Tag: testing

Keep Swinging

Written on by frain-sales

Babe Ruth once said, “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”

It’s a simple truth that you can’t stop taking swings, even after you’ve connected on several successful projects in the recent past.

You need to find your next win and that comes down to a cadence of executing.

At Frain, we’re in a cadence of flipping steel into complete packaging lines and refurbished equipment for our customers.

We buy completely new and like new equipment and have it at the ready when customers call us with their next project, new product, or increase in production capacity.

Our engineers are your first go-to resource to discuss your product samples and discuss which approach and machine are the best options for you.

Even if we don’t have the machine you need, we’re happy to discuss your project and point you in the right direction.

We offer expertise, technical resources, and certified pre-owned and new equipment for rental, purchase, and lease.

Ultimately, we offer options to help you keep swinging.

New projects may launch and succeed or fail, but if you keep swinging – success will ultimately be yours.

The option to keep equipment or return it is an option our customers have come to appreciate while renting our equipment.

Or, the option to change their mind from a rental to a purchase is also an option our customers appreciate. In this scenario, we allow customers to place as much as 25% of funds paid towards their rental to go towards their purchase.

Getting quality equipment fast and providing flexible return options seems to be the magic formula to keep your customers swinging.

Let us help you hit your next home run.

Frain’s R&D DNA

Written on by frain-sales

Research and Development (R&D), also referred to as Product Innovation, Product Development, and Product Diversification has exploded with new brands and flavors launching to market at a never-seen-before pace.

This explosion is well documented in the Craft Brewery Production over the past several years but has translated ubiquitously throughout the CPG space.

craftbeerCapture

Source: brewerassociation.org

Developing and experimenting with new products, brand diversification, and packaging is now business as usual, not limited to R&D service organizations.

Just as business marketers are now more often mathematicians and data scientists, CPG business professionals are now an integral part of product research, testing, data, and development.

The question now becomes:  How are you supercharging innovation and rapidly executing research-based enhancements?

We’ve witnessed this trend and expectation within our own customer base.

Our customers now more than ever are seeking an edge.  They need to propagate more ideas to the marketplace with increased speed.  They wanted to test more ideas while tying up or committing to less cash out of pocket.

In other words, our customers demanded that we do more for them, faster, for less committed investment.

In 2016, Frain responded to our customer expectations with the following key features and benefits:

  • Speed to Market: Housing a packaging equipment inventory of 9,000 machines enabled us to quickly assemble entire packaging lines for our customers in weeks, not months.
  • Rapid Deployment: Our team of approximately 50 engineers and technicians match your need with our machinery inventory and customize it quickly to meet your expectations.
  • Cash Impact: By allowing our customers to rent, lease, or buy, our customers could launch and continue/discontinue more projects as needed with less budget going towards each project monthly.

R&D projects, in particular, have embraced inventory, speed, and most importantly cash impact – as renting machinery and returning as needed is a better fit for CPG research or beta projects.  This has shifted the focus of R&D cost to R&D revenue.

In a rapidly changing consumer-centric market, the ability to meet ‘hyper’ consumer product demand- without substantial investment in capital equipment- is the key to success and maximizing ROI.

By combining equipment, expertise, and service, Frain offers a unique fulcrum within CPG R&D.

Front Line of Decision Making

Written on by frain-sales

Shoppers may have a list in mind when heading to the store, but research suggests that approximately 82% of in-store purchasing decisions are made at the actual point of purchase when the consumer does not specifically have a preset brand in mind.

With an undecided consumer standing front of your product, your packaging needs to stand out.  Here are six considerations to make in standing out from your competition:

Sustainable

According to Mintel’s 2017 Global Packaging Trends Report, 21% of Canadian consumers are interested in a resealable or re-closeable packaging in order to reduce waste – in addition to delivering on known consumer desire for portion control.

Usable

Innovating and testing new packaging formats that stand out from the competition can include the way you make it easier or more convenient to consume.  Squeezable sour creams and apple sauces revolutionized the ease of use of their product taking them from traditional packages that relied on spooning out the product to squeezable formats which could be simply used by anyone.  By bucking the trend alone, you will stand out on the shelf and create space between you and your competition.

Transparent

Sometimes being different is as simple as being clear with your packaging and labeling.  By clearly showing what’s inside your package, you gain trust and purchases with consumers. People are more interested in what’s in their food, how it’s made and from where the ingredients originate.  Sometimes less noise in packaging is more.  And, what can be more simple then clear packaging?

Refreshed Look

Speaking of less is more, it’s been proven time and again that packaging can outmatch quantity for the same price.  For example, Libby’s refreshed their sweet corn packaging with a new flexible stand-up pouch and line priced it against their can package.  While both were available at $1.19, the new stand-up pouch offered two ounces less product, but still outperformed the canned corn.

Premium Feel

Appealing to the consumer’s senses goes beyond taste and sight.  Aloha bars are a great example of a product with a branded sense of touch or premium feel.  From the box to the actual individually-wrapped protein bars and powder pack, you get a high-touch premium feel to this vegan-friendly product for which consumers are paying extra.

Eye Catching

Shoppers are in a hurry, but once they find the section of ketchup, soft drinks, etc. that they’re looking for – you may have a fraction of their tunneled, peripheral vision whereby you need to catch their attention.  Aside from shape, message, new packaging and feel – you may also throw in an eye-catching element within your packaging, much like Tito’s Handmade Vodka and its copper cap.