[avatar user=”jefftyler” size=”160″ align=”left”]Jeff H. Tyler
Marketing Committee Chair of the International Packaged Ice Association[/avatar]
To all IPIA members I hope each and every one of you have had a happy holiday season and are looking forward to a very prosperous New Year.
As I now transition this year from the PIQCS committee chair to the Marketing committee chair I look at what is upon us this year in the Marketing arena as well as still helping David Bryant, the new PIQCS committee chair with his transition into PIQCS including the new FSMA regulations. The Marketing committee as well will have some large tasks at hand and will be moving forward on setting our goals this year on what we would like to accomplish. We again will be placing advertisements both digital and print in the proper ad channels needed to promote the IPIA, and the ICE IS FOOD campaign, as well as help continue to raise awareness that QUALITY and SAFETY DOES MATTER. Social Media Avenues will still be utilized as we move forward and the numbers still continue to climb liking our Facebook page. My appreciation to Vinny Nuzzolese, Jr. for his continued support in helping with social media and the progress it has made. We are always looking for new relevant material from our members to post on Facebook. Please forward anything to Jane@packagedice.com for posting on Facebook.
As the new Marketing committee chair I would like to ask that each member look at their company’s individual marketing of the IPIA and its logo, and see if you might think about showing your pride of being an IPIA member this year by displaying the logo in some or all of these listed marketing avenues below:
- ICE BAGS OF ALL SIZES
- TRUCKS OR ROLLING EQUIPMENT
- MERCHANDISERS
- WEB SITES
- EMAILS
- SOCIAL MEDIA
- AD CAMPAIGNS
- OTHERS I MIGHT NOT HAVE MENTIONED
Let us all continue to promote the Association!!! As a bonus this year in celebrating our historical centennial milestone, the IPIA 100th logo shown below is available for marketing uses too. You can also order 6 free truck decals of the logo by contacting Jane or Sandy.
The one large task at hand for the Marketing committee this year will be to try and accomplish the feat of updating and revitalizing our www.packagedice.com website. Although some of the legwork has been accomplished in the last few years it is time to do our best to see it through to fruition. We will be making the site both device friendly as well as user friendly, and concentrate on making it attractive to buyers, consumers, and members to visit and obtain the information they would be searching for. In addition we want to do our best to try and tie it in with the website safeice.org which Chris Lamond helps in maintaining.
As a final note I wanted to search for a definition of MARKETING that might best give me insight to what I feel we are trying to accomplish and in doing so I give you this definition given by Deborah Weinstein – President, Strategic Objectives.
Marketing builds relationships between consumers and brands. The many disciplines that go into the process together create a brand personality designed to be compatible with the target. Marketing romances the consumer in the hopes of establishing a long term commitment. This takes persuasion and nothing moulds opinion like the third party endorsement power of PR. As BILL gates says “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.”
I CONSIDER THE BRAND TO BE THE IPIA BRAND