Today, you can either be disrupted. Or be the disruption.
Back in the 90’s, Garry Kieves, founder, and owner of Anagram International, wanted a better way of marketing mylar balloons and in the process, get into mass market where more consumers shop.
Traditionally, balloons were stuffed on a shelf in a back room within party stores, florists, and grocery chains, with a few dusty inflated balloons pasted on the wall for consumers to see. Plus, no mass market retailer carried balloons. The Anagram’s sales and marketing groups brainstormed and identified that the balloons needed to be packaged. But mylar balloons were slippery to grab, fold, and insert into a package.
Garry, an engineer and machining expert, tinkered with Anagram’s on-site manufacturing lines. He ultimately invented a revolutionary manufacturing process that folded the slippery mylar balloons and inserted them into small plastic packages. Sandhill consultant Kris Tarantino and others developed the planogrammed spinners and pegged packaging programs that held the balloons. No longer would balloons be stuffed into a back closet. Now they would be front-and-center for consumers to actively engage and “experience”.
Anagram immediately went to market with the new Anagram Balloon Centers or ABC. These ranged from smaller corrugated floor and counter 24 peg-facing to a 72 peg-facing balloon wire spinner which held hundreds of balloon packages that consumers could finger through. These innovative planograms were an instant hit. The result? Mass market retailers, including Toys R Us, added the ABC system.
Sandhill consultant Kris Tarantino, and the Sandhill team, all worked in different consumer products companies on disruptive marketing and experiential merchandising systems. Contact Sandhill Consulting Group at info@sandhillconsultinggroup.com to see how your business can benefit from Sandhill’s breadth of entrepreneurial thinking.
