BLT - Blis Technologies

[brucea]

[QUOTE=Cannibal;288981]Video here on K12. It's a bit dry but informative. The speaker is from Frutarom
Yes, dry as the proverbial. What Frutarom need is to get this story onto a US or Canadian TV documentary like the NZ version of 60 Minutes (which is on Youtube)

[pietrade]

Video here on K12. It's a bit dry but informative. The speaker is from Frutarom.

http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/view...1363f72e1bb865

More vids here -

http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/search.aspx?s=k12

Wow. Lots of very interesting info there. Many thanks for the links.

[pietrade]

plan B might be a case of a diet coke at Mission Bay for me instead of the tropical beach setting ....

Woa!!!! you might need to read the info on ASPARTIME in the ihealth links.

[emearg]

Video here on K12. It's a bit dry but informative. The speaker is from Frutarom.

http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/view...1363f72e1bb865

More vids here -

http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/search.aspx?s=k12

Better to use the following search as it will reveal all 16 videos about Blis:
http://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/sear...layType=videos

For anybody not interested downloading them all, or unable to because of a slow connection (like me) there are transcripts available for most of the videos. I read about a dozen the other night. The others may be available by now? Sorry, I can't remember exactly where I found them on the site so can't provide a link, but I am sure you will find them if you look hard enough...


Interesting article/blog titled 'GrandDaddy put bugs in my mouth!' here:
http://www.thingstheydontteachyou.com/archives/346


CulturedCare have revealed more of their marketing campaign for their new gum:
http://culturedcare.com/blog/

Text is below for your convience:
<text>
Holistic Pharmacist RoseMarie Pierce talks about BLIS K12 at Victoria Health Show

Come see us at the Victoria Health Show January 16 and 17, 2010!

http://www.canwestshows.com/health/victoria/

You can find us at The Vitamin Shop booth where we’ll be giving away samples of our new CulturedCare Probiotic Gum with BLIS K12 (while they last!). CulturedCare Director of Education - Holistic Pharmacist RoseMarie Pierce - will be a featured speaker at the show. She’ll be talking about Professor John Tagg’s breakthrough research on probiotic BLIS K12, and it’s demonstrated effectiveness at protecting against infections like strep throat.
</end of text>

[emearg]

CulturedCare has updated their blog and the latest blurb is titled:
BLIS K12 – “Hundreds of times more effective than even most traditional antiseptic throat lozenges”

To jump to it directly follow this link:
http://culturedcare.com/2010/01/14/b...roat-lozenges/

[simla]

The gum launch in Canada is looking very active, Emearg. That's good.

And meanwhile, in other markets:

In Taiwan, the Blis Fresh Breath Kit is available on three different sites (gohappy, ftv, pchome, search for 紐西蘭BLIS-K12 布力士口氣清新組 ) at the same price. I had assumed this was "leakage" into the market initially, but that they are all selling for the same price suggests this is an organised release, and maybe it is the breath kit because they are waiting for approval as a food (ie. put it in your mouth), so can't release the others? (But they are available via a couple of .tw seemingly NZ-originated sites in Chinese). Meanwhile, it seems to be listed as an available ingredient at an address in Taiwan (http://www.bioclub.com.tw/epaper/0912/pro077-03.asp) and also another company there http://www.nutrisense.com.tw/eng/products_2.php?gid=35 but that depends on translation.

In Japan, seven fairly organised sites seemed to have Epoca listed - takachanmarket, itempost, touch-express, kusurishop, netsea, albusplus, calamel. (This is only going to get harder now that non-english website names have been okayed!) It has also shown up in a few blogs that appear to list relevant items of news. All up, but given the translation problems, you get the impression it is starting to gain a foothold. The last report said there would be more products in Japan and other North Asian markets soon.

In the US, prices are on the move if you look about. Bioguard is $4 off again in Costco. Theory has it that price reductions are a good way of establishing high volume items. The $4 was off before, but then stopped, but is now back. Also, it used to say 7-10 day delivery time, but that message has now been deleted. LEF's product is now $13.50 for members, and $18 for non-members, and I think it used to be $8 for both for a while maybe? All the US products seem to be widely available, but seem to have attracted only two or three reviews between them where I was looking - all positive but brief.

In NZ, Blis shows up on lots of pharmacy sites, and seems to be available anywhere. Presumably we expect marketing to resume here, maybe by late autumn.

It is hard to say what all that adds up to. But it is maybe signs of a product that is post-release in some places and has started the process of finding it's position in the market? Does all this add up to strong growth at this stage, or just quiet progress? We can't really tell. I suspect it depends how much active marketing/advertising is going on, which we cannot tell from a distance. At this stage, Costco is looking the best bet for volume sales, but we have not heard whether it will be carried nationwide, which would help us judge how successful it is there.

[emearg]

The listing on the Costco website ( http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...rodid=11496779 ) has been updated. It now has a link titled 'Watch Product Video'

It links to a page that has four sections:
TV Commercial (the 'Defence' commercial that was mentioned on here a few months back)
Image Gallery
FAQ
Clinical Research

Is this a sign that Costco is happy with the BioGuard sales so far and is increasing its marketing?

We still haven't had any word on a US wide rollout...

[simla]

I'm not sure the video link implies a lot, as other products have it, and it is no huge commitment from anyone to link to a few existing images (but it must have taken some work anyway.) However, I liked the display tray in the image gallery there. It seems to hold 24 boxes, suggesting a 6 pack doesn't last long in a normal sales situation, which may imply it is turning over. Also, as the main outlet is Costco, the existence of a display tray may mean that it is in a featured-product situation maybe?

I also liked the emphasis on blue in the display tray. Here's what one site says on the "Marketing Psychology of Color":

"Ask people their favorite color and a clear majority will say blue. Much of the world is blue (skies, seas). Seeing the color blue actually causes the body to produce chemicals that are calming ... Over the ages blue has become associated with steadfastness, dependability, wisdom and loyalty (note how many uniforms are blue)."

Meanwhile, the packet itself has a lot of yellow/orange:

"Yellow can be quickly overpowering if over-used, but used sparingly in the just the right place it can be an effective tool in marketing to greater sales. Some shades of yellow are associated with cowardice; but the more golden shades with the promise of better times."

[emearg]

Yup, but it suggests a couple of things to me:
1) A decision to pull the product hasn't been made.
2) A little more time has been spent creating the link, uploading the video, pics etc. Perhaps customers wanted more information? Perhaps Costco/Imagenetix think the extra info will help increase sales?

All in all I see this as a good sign rather than a bad sign.

Wishful thinking maybe...

[simla]

That's a really good point, Emearg. If they don't go nationwide, will the product be dropped completely from Costco as the only obvious alternative - that is, is it all or nothing? I'm inclined to agree with you that this would show it is not being dropped. So, yeah, logically this might show it will be extended. There might be a half-way house if production isn't of high enough volume yet.

I wonder if someone else feels the same way? Imagenetix's share price is going up just at present: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=I...urce=undefined