Canada’s population and quantity of households is similar to California. Canada is substantial enough to be the launchpad of success for a brand committed to eventual growth beyond this initial market.
The re-launch of 1000+ Stain Remover in Canada is being done with the logic of needing to be most effective in the brand’s own “local market” for operational cashflow. A business mistake made by Winning Brands previously was to spread itself too thin in various international markets simultaneously, without adequate resources, leaving the company’s products without optimal impact in any one place.
The reason for this strategic error was the fact that in our early days there was too much focus by the company on the optics and possibilities of substantial business potential in the USA, where most of our shareholders live, and elsewhere. This was instead of concentrating on our own “backyard” and becoming a serious player regionally first, where we have operational advantages, as we are based near Toronto. Ultimately, our U.S. shareholders are better served by a business plan that generates real cash through operations than plans that are too far removed from realization. Positive cashflow will make all other things possible, even if that cash comes from Canada. When our access to SEC Regulation D, Rule 504 capitalization dried-up, and it took too much time to secure in-store shelf presence at Home Depot and Lowe’s USA, this change of strategy should have been made immediately.
The re-launch being undertaken now applies this lesson by treating the Canadian market as the one with a “home team advantage”. For example,1000+ Stain Remover has achieved a coast-to-coast footprint of retailers in Canada, but not yet in the USA. Most Canadians are within a 30-minute drive of a store that carries the product. Therefore, our current job is to make these consumers more aware of our lead product, 1000+ Stain Remover, now that Canadians have reasonable retail access. The Canadian market is large enough by itself for Winning Brands to be profitable in real cash terms. The current marketing focus on Canada is a tactical adjustment to become financially stronger on an operational basis. It is not a withdrawal from any current USA opportunities.
Future emphasis in America will include our good relationship with Home Depot for online sales, and Do it Best hardware stores, for example. Do it Best is a hardware cooperative with over 3,000 physical locations. They have listed 1000+ Stain Remover in all their regional distribution centers. This means that 1000+ Stain Remover can be carried in the physical store of any participating Do it Best retail outlet in America that makes the choice to put 1000+ on the shelf in that store.
The huge advantage to Winning Brands of the Do it Best listing is that the Do it Best regional distribution centers in the USA are set up (through regular deliveries of other merchandise on a regular basis) to let participating stores add as little as a single bottle of 1000+ to that store’s regularly occurring shipments. This eliminates the shipping cost issue for participating stores, no matter how small they are. Goods are arriving anyway from the Do it Best regional distribution centers that service them. Therefore, Winning Brands’ goal in this arrangement is to increase the number of individual Do it Best stores who bring 1000+ into their locations to put on their shelves for the first time. Since the Do it Best organization is a partner to Canada’s Home Hardware store organization, under their “Alliance International” joint venture, we have a two-step program in mind. By increasing our success now with 1000+ Stain Remover in Alliance International’s Canadian Home Hardware stores, a stronger case will exist for the U.S. counterpart Do it Best store owners to bring in 1000+ Stain Remover as well. The two organizations have 4,000 stores between them. They talk to each other. Success in anything does not stay a secret.
The new Neighbourhood Mail program of 1000+ Stain Remover is being launched in Canada first because Canada Post has excellent online planning and implementation tools for a business customer to plan and process neighbourhood distribution of promotional material, with exquisite precision, right down to the individual street, around participating retailers.
Our Canadian brochures for Neighbourhood Mail distribution have now been upgraded to include QR Codes effective immediately. By means of these QR codes, our householder brochures now provide a handy shortcut for brochure recipients to get a quick overview of key 1000+ features and benefits via the convenience of their smartphone, avoiding the need to go to a computer and key enter a website address. Home Hardware stores will be a major beneficiary of this tactic. (Participating Lowe’s stores in Canada, and independent retailers will also benefit).
Although QR codes themselves are not new as a technology, their acceptance by consumers is accelerating now due to growing awareness of their convenience. More people learning to simply point their regular smart phone at the QR code in “camera mode” to activate a website link and that no special app is required. The weblink automatically appears in the camera viewfinder enabling a single click on the camera screen.
Winning Brands will be making more use of QR code webpages, and creating new videos to support them. QR webpages that will be presented to our American consumers will not refer to Canadian manufacturing. Instead, U.S. QR codes will highlight 1000+ brand features that are relevant to American consumers, such as U.S. customer testimonials.
The QR link shown below can even scanned with your cell phone camera off this computer screen.
ALL ASPECTS OF DESIGN, SUCH AS DEVICE OPTIMIZATION, VIDEO ADJUSTMENTS, LOADING TIME IMPROVEMENTS & CONTENT ENHANCEMENTS ARE BEING WORKED ON CONTINUOUSLY.
This is the website that the first QR code links to, for this specific brochure, complete with dedicated video message relevant to this brochure: www.1000PlusNeighbours.ca
The brochure QR code shown above pertains to a Neighbourhood Mail program test in Canada.
