marnyb

I was recently involved in the launch of a new line of packaging for dry ingredients. The line was intended to compete with another company’s well-entrenched line that had no other direct competition. The reason we decided to bring out these knock-offs was because we saw a unique opportunity to capture up to 50% of the market, which was looking for any reason not to buy from the other manufacturer.

You see, the other manufacturer had, at one time, been an independent company who sold its packaging to distributors and direct customers alike. Then it became affiliated with the largest distributor in the industry. Once that happened, the second-largest distributor – and all the other distributors, for that matter – hated to line the coffers of their competitor, if even indirectly.

It seemed like the industry needed a second source for these bottles, and since we could make the full line with existing equipment, we jumped on the opportunity. We knew if we could capture sales from a good portion of the alienated distributors, this could be a profitable line.

But we never counted on selling this new line to the large distributor whose affiliate made the bottles we were knocking off. And yet, when orders rolled in, the very first one came from that distributor.

In sales circles, when someone is really good at connecting with the customers, we say, “She could sell ice to Eskimos.” In this case, I don’t doubt the salesperson did her job well. But there were also three other critical factors at work that helped us get this first order:

• We made exact knock-offs of the competitor’s style (which works only with custom caps), but also built another version with a neck thread that works with standard commercial closures.
• We’re selling them in relatively small quantities, making them accessible to more companies.
• We’ve priced them competitively, and our central manufacturing location provides shipping efficiencies to customers across the country.

What we might also learn over time is that the affiliation between the largest distributor and the other manufacturer is not actually as strong as the other distributors perceived it to be. If that’s the case, and if we can capture sales from a source we weren’t even counting on, then it may not be a case of selling ice to Eskimos, but rather a case of selling a relevant product into a competitive environment.

In any case, let’s hope these early orders and initial interest in this new product line are just the tip of the iceberg.

Marketing, Packaging