Playing the waiting game
It’s been a busy week for O2GO, so where to start…
As it’s my first blog, some background info – in a nutshell, O2GO has been going for two and a half years, and sells sachets packed full of healthy benefits which are dissolved in water to add a refreshing taste and encourage people to drink their two litres of water a day.
My biggest headache this week has been hanging on for a date from Sainsburys for our big project. We’re heading to London to give out free samples of our product at rail stations (‘brand-to-hand’ activity) where we give out water with our product and tell people how it works. Our agreement with Sainsburys is that we go for 2 weeks with the product in their stores, with no promotion, so let the packaging and product speak for itself. Then we try viral marketing, advertise in the Metro newspaper and give out vouchers which will then take people along to Sainsburys to buy O2GO. But their buyer is always busy and hard to get in contact with and this is proving to be really frustrating as we are dying to get a date fixed.
A fantastic thing happened yesterday – our product features in the Spicers 2007 office catalogue (on page 102 in case you were wondering) and will be in there 365 days a year. It was such a buzz to see it in there and is a really meaningful thing for us as a company and should really reap some rewards.
Closer to home, not having a car has been tricky, meaning walking to work and not being able to nip here and there quickly. Walking has been time consuming but has given me lots of time to think and plan, a pretty valuable asset for anyone with their own business.
Had same trouble with patents this week. It may be that food can’t be patented, but names are another matter. Our name is quite similar to a well known mobile phone company, and we are currently in negotiations with the patent office to avoid any trouble …. so watch this space.
