Kyle Branche Posted a Blog Post

Kyle Branche posted a blog post

When Corporate Says No to a Goldmine

” Like Little Works of Art”Initially, I created my cocktail photography series so I could have my own drink pics in my then-new self-published work, some of them with a Western theme to fit the title and content of the book “Cocktails of the American West”. Yet, I knew I was going to be continuing to shoot many phases in the series that would cover the basic categories of classic and specialty drinks in the hopes of using them in a variety of other ways – greeting cards, postcards, calendars, U.S. postage stamps, T-shirts, coffee mugs, aprons, hats, mousepads, iPad iPod iPhone cases, and whatever else came to mind along the way.One late night after a gig, I go into my local 24-hour grocery store, Ralph's, and head to the meat department to pick-up some ground sirloin to make my mother’s goulash recipe at home the following afternoon. In the immediate area, there was a 36-card floor stanchion of dinner recipe cards, free to the shoppers, produced by a company out of Florida, Try-Foods International. I occasionally would take a look at several of them, in case there was something new that piqued my interest in the kitchen.I’m roaming around the store picking up the other half-dozen ingredients while the night stockers in various aisles were singing in some comical harmony to a Journey song over the store’s music station. Passing through the liquor aisle on the way to check-out, it dawns on me. I could do the same thing with the recipe cards but with cocktails. Paying for my goods, I was in a creative mindfire of what could be, going through the production in my head. I had known about these cards for awhile, as well as the latest cards they had in the produce section for salads and things.The next day, I contacted my design/layout artist, Celine Luk (www.CelineLukDesigns.com), who worked at M&M Printing, just a bike ride from the house, on the boulevard. I had grabbed some of the sample food cards from Ralph's, showed them to her and said “Can we do this in house here with my drink shots?” Celine is so great at seeing the creative vision of others. She’s always nailed it with my work and ideas!This all started up around September of 2007. I had chosen 50 drink pics out of about 120 that I had at the time. My idea was two-fold. To have the variety of cards available individually for the possible future use in-store, and to create a retail product – a 50-card Volume I box set called Cocktail Art custom drink recipe cards. The first-ever P.O.S. tool and retail gift of its kind with the use of cocktails.After speaking with Celine, Raz and Jason at the shop - www.printingzoneinc.com - were able to get everything done there, but the box set covers would have to be outsourced. It took some work and serious detail, but we finished the project in early December, just a few months later, and in time to have the box sets available as a cool new gift and perfect-fitting stocking stuffer for the holidays. It worked! Most of the units sold out from the initial order inventory, with a few saved back for other purposes I had in mind.In January, of 2008, I made contact via email and phone message with Try-Foods in Florida to see if they’d be interested in working together in getting my drink cards out there, since they had already started the stream in with their food cards, and in searching on their website, I had noticed they didn’t produce cocktail cards at all. I never heard back, even after a follow-up. The sense I got from them is that they were a very-closed house. Look what they missed out on.In February, I contacted the Concord, CA headquarters of BevMo (Beverages & More), sent the head buyer exec an email with product presentation and sample attachments. I followed up a couple weeks later to have her tell me “that since it isn’t a product that we actually sell, it isn’t something we would be interested in”. In other words, the suits are shackled with narrow windows for expanded opportunities in generating more sales, even if she did see the potential when I spoke with her on the phone. I took the cards into one of the stores, but it’s like talking to “obedient workers”, even the manager-on-duty mentality was just “product-in, product-out”.In March, I contacted the main West coast headquarters of Southern Wine & Spirits over in Cerritos, CA, sending an email with sample attachments to an executive named Ira, the head of Wine & Spirits Education, about the idea of using the cards in the liquor and mixer aisles of grocery stores, etc.I mean, after all, the whole purpose of this was to create a visual portal into the vast world of cocktails for store shoppers, where they could check out a recipe or two that they liked, on the spot, and purchase the necessary ingredients to make the drink at home, with those cards to take for free. It’s simple, easy, and without the need of the confusing-to-some cocktail books out there. They can be just too much information for consumers, with hundreds or thousands of cocktails, where do you start? People just don’t have the time for that these days with information moving faster than ever. I wanted to give them beauty and quality, quick and easy.He didn’t quite get it at first, it was so new to him, but after I explained in further detail, he loved the idea and asked me to send some to him in the mail. I sent all 50 cards with an empty card box, in case he needed to eventually pass them on through the chain of command. Having them shuffling in his hands to get that tactile sense going, that’s where it hit home with him, seeing all of them at once, and its potential. Sometimes that’s what it takes. Ira got back with me the following week to let me know he was sending them onto a guy named John in the Marketing and Graphics department.A few weeks later I spoke to John on the phone about the possibilities. He thought it was a good idea as well, but through SW&S as the distributor, it would basically be giving all the sales reps in 30 states across the country another job to do, more in-store though, just a quick 10-minute in-and-out refill task, if they didn’t create another position title for the upkeep and card fill-and-rotation of this new idea. How or if the many beverage brands would want to be involved was another question.To have the brand names in the recipes on the back of the cards was an option, not at all a requirement in my point of view, unless they wanted to pay for it. But it’s a sensitive issue, putting the brand names on cards, as you don’t want to be turning off the customers. I would prefer the names off, and just allow the shoppers to buy the spirits they gravitate to, with no influence of any kind. And I wouldn’t want to look like a sellout in the process, either. I’d be making plenty of money as is with the card’s intellectual property user-fee agreements, therefore not interested in bending over for more cash, certainly not at the cost of ruining the shopper’s interests and preferences. But it could also be out of my hands, if the user wanted the option at all times to use brand names in the recipes. Therefore, I would have to sign off on it simply in order to get the project going. However, we could have digitized the store’s name in a small corner on the front of the card, with no issues.John’s department could certainly produce the custom cards in-house from the use of my master files, but it was a sizable undertaking to consider, though the benefits of increased sales with the use of them in thousands of Kroger-owned chain grocery stores was tremendous, with the free P.O.S. product tool also being a complete tax write-off for them each filing quarter of the year.Everything about this idea had the word “Win” attached to it, all the way across the board, for the shoppers, for the stores, for the distributor, for the brands, and a huge, well-deserved and earned windfall for myself that I could simply keep going for years with an ever-expanding, seasonal, rotating selection of fabulous drinks from all eras of mixology and cocktail history. I really enjoy playing culinary photographer.John said he would try and talk with the right people, but it would take some time. He still had to think it all the way through to actual process and usage on his end, who all would be involved, and who it would affect, before he brought it to the big table as a legitimate presentation package of value and benefit to the company.I let some months go by to avoid being in anyone’s face too much about getting it moving on the fast track. I prefer to have faith that adult business people will be diligent in their efforts to do the right thing, which is the wrong thing to do! In this crazy and sometimes inept and questionable business world of ours, a 12-year old can be more reliable and trustworthy. Save the few, there’s still just too much ego and arrogance in American business, in my opinion. But I’m all up for it improving, especially when it comes to allowances for people like me on the outside, yet who are very much on the inside when it comes to decades of experience and knowledge that I have to offer and give with all things bar.I finally make the follow-up call back to Southern to speak with John, and surprise! The receptionist tells me that SW&S shut down their Marketing and Graphics department, and John was no longer working for them. That move, no one in my position would ever expect to see coming. I wish I would have known earlier that it was dead in the water, but like I said, leave it to so-called professionals for proper closure with progressive, sales-generating materials in limbo. Just a call-back message, speedy text, or a quick 15-second email status notification would have been excellent, and very appreciated. Simple, right ?To see all 50 recipe cards, please click-on my website link belowhttp://www.kylescocktailhotel.com/CocktailArtRecipeCards.htmlThe rest of the year went by, and in January of 2009 I worked a Super Bowl party for the head of a movie company, in Benedict Canyon. An early arrival was the famous actor/comedian, Jack Carter. He sits at the bar with Mark, and the three of us start chatting about the game. Jack asks me about the spirit, Lillet. I tell him a little bit about it, and that it comes in both blonde and rouge. He then, out of the blue, starts telling me about his old friend, Mel Dick, who is the Senior V.P. at SW&S in Miami, Florida.I used that conversation, though I questioned doing so at first, as my beginning intro and cover letter to Mr. Dick, when I sent him a complete pitch package with product and samples, as one last ditch effort with the distributor. Low and behold, I actually received a cordial response via email, including a “Say hello to Jack for me”, but no further interest could be done, more than likely due to the closures. However, having offices in many states, I don’t know if they eliminated the department altogether or just consolidated in fewer places from lack of print production, all depending on how much they did in-house vs. how much work they may have outsourced themselves.I had read up on Mel’s history with the company, as it’s on the their website, to let him know how much I respected his close to 40 years with SW&S, where he basically started at the bottom, getting in with the help of others, and working his way up to the top. I wanted nothing more, if not less, than a similar chance to show what the cards could do in regards to increasing sales for Southern. But that never happened. And I’ve never gone corporate. My idea has always been to work with them, not for them. Creative artists like myself have to be free. It’s better that way for both sides.With this scenario, it would be easy to see how the production and use of my cards as a P.O.S. tool could’ve possibly helped to keep the department open and busy again. John had my cards for several months before the shutdown, so it wasn’t a case of too little, too late on my part. I did the best I could to help them recognize and see the vision and potential. Other than that, it was out of my control. From a cocktail/mixology standpoint, it was wide open with future progress. I’ll bet none of Southern’s “prized and hand-picked” house mixologists ever came up with an idea like this, and they have all the necessary tools and resources at their disposal. In my case, I took care of it all out of my own pocket, and on my own unpaid time. But they have their positions and roles within their extensive job description, that may or may not include a need or requirement for this type of creative effort, so no offense to them.Who knows, maybe the four different places I presented the idea and actual P.O.S. product to just wanted to play it safe with what they had, but bringing mixology and the popularity of cocktails today more to the consumer/shopper forefront, and FREE in the aisle, would’ve been a perfect fit with current interests and trends. Without this attractive, educational tool that they could collect at home and put in their recipe card file, many shoppers will continue to just buy their bottle of whiskey or vodka, and go home.My final move, I go direct . . .In July, I make the decision to go in and speak with the Managing Director of the Ralph's grocery store that I’ve frequented for more than 15 years. His name was Steve. I introduced myself. In showing him the idea and product, he was already familiar with how the recipe cards operate and generate. What a breath of fresh air, someone open and understanding to an idea, but really in his eyes, merely an expanded one, but in the right direction!I let him know that I wanted to do a test run of the cards in the liquor/mixer aisle, to see shopper interest and how well they moved. I mentioned that I had 500 cards, 50 different cards x 10 each. He looked at them, and liked them, as he could see how attractive they were. I told him that I would put up the cards at my expense, if he could supply another stanchion that I didn’t have. He agreed, and a few days later I had a new set of cards printed and cut, ready to go.I walked back in the store, met up with Steve, and we immediately headed over to the produce section. He didn’t have an extra, empty stanchion to use, so we stripped the cards from the produce stanchion and moved it over to the liquor aisle. Easy peasy. I was in and out of there in not much longer than a half an hour. The set-up was simple. I chose 36/360 different cards to start out with to fill each of the slots, with 14/140 others as a back-up.I told Steve that I would be doing weekly inventories, but this first week I wanted to check them every three days/twice a week. I had inventory sheets with every card listed so I could mark them individually, and had copies at the end of Weeks 2 and on, to give to Steve as full weekly reports, though he and I never really nailed down how long we wanted the test to go. It was open, but we needed to first see if they would warm up and take hold with the shoppers.After the first two weeks, the cards did just that. 38 moved in Week 1, 38 more in Week 2, 19 moved in Week 3, than the big jump hit. 89 cards moved in Week 4, followed by 91 in Week 5. Week 6 went back down to 28 cards moved, but Week 7 jumped right back up to 55 cards moved. During these weeks I was running out of many cards and replacing them with the reserves, but the slots were quickly becoming empty. We also moved the stanchion every other week or so from one side of the aisle to the other, choosing three different positions to monitor floor activity for best placement and movement. In the final 10 days all the rest of the cards moved, well over 100, except for the 3 or 4 stragglers untouched after the stanchion had been taken in back, looking terrible on the floor that empty of card stock. Those last cards remaining I gave out to shoppers as I was walking out of the store.The numbers were a bit all over, having to do with customer flow and shopping frequency. But all in all it was a big success, and maybe a surprise to Steve, but I wasn’t at all shocked. I knew what they would do. I just needed the chance to prove it. The inventory analysis was pinpoint, and the numbers would have been greater if I could have continued perfect re-stocking of the best moving cards throughout. I covered all the main spirits within the 50 different cards, and they all went. I figured at this rate, with 500 cards moving in 8 weeks that with proper and expanded new drink card rotation and upkeep, approximately 4000 cards would move in a year, just in one store! How many extra bottles of liquor and mixers would be sold from this shopper interest to make great drinks at home? Each card would be pennies to produce with Ralph’s in-house printing department.Now, think of the entire Kroger-owned chain of grocery stores, thousands from coast to coast, of which Ralph's is just one of their many chain stores. The sales numbers would be incredible! What I also had in mind down the road was to have cocktail videos playing on TV monitors in the liquor/mixer aisle, and produce retail cocktail products to sell, like postcards, calendars, DVD’s, fun inexpensive gifting merch for shoppers who happen to be cocktail lovers and enjoy the cocktail culture as another culinary door, along with food.Steve goes to the weekly regional management meetings in Ventura, CA and presents the P.O.S. tool with facts, figures, and even pictures of the stanchion. It falls on deaf ears, though more like the failed vision of executives, while they already had and allow food cards in their stores, with no brand usage on the back of the cards. Steve felt so bad about this, that he gave me the stanchion. I have it in the garage. Steve was my hero, though, because he was the person who got it, and cut to the chase to do it and give it a try, with no approval from above. Not that he really needed any.And so it goes. The recipe cards have kind of gone by the wayside, but not the idea of still wanting to get them out there. I’m always motivated, if someone else is. I can’t do it all by myself. I did everything I could with my own time and resources to make all of these corporations more money, and they said no. This would have been my ticket to financial freedom, and a lot of fun future production of a great selling tool and a brilliant idea.See More