TJPMD

 

Background on our operation. 

wpe40.jpg (37263 bytes)Small Business Meetings - In China, you can't do business from the desk --you must get out into the field!  TJP gets to the grass roots of business in China.  Our staff in ten cities nationwide are in the streets and the markets to meet one on one with the new business entrepreneurs of China.  On behalf of the Almond board of California, our staff have held hundreds of meetings each year, present samples, supplier lists and assist with product development and ingredient sourcing.

  • Helping bridge the gap!   In Beijing our local representative helped one of the larger bakeries in the city with a sticky almond problem.  The owner had overpurchased last year's crop and the new one was on the way.  TJP quickly worked with the company and linked them to other bakeries in the region who were short on almonds at the time.  The bakery owner was pretty happy and new has gone from ten cases to more than 100 cases per month.  TJP reps help small business owners locate almonds, find new formulas and even hell;p with the decoration of the shop with point of sales material!  Face to face interaction works in China!

Spring Festival Promotions - wpe38.jpg (40791 bytes)Marketing and merchandising have been unknown words in much of China for the past decades.  TJP Works with small shop owners to help prove that promotional activities can indeed help boost sales with quality ingredients.  for the past two years, we have worked with our client the Almond board of California to conduct almond promotions during the Spring Festival period.  Our reps work with the shop owners to delineate and plan promotional campaigns.  We help decorate the shop and develop sampling campaigns.   We also work on product development to show the very best of new products.  To top this off, we conduct local media campaigns in the areas to showcase the individual stores and to help increase sales.  Last year, we conducted more than 30 store promotions in six cities.  This year 25 in five cities.  Sales increases of up to 30 percent were recorded across the board.  We also garnered extensive publicity in the newspaper and television.  Now, the owners of the shows are excited to promote California almonds., and many have continued their promotions long after the promotion has completed.

Training Schools - The future almond customers of China are attending training schools now and are now knowledgeable of California almonds.  Lectures have been held in eight cities across China utilizing local bakers and TJP representatives, many which possess advanced food science degrees.  At the seminars, the students view a presentation on California almonds in Chinese and have a special brochure to take with them to the workplace.   Demonstrations are made by experienced bakers in the region.  The seminars have received high marks from attendees.  But the best proof of results is the fact that we meet "almond friends" in the field at companies where they are developing products with California almonds.

wpe39.jpg (39521 bytes)Technical Seminars.  The Chinese food industry is looking for new ideas and concepts to make money.  And, for the fourth year, the Almond Board of California has held seminars for the industry to provide new ways how California almonds can help achieve this goal!  This year we held seminars in Suchou, Wuxi and Xiamen, thee cities where there are major food industries.  We brought a Taiwanese baker who demonstrated value added baking and how to make, market and merchandise products containing California almonds.  The demonstration was a big success and the evaluation surveys gave the demonstrator high marks.  In fact one company has already decided to market a product which will have a value of more than 70 Million RMB in the new year! Bakers throughout China see the California almond industry as a partner in the research and development process.  And, they are very thankful that the industry has helped them develop their businesses with California almonds.

Roaster Seminar.   wpe3E.jpg (34078 bytes)The Chinese love to snack and they love almonds.  So we gave them ten new reasons to snack on almonds.  We developed ten new snack flavors at the Wuxi University and resented the concepts in a two o=hour seminar.  We also beamed in a live video teleconference from California with Almond Experts attending.  A professor from Wuxi discussed the techniques used in the formulations and presented a video tape.   As you see from the photo below, this was serious business from the attendees and they liked what they saw.  According to the evaluation survey administered to the attendees, they thought the seminar was well orchestrated, and they agreed that many of the new concepts would be in the market in the next year.wpe3F.jpg (37352 bytes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Copyright © 2003 Thomas J. Payne Market Development 
Last modified: July 12, 2007