days, I have been advised that I should use Dopplr.com for sharing my travel itineraries. On Dopplr, friends can send advice on restaurants, golf or packaging shows and even arrange meetings at my destination.

Amazement used to be expressed as 'WOW' and with social networks you use 'WOM' for Word of Mouth. I would like to bring 'WOW' back as Words on Web sites to describe all these social networking activities.

I started by asking how did we do all of this before the world wide web and I end this by saying I can't live without it! My Digital Skin grows more efficient every day. Think WOW!

The Case for Terrestrial (a.k.a. Nuclear) Energy to Use Our Plastic Waste Efficiently

2008-04-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

We have a very new program at PPi Technologies Global and at all of our 10 divisions.

Called SECAMP an acronym for:

Sustainable
Environmental
Conscious
Approach to
Machine and
Pouch manufacturing

This means we try to use less energy and thus reduce our carbon emission footprint for all the products we touch.

For machines, we reduce the air pressure required, we do not use painted parts and we try to use as many common components as possible. Our patented ControlSmart™ system sends an e-mail when ever the data entered is breached and in “live time” our customer can stop and access and correct the problem. This reduces product loss and also ensures the customer does it once and right!

In pouch manufacturing, our roto-gravure cylinders can be used again, our pouch laminations are all earth friendly and we use printing inks that meet FDA specifications.

Our total weight for the pouch and spout fitments for our 250ml / 6oz Chilling Rocks™ Natural Water pouches weigh less than their bottle counterparts and thus energy to handle them is well below that of rigid packaging.

After use, the pouches can be incinerated for energy rather than for recycling and or landfills. This “Oil to Oil” approach is not often understood by our customers.

Back to my energy topic, I am a firm believer in nuclear energy. There are only 103 operating nuclear reactors in the USA. Very few people realize that the steel required to make the reactor is only available from Japanese steel mills and they now have several years of back order position.

In America, we are still trapped in the Three Mile Island mentality. Little do people realize that with oil at $100 a barrel and will go higher, that nuclear energy promises less carbon emissions and also oil dependence!

The sun provides almost all of our energy. Remember plant photosynthesis taught at school, which showed plants start the energy storage process. Note, when our pouches are heated, the stored energy in the carbon chains is released. This heat energy can break down other carbon chains and now you have fire/heat. Today we use coal [pollutant] and we hope pouches will assist in providing much needed energy.

With the USA using oil for 40% of our energy needs we have to find a long lasting safe and efficient replacement as soon as possible.

When Albert Einstein told President Roosevelt that nuclear energy had been discovered, it was the first time mankind was no longer dependent on the sun.

The figures are staggering for using and changing ASAP to nuclear energy.

A 1,000 megawatt coal plant needs 110 railroad cars loaded with 20 tones of coal every 5 days. Coal produces 40% of our greenhouse gases and 20% of the world's carbon emissions. Plastic has a higher calorific value than coal. When you compare the above data to a 1,000 megawatt reactor, it only needs a train every two years to take away the mildly radio active rods that can be handed with gloves. The rods last six years. There is no exhaust, no sulphur sludge to be carted away every hour, no releases into the environment. There is no air, water or ground pollution.

Remember nuclear reactors cannot explode and the one dangerous isotope makes up only 7/10ths of a percent of the world's uranium. You need enriched uranium and so a reactor cannot explode.

What can occur is 'melt down' and can be contained within the reactor vessel. At Three Mile Island no one knew what was going on. Fear of the unknown led to this disastrous position..

Chernobyl accident was due to unstable design and that type of reactor is not used in the USA.

Our goal should be to incinerate plastics where we can and reduce coal usage; we should change our 50% electricity from coal dependence to 60% from nuclear energy and thus reduce all dependence on foreign oil.

A better use for coal is the South African SASOL process that provides for oil and plastics production rather than as an incinerating for electrical solution.

We need to dominate the industry we built and not let other countries take this away from us. Think clean, safe, no dependence on outside oil with safe terrestrial (nuclear) energy.

My thanks to William Tucker, who first interested me in this simple energy solution and for more information, suggest you read his latest book, “Terrestrial Energy: How a Nuclear-Solar Alliance can Rescue the Planet.”

Beverages and Energy

2008-03-31T13:07:00.000-04:00

A lot of companies have entered the $2 Billion plus energy drink market segment.

The aim from many of the brands is to have a mainstream label.

This can be called “Strong and Natural” [a.k.a. energy and healthy] niche. What the consumer wants is the taste of fruit without the sugar.

To satisfy this niche we will launch later this year a Tequila with an energy boosting recipe and natural herbs in a small StandUp pouch with reclosable cap.

In the other energy drinks arena is the consumer preference for anti-oxidants from exotic acai berry, black cherry, pomegranate, cranberry and blueberry. We will also launch a natural water anti-oxidant to meet the consumer’s demands.

The Beverage Pouch Group is dedicated to provide drinks that meet all lifestyles and consumer demographics.