Guys I just wanted to give you a brief overview of SOME of the things that we have done in Colombia in the time I have been here. Ihope this help you all in understanding a little better, the great product that we have in our hands. Please feel free to contact me with any questions
As you all know we started with the largest distributor in the country DISLICORES S.A in Medellin, they have countrywide distribution but we have began all of our marketing and sales efforts in Medellin. DISLICORES S.A is a distributor, Pure distributor, so much so that they will wear our shirts to sell, but will not hand out any POS of any kind, but anyways we werent looking for a marketing company we were looking for a distributor and thats what we got. DISLICORES has had the brand for about 3 months now, it took some time to get the ball rolling but once they saw the sales of the product all skeptism was put aside and we began to distribute full force. Initially we started off with one Brand Manager in the city of Medellin that worked for FrostShot (World Frost Inc.), his job was to essentially begin riding along with our distributors and selling FrostShot to each sotre owner, (obviously it is a the distributor job to do the sales, but we know that when you have Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo in your portfolio it is a much easier sale to sell the BIG brands opposed to our Upcoming FrostShot) I am happy to say that the ride along were a sucess, we "Coded" FrostShot in 8.5 out of 10 store average, the ride along program proved that we could sell our product to the Store owners now we needed to do the same thing we did with the distributor but now on a hands on branding operation to make sure our new stores sold and sold out.
Due to the high amount of stores carrying the product we decided to employ another Brand Ambassador.We continued our ride along program in an effort to learn from the stores what can be done to help them sell more, and at the same time continuing to open more stores. It has been easier due to the fact that the stores now are ordering FrostShot on a weekly basis (liquor here is sold weekly due to CashFlow), The quantities averaging at about 1 case per store, below I will explain incentive programs for the stores to buy more.
BUT I THOUGHT OUR PRODUCT WAS FOR THE NIGHTCLUBS AND BARS?
Right and Wrong.... the nightclub scene has been a good client, we are in the hottest nightclubs in the city but we are currently selling much much more in Stores than in NightClubs, I am not sure if this is a world wide trend, but Nightclubs tend to be a place of elegance, a place where stirring your drink with a straw has a meaning, where buying a bottle is a status symbol. Don't get me wrong, our product ihas sold in this type of environment but more as a beer effect type of item,(beer is not a big seller in clubs either) , another big reason just like beer is that they price us out of the market, we have a $2 dollar shot not a $10 dollar shot no if, ands or but about it. The nightclub scene has been an exceptional marketing tool; we do tastings on the weekend and the clients go inside and buy the product, as well as see it, touch it, taste it, which usually leads to them buying it at store locations for a party with Friends.
This is the message we are trying to portray, Frostshot= Party, fun, friends, etc.. this is the message we are getting across, we see people sitting around just hanging out with a Frostshot at hand. A lot of people just walk into a gas station buy a frostshot, by a four pack and go. This is the type of product we have, or could you imagine yourself walking into a gas station and taking a shot of Tequila!?!?.....We have a 10% alcohol by volume shot that taste great, is fun, its easy, it tastes delicious and its inexpensive. For this reason our main market has been retail as well as outside bars, hotels, pools etc...
ARE YOU SELLING THE PRODUCT FROZEN??
The products is being sold only in 4 pack boxes, some stores choose to open the 4 pack and put them both in fridge type units and some in Freezer type units they may have. This is not dettering the sale of the product, obviously in some locations we are putting freezers where the product looks more attractive because you are having it in its ideal form, but people tend to buy the shot and take it home to freeze, or buy the shot and consume it on the spot Cold and not frozen, This is the case with outside bars, that serve the product frozen but place the sleeve in a shot glass and then insert a straw inside the sleeve. It kinda looks like you have an extra long shot which you are sipping from semi frozen as it thaws. The product obviously sells better Frozen, this is the novelty of it, but with the way we have marketed it we have been able to sell it and sell a lot of it.
MARKETING AND "SALES" OF FROSTSHOT
Marketing has been the key to the success of this brand in Colombia. Medellin a relatively small city in terms of area but with a population of almost 2 million people it is definetly considered a major metropolitan city. Initially in order to get word out that our product was coming to town, we sponsored big big events, we would sponsor these music events with and only with product, we gave the even product to sell or giveaway and they allowed us to play videos in the event, put banners up, displays us in their advertising and most importantly allow us to give a sample of FrostShot to the thousands of people that walked through the events doors. We gave out thousands of samples and then the calls began pouring in on where they could get the product and many on how they could distribute the product. Besides the massive events where we have given out product,, major event coordinators are also some of our key clients, the usually by about 10 master cases and we supply them with the girl to sell the product at a booth are walking with coolers ar the events.
We have a standard we upkeep when we put POS in our store locations. In each store we try to put up a poster, a stand up display and in some circumstances a freezer. In bars we use our table tents and in some cases get customized items for bars, such as the outside of it we wall paper it with our brand and there bar name on it. This is mostly for brand recognition of the people who walk through these high traffic areas. As long as the store allows us to decorate, than we fill it with as much POS that we can. LED signs with our LOGO, Banners where acceptable and our permited, Napkins, coasters, etc In bar we put posters in the bathrooms, have nights of 2x1 specials and ofcourse we continue to do the tastings in the area.
We have come up with different methods of getting the stores to buy more cases. An example of this has been with the tastings we recently hired 2 tasting/sales girls who work a total of 24 days for us, 8 hours a day, thier job in the day is to open new accounts for our distributors, by going into the store and showcasing FrostShot to the store owner, as part of the sales pitch our sales team explains to the store owners, that for every 2 master cases they buy we will give them a tasting/sales help. The girls that we hired are not your averaging samplers, these girls are trained to sell, so when they are not opening accounts for our distributors they are fufilling tastings where they give the consumer the product and then go on to explain it to them and incentisize them to buy a four pack or more on the spot. This has been a great success our clients are thrilled with the program and continue to buy cases in order to get that sales support for 2-3 hours that week. Usually the girls easily sell 1 master case during the tastings and then usually the other case is sold during the rest of the week. During these tastings we also offer special gifts such as T-Shirts, Hats, Pins, etc,, so when you buy a specific amount you get a free gift.
We made an alliance with the TEXACO Gas Stations in the city 8 huge gas stations each one with there respective convience stores, We were allowed to get end caps as part of a World Cup LCD Deal: Each Gas Station buys 10 Master Cases we as a compnay supply them with
Give them one 32’ tv tv they buy 10 master cases
Total of 210 four packs a
Flyers explaining contest
Sign up ballots
Ballot Box:
We also do one weekly tasting until the end of the contest. As the weeks go on we usually get reorders in order to fufill the need of the Texaco Gas Station. At the end of the contest each individual that bought a 4pack has a chance to win a 32 inch LCD TV. Outside the contest is proudly displayed and the consumer tries, buys, and enters a contest all at once. We are also able to enter them in our database, as ll of the ballots are filled out with all the consumer's information.
The Texaco Deal brought me to my next idea which is the FrostShot Frequent Fan loyalty program, what this is a small cardboard cards that allows you to place 20 stickers on it. What do you mean? Everytime our client buys a Four pack, they get a sticker on there card. When they fill up there card they go to a designated location to claim one of there rewards gifts. This Depends on how many cards they have filled up, this can range from a t-shirts, to hats, dvd players, cds, etc... this has all been budgeted as a marketing expenses..
This is just a little peak into the Frost World and the efforts we are making on a daily basis to establish the brand in this city. We have many more marketing strategies in effect and we also continue to come up with new ones. This is how we have been able to really be sucessfull with our brand, as time progresses and we establish more recognition our strategies will undoubtedly change and we will seek out different ways to entice both our Distributors, Stores, and consumers to continue to be part of this Frozen Pop Culture.
Here are some pictures putting some images to the words
