Press Release
November 17th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
I
show up on Friday and Brett is smiling. He has this really fun project
for me to do. Brett took me to McCormicks website and showed me their
annual press release about the future trends in food. He then asked me
to come up with ideas for Frontier so that they could get some sort of
annual press. I was like “okay, sure.” I went on google and
prpressrelease. com to look up ideas. I found that most companies
didn’t really have anything unique, just listed a new product that
could maybe help with some illness or just a start of a new line. I
found some companies that had recipe contests and a hall of fame. I
told Brett about this and he liked the idea and wanted me to expand on
this. I was feeling pretty good. I was worried though that he really
didn’t like it but was just being nice because I was an intern.
After telling Brett this preliminary idea I sat and thought about
what would be a good road to take from there. Luckily for me I watch
the Food Network and immediately thought of something that would be a
great press idea for Frontier and would help them promote their
product. I decided that Frontier should partner with some other organic
food companies and host an All Organic Culinary Cookoff (the name will
probably change in the future.) I created a slideshow presentation of
my idea and looked up how food competitions generally work. After about
2 hours of research and creating my presentation, I decided to tell
Brett what I had come up with. He was happily surprised that I had a
presentation and called a quick meeting with the other members of the
marketing department for me to present to. My “sales pitch” had
immediately gone from 1 person to 3. I presented my presentation and
answered any questions to the best of my knowledge. After my
presentation everyone was very pleased and very excited about my idea.
They wanted to schedule a meeting with the whole marketing department,
the Senior marketing manager, and the CEO so that I could present my
idea in front of all of them.
I was happy that they all liked my idea. I wasn’t sure if it would
really pick up because it was an idea where it would be fantastic if
you could pull it off but I wasn’t sure excatly what kind of risks
Frontier was willing to take. The excitement level here really astounds
me. Everyone is so positive and really tries to think outside the box.
I am nervous though about pitching my idea in front of the Senior
Marketing Manager and the CEO. They are both very cool guys (I eat
lunch with them every day 
) but I am only an intern. I don’t have the experience that everyone
else around here does. I also worry that because everyone likes my idea
so much they might take it and run with it, even when my internship
here is over. I know people don’t always get credit for everything they
do but I was really proud and excited about my idea. I guess I can’t
really complain though, I am free labor.
Now I have to wait patiently until my meeting next Friday about my
presentation. I wouldn’t mind working here after my internship. I
actually do enjoy it. I wonder though if people here take me seriously.
I guess I just worry that because I have little experience compared to
the people here who have been doing marketing for years that my
opinions and suggestions aren’t as valid or appreciated as much. Of
course I could just be making it up. I doubt they will offer me a job
here but if they do that would be wonderful.
Quality Control
November 13th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
Yesterday
was a very interesting work day. The first half of the day was spent
still working on the market analysis for Kory. I found out that the
equation on the spreadsheet was wrong. I was using it for awhile and
wondering why it was wrong but I just figured that I didn’t know what I
was talking about because the computer knows how to do math. Then when
it did an average the number ended up being 20 cents higher than the
highest number in whole range that was being averaged. That was when I
began to question it. I look at the equation and found out what the
problems were. The equation was written: =Average(9, range of numbers).
The problem was that first off: 1) I was filtering the data set so I
wanted a subtotal and 2) it kept thinking that 9 was one of the numbers
being averaged. I changed it to the proper equation: =Subtotal(1, range
of numbers). My numbers were better after that. I had to go back and
change the old numbers because of the bad equation.
After lunch Ellen and I had meetings pretty much the rest of the
afternoon. We did a competitive review on two spices, one of them was
thyme. I am still getting used to how it works. I haven’t been around
these spices enough to understand excatly what they are supposed to
taste like. I don’t really like the taste of the spices by themselves.
After that I got to sit in on a meeting where the bulk team went over
what had been happening the last week, what products were out of stock,
quality control issues, etc. It was basically a meeting to make sure
everyone was on the same page.
Following this meeting Ellen and some other members of the bulk
staff along with a guy from quality control discussed how a certain
spice of theirs might be mislabeled because it isn’t really what the
supplier says it is. They were concerned that because two species were
very similar that it was hard to tell which was which. They wanted QA
(quality assurance or quality control) to start looking at herbs and
finding out ways to tell which herb is which and then checking to make
sure they are getting what they are told. John, the head of QA, said
that he could but he wanted all the effort that would go into it to
mean something. He wanted people to hear about the work and what
Frontier was doing, etc. I thought that it made sense to share this
information because Frontier wanted to be known for it’s high quality.
One of my most interesting meetings was the last one in my day.
Tyson, the new chemist that Frontier hired, was giving a presentation
on some of his work that he did with a certain spice. The spice had two
varieties, a thick stick and a thin stick. They are really easy to tell
apart when they are whole but when you cut them up it becomes really
hard to tell which is which. Tyson looked up what most companies use to
identify the spice. They usually look for a certain acid. Tyson ran a
test and noticed that the same acid used to identify the spice is found
in BOTH varieties. This means that you can’t use that test to determine
which is which. Tyson did find out though that there were some other
chemicals present in the thick stick that weren’t in the thin stick
that were visible during the test. These chemicals were not identified
but knowing that there were these extra chemicals that appeared at this
certain place made it possible to identify which was which.
After all of this Tyson then checked the samples that Frontier got
from its suppliers. He found what appeared to be mixture. Most of the
ground up spice seemed to be a mixture of the two species. Now that
they know this they decided that they needed to run more tests to
figure out which supplier was best, how they could fix this, etc. I
thought it was a very interesting meeting that showed what QA could do
if even the right tools. I was very impressed by the path Frontier was
heading down and I saw some great potiental. Unfortunately I won’t be
there long enough to see anymore of it.
Market analysis
November 11th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
So
I spent all of Monday working on a market analysis for Kory. All of
Monday. Like the whole time. I know that it is important work because
that is what needs to be done in order to understand how a product is
doing but man, I was hoping it wouldn’t take that long. I got there at
8 am and worked on it until 5. It isn’t very hard but there is a lot of
detail that has to go into it and a lot of data I have to look through.
Kory wants me to do an analysis of Simply Organic Mini’s in Whole
Food’s stores. She wants me to find out how each of the top ten SKU’s
are doing in each region. She wants me to look at data comparing the
last 52 weeks and the last 12 vs. a year ago. It is taking awhile
because there is so much I have to look at.
I am learning how to do a market analysis very quickly though. I am
getting better at knowing what it is I have to look for, what kinds of
trends, etc. that are important to note. This will really help me in my
classes here when my professors would assign that or ask somebody to do
it. Writing the analysis takes the longest. Finding the information
isn’t bad but figuring out a way to write it that can be easily
understood and comprended by everyone is difficult. For example, there
was a region where stores that had been selling the products for more
than a year were decreasing their sales. In this same region several
new stores started carrying our products and because there were so many
of them it showed a positive increase in sales for the whole region.
When I tried to explain it the first time it didn’t come out very well
so I went over to Kory and explained everything to her. She understood
that and told me how I should write it so she could understand it.
I enjoy marketing but I don’t get the same thrill that I do from
investing. Hopefully I can do both when I graduate. This internship
experience has really helped me learn to sift through lots of
information quickly and find only the important details. This will
really help me in my future career, here at Cornell, and in life in
general.
Internship
November 9th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
(Had already written this post but accidentally made it a page instead of a post so I moved it over here )
Well, I finally figured out how this thing works!
I am not working today because I have a solo competition tonight that I
am attending. Since I am not working today I will tell you about
yesterday. For my internship I work at Frontier Natural Foods Coop as a
marketing intern. I am really learning a lot. Yesterday Brett, my
supervisor, and I were working on trying to price our products for
private label. We needed to find out what our competitors priced their
goods at to see if we could match/beat them. We used some reciepts of
products that were bought but we didn’t have any information about one
of our competitors. Brett asked me to call their stores and ask what
they were priced at. I used to work at a grocery store so I know that I
can’t go up to them and ask for 20 prices so I looked up numbers for 5
stores in 5 different states (stores in the same town often call each
other if they think something suspicious is going on) and pretended
like I wanted to buy some spice. They told me their prices and I
calculated what I believed the wholesale price was. After putting all
of this information into a spreadsheet, we had a taste testing.
Everytime Frontier comes up with a new product (yesterday it was Tomato
Basil Spagetti Sauce) they test out different recipes to see which on
it best, what more needs to be added, etc. I got to taste some awesome
pasta sauce. We also got to taste test salsa.
After all of this I got to listen in on Brett’s one on one meeting
with his boss. I really got the chance to see what is discussed. They
talked about current projects, how they were going, any problems they
had, etc. They also discussed future projects. They also tried to lay
out a timeline for completing certain things. It was really interesting
to listen to. I got to sit in on another meeting about how they want to
discontinue a product and about the timing of annoucing that and to
who. I never really thought about that until I was listening to their
meeting. It was interesting to hear about how you annouce it internally
and then wait until the last possible moment to annouce it to everyone
else.
Another meeting I went to was about new labels. They had created new
labels and were wondering about how well they were turning over in
stores. I guess they were turning over quite well and everyone was
pleased with how fluid that went.
The final meeting I went to was about the new buyer that was coming
today. Everyone wanted to learn more about her business and who she
was. They also went over the schedule, who was doing what, etc. This
was a really big sale for them because Frontier’s product would be sold
in like 300 more stores. The rest of my day was spent working on
website lead-in’s for Simply Organic. I have a lot of work to do but I
am really enjoying what I am doing. I am also learning a lot about what
I would have to think about if I were a marketer. I am really enjoying
this
Bulk
November 9th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
So
on Friday I worked with Ellen at Frontier. She is in charge of the bulk
category. Basically she is the one who sets up the displays where you
can go up and weigh out the amount of product that you like. To start
off the day Ellen and I went to help out somebody get a bulk order
ready. She would label the jars with Frontiers logo, what was in it,
and the nutrition facts about the products. I organized the bags of
product so that we could find them easier and then started filling
bottles with it. I even managed to get some pictures of me in my white
lab coat pouring stuff. It was fun because I wasn’t sitting behind a
desk doing a market analysis and I actually got to do stuff with my
hands. The spices smelled wonderfully! I enjoyed smelling them as I
poured them into jars. You could definitely tell how fresh they were.
The cinnamon made me hungry for cinnamon rolls.
After doing that for 2 hours that went by really fast, Ellen and I
went back up into her office. I continued work on a market analysis for
Simply Organic SKU’s in whole foods stores. Kory wanted to see how her
top ten SKU’s were doing. I worked on that for most of the day. It was
pretty boring going through every region and checking ten SKU’s. If I
got too bored I would change it up and work on my website lead-ins.
Kory and I have been working on those for quite some time. Most of them
are great but there are still a few that need work. It is hard to be
creative on demand. Kory and I are close though.
At 4:00 Ellen and I, along with Brad a creative designer at our
office in Boulder, Colorado, went over a poster design for trade shows.
We were looking at the layout, pictures chosen, sizing, etc. It was
interesting to see the process of how those get made. I looked at the
first draft and was very impressed. If I were to turn in something like
that for school I would definitely get an A+ but it wasn’t good enough
for the business world. It wasn’t terrible by any means but we wanted
to make sure enough of the right information was covered on a three
panel poster. The rest of the day was spent working on Simply Organic
stuff. I really enjoy working at Frontier. Maybe when I graduate I
could get a job there.
Frontier
November 5th, 2008 by Andre DeSouza
I
forgot to blog on Monday after my internship so I figured I would use
today’s for both. Let me start with today since that is fresh on my
mind. I spent most of the day working with Brett on building mock up’s
for a private label trade show. Brett is trying to build up the private
label business here at Frontier. He will be attending a trade show at
the end of November where a bunch of retailers will get together to see
what kinds of products they would like to buy. Brett had me put labels
on spice and vanilla bottles to show what kinds of designs Frontier
could do with private label. There were 7 different designs in total
and 22 different spices. It took awhile to label them all and make them
look good but the benefits of a retailer buying a private label from
you is worth it.
When I wasn’t working on that I took some time to find Private Label
Directories that Frontier wasn’t listed in. Brett wanted to help spread
Frontier’s name around and to be more competitive. Most of our
competitors were already listed on these websites so it helps to have
our name right there next to them. That took awhile because I had to
check 50000000000 searches (not really that many but you get the point.)
Brett and Kory asked me to join a meeting with them about end
displays. A company that we do private label for was buying one of our
most expensive displays for the holidays, using it until the end of
December and then throwing it away. The sales department was not very
happy about that so we were trying to come up with a cheap and
efficient alternative. Because I used to work at Hy-Vee I told them
about how retailers like displays that are easy to set up, easy to keep
stocked, and look nice. We thought of some cool preliminary ideas but
will be having another meeting later with the Design Department to
figure out what would work best.
Monday was the day I worked with Kory, the Senior Brand Manager for
Simply Organic. We have been working on a market analysis for the last
52 weeks and the last 12 weeks. When we did a general overview we
noticed that there were some areas that weren’t doing so well. Kory
asked me to break everything down by SKU and into regions. After long
hours calculating and organizing everything Kory and I discovered that
one of the regions seems to be having a firesale on our products over
the last several weeks. When we looked at certain SKU’s I noticed that
a few of them were not performing well in any region. Kory asked me to
do an analysis on our top 10 SKU’s in all regions to see how they are
performing. At the moment I am still working on that.
Monday I also spent the day working on website lead-in’s for some of
our products. I have gone through two drafts to far and there are still
some that Kory doesn’t like. Those have been giving me trouble
because it is hard to think of creative ways to sell them in 1 or 2
sentences. I will probably look over Kory’s comments about them later
tonight. Eventually Kory and I will do an analysis of the Simply
Organic product line versus Kroger and see how they compare. I hope the
results are good.
