David's AW News: Baking Buddhas

Greetings from Bali, Indonesia.

Yes, I am here on my way back to Europe. Raul, our IT wizard, is here and there are lots of things happening. The marketing world is changing so fast..

Last week I was telling you about my one day delayed flight and the conspiracy guy who managed to almost cause a riot. If you missed it you can catch up here.

My observation is this..  That guy who kept coming up with conspiracies (they cancelled our flight to consolidate it etc), became the natural group leader by making people feel angry and untrusting. There in action was the simple truth.. Conspiracies are the way to hack democracy.. so that's why we have Trump.02.

All changes in marketing.

But maybe I was a bit unfair to the guy.. 

An apology.

The next day in the Red Fox Hotel near the airport.. they gave us a coach transfer back to the airport. Everyone on our flight was milling around in the lobby. I had decided from experience to avoid the coach transfer. Too many mosquitoes, smells and damp seats for my liking. So I called an Uber, only €2 to the airport - and a nice big new car turned up. So I popped back to the lobby and invited a couple of English ladies I had met who had also made friends with the Conspiracy guy.. and so we all crammed in the taxi for the 6 minute transit to the airport. 

At the business check-in it was me and this guy. We bonded, then in the business lounge we sat and chatted about marketing for two or three hours. Exchanging notes and ideas.. he was the owner of a wellness retreat, and faced similar challenges reaching out to potential customers. 

Oven in Bali

Yes it's hot now in Bali, and that is good for one reason.. When carved wooden items like the Hand-carved Buddha's arrive in our warehouse they need to be checked for quality, and one thing we do is check the moisture level of the wood. If the level is too high, chances are the Buddha will face some bad karma on the way as the container moves around the world.. and arrive with big cracks. So the regular solution is to put the statues in the sunlight to dry out - usually for several days..

The problem with this is two fold, firstly someone has to run around every few hours moving them back into the sun, and the really big problem is the rainy season.. which these days can be anytime. Waiting for dry days can set back shipping these items by months. So we bought an oven.. (some of our more advanced suppliers have ovens for this purpose),  most of the artisans that do wood carving cannot or don't want to spend money on this. Our oven took almost a week to be built - today they finished it. So now we can gently cook our own Buddha's until they are ultra dry.

Ringo with our new oven.

Satya Incense - update

The Satya brand from the same home as Nag Champa has become a major brand over the last ten years. Do you know the story? The business fell to the control of two brothers, when the old guy and founder died. They fought over the business and the direction it should take.. I don't know all the details, but a lot was involved because Nag Champa is the world's best selling Incense brand. Basically to cut a long story short there are two factories producing almost identical products.. One (the original) in Bangalore and the (rebel upstart) factory in Mumbai. 

So Tomas and I on our India trip met with the boss of the Bangalore factory and we managed to negotiate good terms in return for a commitment to a rolling contract. The purest retailers always buy Bangalore incense because this is the original and still the best, and I think I agree. Because of this we have always stocked Bangalore made.

So this week we were able to dramatically slash the price of the Satya range of incense. This is a major profit opportunity for you!  

Now Satya can cost you as little as 40 cents per pack. Sell at any 4 packs for €4.80 or €2 each.. Happy Days!

We have a limited amount of display stands (made in Bali) you can get super cheap in our starter pack deal. Grab while you can.

Online retailers - might want to sell as 12 pack assortment for €12.. fast selling and we have a dropship deal to help you do this.. Just add to your shop now. For sure sales.

So back in the UK.. there is still a backlog of products to get online. But the warehouse team is on it, and Rodrigo and the marketing team are updating pages.

Only a few weeks to Christmas.. 

Plus we already have HUGE Black Friday Deals for you.

Hati-hati - Take care - I have to go and watch some Buddha's gentle cooking.

David