Wednesday, September 21, 2011

VINEYARD

BUY 20 ACRE VINEYARD MAKING 4K BOTTLES OF WINE. ZINFINDEL IN CROATIA LIKE BENMOSCHE ETC. IMPORT VINES FROM CALIFORNIA AND MAKE FIRST HARVEST A BIG SOCIABLE EVENT. HAVE A VINEYARD MANAGER. SEAFRONT HILLTOP. 15 YEAR INVESTMENT.

BUILD SMALL HOLIDAY HOMES AND A STATE OF THE ART WINE MAKING FACILITY. RENT THE HOMES OUT SO PEOPLE CAN EXPERIENCE THE WINE MAKING LIFESTYLE.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

ORAL FIXATION MINTS

Behind The Brand: Oral Fixation

Cool website and well designed.
http://www.oralfix.com/Breath-Mints/Oral-Fixation.htm

At what point did packaging come into play for Oral Fixation Mints?
“The second moment after we thought of the name,” says founder Henry Rich, who dreamed up the idea for a mint company when a friend excused himself for a cigarette break with the parting words, “I’m off to serve my oral fixation.”  “We wanted our product to be beautiful, but affordable, which immediately determined the high-end metallic look we were going for,” he says.
 
Rich partnered with some friends and set up shop in a historic chocolate factory in Hopewell, N.J., in 2004. The group purchased a WWII-era tableting machine, coaxed a former flavor specialist out of retirement and set to work designing packaging that would embody the philosophy of beauty in the everyday.
The result was a sleek, brushed metal tin that called to mind a 1920s cigarette case. Just slim enough to house a single layer of their hand-pressed mints, the embossed tins slid open to reveal a sheet of wax paper printed with colorful graphics and illustrations designed by one of the co-founders Jonathan Harris. 

“[The] wax paper is an element of our commitment to thoroughness in design,” says Rich.
Even the mints weren’t overlooked. The Mojito mint flavor, for instance, is imprinted with a Cuban star, while classical peppermint receives a treble clef music note. Each variety is imprinted with a unique symbol.

“We wanted to put many different access points to the personality of each flavor,” says Rich. “The wax paper, the mint, the package, the colors and the words around a flavor.”
The feedback on that strategy has been explosive. Oral Fixation mints are currently found in more than 5,000 retail and hospitality locations on five continents. And the tins have taken on a life of their own as coveted accessories, frequently repurposed to house cash, credit cards and other essentials.
Going forward, Rich says the company is looking to do more business in the gift market and to develop packaging concepts that might extend the brand. But whatever comes next, he says, will be on par with Oral Fixation’s commitment to beauty and quality.
 
“One thing we’re not interested in is a low-end version of our product,” he says. “That defeats the entire point of our brand.”

When Henry Rich was writing his senior thesis on beauty in the everyday, he wondered how he was ever going to parlay this into a serious career. Who was going to hire a Harvard philosophy major meets musician who had never taken a business course in his life? How could he combine his creative life with any kind of success? The answers were actually pretty obvious: Only Henry would hire himself and success would follow. With the help of Jeremy Kahn, longtime friend Eric Lybeck and Jon Harris, they were able to bring to life the company that “makes everyday products beautiful.”

Eric and Henry formed Oral Fixation in late 2002.This led these young men to research mint production, factories and distribution centers ultimately leading to the creation of Oral Fixation mints, LLC.
Now sold on five continents in over 4,000 locations,