A number of years ago, I referred to myself as the Martha Stewart of Rotomolding. Ooops. I saw the potential of this process and felt if it was marketed well, it would be in every product designer's toolbox.    

Today, I am far from Martha Stewart, but still hold the belief that this process is under marketed. So in this issue, I would like to share some of the marketing projects that I'm working on. Feel free to take my ideas and run with them at your company and please - Market Rotomolding!  

In this issue, I would also like to share with you a few trends that we are seeing from on the industrial design side of our company as they relate to rotomolding. Finally, an update from our Chroma world of color.

Greg and I would love to see you at Rotoplas. Hopefully, the Blue-Reed (very humble (start-up company)) booth will be next to Chroma's booth.

As always, your comments are greatly appreciated - e-mail jstout@blue-reed.com.

Julie Stout - Editor
 

What is really distressing is that marketing programs that would typically generate 5% response are getting ZERO response. The few prospective customers who are buying have been so bombarded with sales calls, direct mail, and e-mail that they've shut themselves off. They are unreachable. 

So what's working? 

1. The outrageous. You must grab their attention.
2. Cost Savings & Time Savings.


Click on image for PDF.

Determined to beat the lousy direct mail response results, I designed this mailer for a client. Each cartoon is personalized with the recipients name at the top and in the cartoon.
We will be mailing a test mailer in the next several weeks, and I'll report on the response.

3. Training Courses.
I now market, manage and moderate two training courses. The courses have been phenomenally successful in building loyalty from both new and existing customers.
The one course is in Polyurethanes. It was designed before I came on board as an "Introduction to Polyurethane Processing". They were not able to get enough interest to hold one course.

I convinced management to change the name and focus to "Optimizing Polyurethane Processing".  One simple word "optimizing". Now courses are typically sold out within 1 week of my e-mail announcement of new dates. Check out the website (which I also manage) and their training course by clicking below.

    

4. Be Locatable.
If there should be a prospective customer searching for your product or service, make sure that find you before your competition - especially on the internet. Make sure that you buy the number one or two position on every search engine of every conceivable combination of words.

In today's market, you need every interested, potential buyer to know who you are.

If I can provide any further assistance, please feel free to e-mail me.  I am not currently taking on any new clients, but would be more than happy to answer a few questions. Julie jstout@blue-reed.com
 

On the design side of our little company, everyone - molders, mold makers, and end customers are looking to us to lower their cost. There are three areas in which Greg's been able to help.

1. Lowering Piece Part Price.  Greg's received numerous parts and prints of products that the molder/end customer needs to get either the tooling or part price down. After several meetings with local mold makers and a few rounds of design revisions, he's actually lowered the cost. 

2. 2D print to 3D data conversions. Ask your model or mold maker for a price for a 2D "hand-built" model vs. a CNC model from 3D data for the same part. You will see why this is a big seller at Blue-reed.

3. Outsourcing.
As companies cut back and  downsize, they're looking to  Greg to fill in the engineering and design gaps.

We're expanding our design services. Through relationships with other professionals, we are now able to offer FEA analysis and design for injection, blow, urethane and thermo-forming.

Feedback or Design Help?

330-688-1324 or e-mail Greg Stout: gstout@blue-reed.com.

If this issue is your first issue of RotoNews, Blue-Reed is a small company specializing in product design for rotomolding, marketing, and sales of Chroma color products in Ohio.
 

 Chroma's Liquid Color...

Currently, we have only held trials with high-intensity mixers. The mixer just wipes clean after the mix. There is no build-up on the blades! The mix takes about 30 seconds - just to distribute the resin.

The real selling point is the price. 

If you are interested in further information, please stop by our booth at Rotoplas.   

To recover from the event's of Rotoplas'02, I strongly recommend you hop on a plane and take a week or two touring Australia. 

At the end of the tour, stop by Melbourne Oct. 19-22 for the Association of Rotational Molders Australasia Trade Fair and Conference. 

For molders outside Asia/Australia, this may be an opportunity to set-up joint ventures, licensees, and develop export markets. Or, it could be just a really fun business trip.

I have an electronic copy of their program and would be more than happy to forward you a copy. jstout@blue-reed.com