Page 81 - Customers Final

FROM IMAGINATION TO SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT LAUNCH

sometimes works very well for the company buying the
ingredients because if they receive bigger orders than
anticipated from customers they can turn on the taps to
get more of the finished product out of the door and fulfil
demand without a delay.

The manufacturer of the ingredient can produce larger
amounts all at once instead of doing smaller, more

expensive, production runs and make better and more
economical use of his machinery or staff. This is called
“sweating of your assets” or even better “amortization”
of your assets. Just be mindful of shelf-life
(freshness/light stability, for example) when using the

consignment stock method.
Why not extend your credit terms with your supplier?

This will of course increase the cost of your product
initially but after the product becomes more popular
you can then look at reducing those costs to where they
should be.

There is another option here too. Pre-launch a small
amount of product only to a small amount of pre-order
customers, then you will know how much stock to hold

62