Packaging Firm Hits the Road

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Packaging Firm Hits the Road

Shana Leonard

Rather than competing for a mere minute of a potential client's time at a bustling trade show, a packaging company has ceased waiting for companies to come to them. Instead, Lantech.com (Louisville, KY) has adopted a proactive approach by taking its goods on the road and straight to customers' doorsteps.

The company's Complete Package Tour travels directly to distributors and customers to show its equipment and answer questions clients may have. Sporting extensive Lantech branding, the 18-wheel trailer also serves as a mobile marketing unit, according to Jerry Todd, the company's advertising and promotion manager.

Motivated by the sales success achieved when previously visiting customers on site, Lantec decided to expand its customer service and marketing to include a full-fledged product tour for convenience. Equipped with a generator and HVAC system, the trailer has wound its way through dozens of cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest, even heading as far west as Texas.

"It gets the attention of customers, large or small, when it arrives," says Steve Pollock, director of marketing for Lantech. "It creates a compelling opportunity to take a few minutes from a work day to see equipment demonstrations that otherwise might require hours away from work."

Aboard the 53-ft trailer, the Lantech team offers demonstrations of its stretch-wrapping, shrink-packaging, and case-handling machines. Models included on the tour are the Q-300XT stretch wrapper, SW-1000 shrink wrapper, ST-700 shrink tunnel, and C-300 case erector.

In addition to displaying machines and establishing a personal relationship with customers, a further benefit of the tour is that the company can reach out to a range of personnel, not just a limited number of representatives attending a trade show, according to Todd. "We have the opportunity to get a large audience made up of the people that make decisions, as well as the people using the equipment," he says.

The company plans to evaluate the success of the tour at the end of the year, and is considering adding a second trailer for increased territory coverage in 2007.

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