Marching through the Madness

We flip the calendar to March, which of course means one thing: March Madness. For many people, March means filling out the brackets, whether or not we know anything about college basketball, for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Some of us believe we know a lot about each of the teams and pick based on knowledge. Others decide based on their alma mater, the name of the mascot or even the school colors. In any event, the madness adds some additional fun and chatter to the month of March.

At Enjoy Life Foods, March Madness also has another meaning: Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA (March 12 – 14). Like almost every product industry, we too have trade shows that we exhibit at throughout the year; however, none are bigger and more exciting than “Expo West”.

A lot of planning happens for these three days, starting with booth selection and reserving hotel rooms a full year in advance. We begin initial Expo West booth planning in December. The planning stage includes: deciding on products to highlight, designing the booth layout and ordering booth furniture, among a laundry list of other things. Next, we “place an order” for the product we will take and ensure we have all the little odds and ends, such as supplies, packed as well. We then choose a theme and order items, such as t-shirts and our give away items. This year, we’re giving out tchotchkes (a little word of the day for you) for our new product launch (you didn’t think I’d give away the mystery did you??).

So the questions are: Is it worth it?  What do we hope to accomplish?  How do you truly measure the return on investment? We believe it’s extremely beneficial to participate due to the amount of exposure and encounters with the various retailers. At this show, we spend time with retailers from larger accounts like Kroger, HEB, Wegmans and Whole Foods, as well as smaller independent chains throughout the U.S. and Canada. These meetings may result in discussions of new products, promotions on existing products, or general conversation on the category as a whole.

It is very important we are at the show telling the Enjoy Life story and explaining our importance in the industry. Attending the show also has other benefits, such as learning the new products entering the market and spending time with our sales team and brokers. We believe there is real value and we look forward to showing off our new products in Anaheim next week.

We will post some pictures and video from Expo West on our Facebook page upon our return.  Oh and by the way, I think I am picking Kansas to win it all this year – that Jayhawk is a pretty cool looking mascot.