mr he
New member
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 coffeebag 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 mae 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.
I started out in May, and have seen the first orders go out to Australia, with near term also seeing a European roaster ordering.
However, the US market has been somewhat harder 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 are welcome.
(Oh, I have not posted a link to my web site here - after all I ask for advice, I am not solicting business on this board).
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 coffeebag 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 mae 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.
I started out in May, and have seen the first orders go out to Australia, with near term also seeing a European roaster ordering.
However, the US market has been somewhat harder 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 are welcome.
(Oh, I have not posted a link to my web site here - after all I ask for advice, I am not solicting business on this board).
