Getting ready for export markets is a long and detailed process. Creating the right image for your product, finding the right potential partners and determining how to approach them is an integral part of any brand launch and producing an unforgettable presentation to include in your email campaign is a great way to start.

Exhibiting your beverage company in an email PowerPoint presentation can showcase your business plan and give viable import partners an important look into how they can profit by doing business with you. So, where do you begin? What are the key components to a brand plan PowerPoint presentation geared towards potential importers?

 

 

Begin your presentation with slides that really show off your marketing skills. Use well-designed pages complete with graphics and catchphrase terminology. Clearly outline your branding strategy without digging to deep into the technical points (save those for later.) You want to show importers that you have a clean and unmistakable idea of what your brand identity is. Paint a picture of your product that is simple to understand and easy to sell. Some essential slides to cover are:

• Summary

Putting a well-developed HERE WE ARE brand summary as your Title Page which includes great photos and marketing literature will bring the high points of your brand to the forefront and give your readers every reason to look at the rest of your presentation.

• Awards

Including a slide that showcases your awards and reviews will demonstrate to importers that the brand is already established itself as a market contender. Import- ers will be looking for selling points, so give them a look at all the medals you've taken home with you.

• Sales Points

A quick sum-up of your target market and competition is a great way to give prospective importers a glimpse into your proposed market strategy. Let your importers see that you've got a well-developed business plan geared towards success to grab their interest and keep them reading.

• Branding Strategy

Showing importers your overall branding strategy showcases your product and lets importers see the overall picture. The more developed your branding strategy, the easier it will be to convince importers you have a winning brand.

 

 

• Packaging Overview

Presenting the fact that you put the time into understanding your customer and your market gives importers the confidence they need to believe in your marketing. Engineer your packaging in order to competitively place your product on the shelves of their retail partners.

Below are some examples of slides that delineate a well-developed business plan; Big Peat includes their brand plan to highlight their product and demonstrate that they're ready for business.

• About BIG PEAT

Big Peat uses short, sharp marketing phrases to play up their BIG PEAT theme. Just by their 'About Us' slide, importers get a clear idea what this product is trying to achieve as an identity. They've chosen a font that heeds to their branding and their bottle shot embodies the sales themes described in the text. Having branding in place that really compliments a product's identity is one of the most important selling points that importers look for when considering a new SKU for their portfolio.

• Introducing BIG PEAT

A quick sum-up of their target market, competition, prices, distribution strategy and market give their prospective importers a simple overview to easily determine if the product will fit in their portfolio. Importers like to have a clear idea of what it will mean to carry the product. Making their job easier by outlining the essential facts shows that you understand the business.

• Packaging

Addressing the characteristics of the beverage of their packaging, Big Peat allows prospective importers to see the branding philosophy behind the product and outlines the high points of their product. Importers want to know that the packaging has been designed to reinforce the branding.

 

 

Once you've showcased the product highlights, it's time to examine the details of what it means to carry your product. Take a look at your brand's business plan and disclose the essential facts in informative slides that completely cover the basics and touch on your more complex strategies. The information that you give about your target consumers, markets and competition should identify your position as it enters the importer's market. Here are a few subjects that you should concentrate on:

• Consumer Strategy

An outline of your targeted customers shows you have done your research on who will actually purchase your product. Together with your branding strategy, the consumer overview can really sell the product to importers working in markets akin to those you are targeting.

• Branding

Display your branding plans in understandable graphics. These are some of the most important slides and you should concentrate on creating something that your importer can conceptualize as being a retailer favourite.

• Competition Overview

Taking the time to understand your market and relaying this information to your future partners exhibits a strong desire to succeed. Your competition is going to be the biggest hurdle you'll need to jump when you are ready to take on a new market, so show importers that you know who are the players and what it means to play in the big league.

• Distribution Strategy

Outlining your distribution blueprint provides the importer with an idea of how they are going to be a part of a growing business. If you are not able to properly explain how you plan on growing your distribution then your importer certainly won't be able to conceptualize it either.

• Overall Product and Pricing

Perhaps the most important point for any importer, give them what products are available and your suggested shelf price. Importers have clear ideas about the price range of products they want to carry.

As you lay out your business plan in PowerPoint form, think about what it is that importers need to know in order to properly understand your brand's position in their portfolio. Show them exactly what market sector you are targeting and your plan of action. These are just a few examples of well thought out slides to give you some idea of what importers are looking for:

• Target Consumer

BIG PEAT's Target Consumer slide clearly represents the customer base they intended to reach while developing their product. Their market is well defined and the potential for their product is evident. Including your target market for potential importers allows them to understand how they might find a market for your product.

• Brand Architecture

The Branding strategy BIG PEAT uses is strong and bare. They highlight their dedication to becoming a fast-growing brand and give great reasons to support their beliefs. Taking the strengths of your product and highlighting them together with your branding creates a strong sense of identity that importers can relate to their market.

• Channel Strategy

The distribution strategy that you set out is key to importer interest and brands success. Notice that BIG PEAT neatly sets their strategy with shelf positioning, distribution tactics and packaging details. Take advantage of your distribution strengths and show them off to your importers. The easiest way to sell to an importer is to convince them that you've got everything in place to sell your product for them.

 

 

Your marketing priorities should be clearly outlined in easy to understand slides and flow charts. Importers want to know that there is a strategic approach planned to capture the heart's of consumers in their markets. A distinct outline of your marketing strategy demonstrates that you are dedicated suppliers willing to support your importers and ensure sales at the retail level.

• Marketing Strategy Outline

Question your marketing team on the brand's principal campaigns. By identifying your marketing strategies and how you plan on employing them importers will be able to gauge your future position in their market.

• Flow Charts

Use flow charts to demonstrate that you have a logical approach to gaining an identity footprint. Well-populated flow charts demonstrate an understanding of the steps that are necessary to follow when building a successful brand launch.

• Program Summaries

Support Programs are some of the most essential tools to ensure stock depletion at the retail level. Give your importer a list of the programs you are going to make available to support your sales team.

• Digital Marketing

A solid inbound marketing campaign that demonstrates an understanding of modern social media techniques is essential in this day and age. Import- ers want to see a large and healthy community of supporters that are already supporting their product.

• Public Relations & Events

As you develop your plans for events and competitions, consider how they are going to build your brand and harness the power of your public relations team. If you believe you can build a Cult following or are planning on winning Gold at the next competition, outline your strategy to importers. Importers love to see great ideas that will carry a product from their warehouses to the customer's hand.

• POS Planning

Those little things that make a brand sell are what will also make an importer consider your beverages. Dedicate a slide to highlighting your POS strategy carefully so that importers can understand your retail mentality.

• Budget

A clear indication of how much you are willing to spend on marketing to support your brand launch is another important concept that importers consider. It's one thing to tell them you have great marketing plans, but it's much more convincing to show them that you have the resources necessary to implement them.

Here are some examples of how BIG PEAT utilizes their marketing strategies in well laid out slides designed to incite importers into becoming industry partners:

• Priorities & Strategies

BIG PEAT uses a simple flow chart to depict the plans in place to implement a marketing campaign and gain a healthy market share. The slide doesn't need to be overloaded with information, just enough to dictate to importers that you have a suitable approach to finding a healthy customer base will suffice. You can outline your ideas more clearly in follow up slides.

• Digital Branding

The digital marketing campaign they lay out is strictly tactual. They give importers a look at what it means to go digital for them and even offer their budget (actual figure not shown.) Even though the outline is very basic, it shows that they understand the importance of having a digital presence. The reality of the fact is that since they implemented their digital campaign, BIG PEAT has been successful at gaining a large cult following of devoted fans! Show- ing that you have (will have) a digital marketing plan in place can give importer's the confidence they need to move ahead with negotiations.

• Flow POS

Again, The POS slide BIG PEAT includes is not the most sophisticated, but it does demonstrate dedication to building a support program around their product. Providing information about your POS, support programs and how far you are willing to go to make your brands successful is one of the most persuasive content slides that you can include.

Appendix

Creating a well thought out, promotional PowerPoint that displays the strengths of your creativity and business sense really speaks volumes to the dedication you've put into building your beverage brand. Highlight tasting notes, pricing tiers of similar markets, feature cocktail recipes, market studies on demographics and industry growth, Profit and Loss Statements, and any other propaganda or technical content that you have developed or researched while building your brand. By distinguishing your brand as a step above the competition's - with strong branding, marketing, distribution and sales plans - you will guarantee that importers remember your beverage when they are considering the next product for their portfolio.