Hello everybody…
I am new to this forum, and hope that this will be the start of a long
posting career.
Currently working out of Taiwan, where I have lived for a few years.
I started out in the coffee industry some 18 months ago, joining a
small Taiwanese upstart wanting to market a commercial espresso
machine globally. While promoting this, I from time to time got asked
about other items, with coffee bags and laminate roll stock popping up
quite often.
As the sales of the espresso machine failed to take off, my mindset
got increasingly set on finding a good range of coffee related
products I could market to western customers in Taiwan. I decided to
start with coffee bags and roll stock, as many of those are made in
Taiwan already and sold thru US trading companies.
After a short search, I managed to locate some good coffee bag and
laminate foil producers, who were interested in cooperating with me
and who had a record of producing to international markets.
My competitive advantages are that I am close to the producers, which
mean that QC is easy, and so is it to get decent pricing out of them.
The disadvantages are that I am a bit far from my customers, and well,
it's hard to make a sales call when you are 10,000 miles away. Also, I
am relatively new, and my network is not very strong yet.
I focus on mid size roasters and above. Everything I do is custom made
and printed, with even the sizes of the bags as requested by the
customer.
The US market has been somewhat hard to get into, and I would like to
hear what kinds of ideas for marketing my advantages, the fellow
members of this forum have.
So, what I hope I can get a bit of advice on is:
1. Traditional email shots don't really work anymore. You end up in
the spam folder, no matter how personal you make the email.
2. Confidence is a problem. People are used to buy from their usual
suppliers, and I need a way to teach people that ordering directly
from abroad is safe, it's cheaper, and you get a product more closely
tailored to your needs.
Any opinions on how to overcome those obstacles are welcome.
(Oh, I have not posted a link to my web site here - after all I ask
for advice, I am not soliciting business on this board).
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