replace the red stars with M-Dots on the tanks, put an INFINIT shirt on the guy. Do it quick and post it on forum before it gets pulled. Don't forget to just list the nutritional content of one of your formulas at the bottom. Nothing more. Speaks for itself.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Get Tiger Woods as a sponsored athlete, I heard he is available....and cheap. He might have a vendetta against Gatorade anyways after they dropped him. And he gets plenty of media attention.

I see the ad now, tiger in an Infinit hat, with naked hot chicks all around him, having to drink Infinit to have the stamina to keep all the girls smiling.

I thought you have hired the greatest marketing firm in the USA for quite a while now to help you out. So shouldn't it be Johnny Rocket's gig to handle it?

If you want to hit back, you have to hit them the only place they care about... The Wallet.

I definitely agree that positive message can be the way to go, though some of the "dirtier" slogans and ideas are just plain funny.

Even better... why not Hijack the event?

Get a bunch of fellow expo people, rent a place/location close buy and have seminars, give aways, and more importantly BETTER PRODUCT.

I have been to two expo recently and found the logo and event merchandise tired and boring. It would not be to hard to come up with better designs and draw traffic based upon having better merchandise. I can tell you that everyone I saw wearing Pre-WTC Timberman gear got asked where they got it. The gear was night and day, as well as creative and not just a logo thrown on a basic bike jersey etc.

I also have a USEABLE, Alternative, NON-TRADEMARKED name that you could co-use or Hi-jack the event with which takes all the bullets out of their lawyers guns (at least it is worth investigating)

Since you are not using Ironman, M-Dot, etc., you are free to create and sell products. Now I know your business is custom nutrition, but with the right gear, better items, and similar vendors, you could generate quite a loyal following...

Best idea to me so far is sponsoring the underwear run and handing out the gear to be worn and having all those drawers with the Infinit logo.

LOL...Yoda speaks.

.

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infinIT Nutrition
Custom Blended Nutrition Solutions
http://www.infinITNutrition.com

Personally I don't see doing something BIG at Kona as a great strategy. For the most part, you have people at the pointy end of the curve, probably with years of experience, and who have their nutrition worked out. Further, I would think that most of the people there have been around the scene long enough to know about you, and are either using your product or have decided against it for some reason. As such, I don't see a huge ROI for you in winning converts - kinda like bringing coals to Newcastle. So other than the protest statement for being banned - I think it is a money loser. Focus on the other WTC events where you have more of the great unwashed masses who may not have heard of anything other than gatorade or powerade.

Of course, this is also an opportunity to team up with some independent races - B2B is pulling in nearly 2000 people now, the Rev3 market is looking good, and there are a few others out there that pull good crowds especially at the 70.3 distance. You could have something like "Infiniti - for athletes who think" and appeal to those that choose to not do WTC. You could possible even co-opt the current tea party "Don't tread on me" flag, with the snake coiled around your product logo. Same applies to working outside WTC venues.

One of the biggest issues I see with the product is the web only nature. My personal example - I do not do well on gatorade. So when I was looking around I came across EFS in our local shop (Founder was involved in setting up the tri shop here). So I have easy access to replacements - prices are comparable to yours and no shipping costs. You are very dependent on word of mouth referral to get people to your website. Product on the ground gives people a chance to experiment and compare. Many people will do better learning about a product if it is on hand, so perhaps you need to consider a distribution market as well.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

A thought for your slogan

"BANNED 'cus it's BETTER"

I can see that plastered all over water bottles, tee's, hats, foam cuzies, underpants (especially the undies)

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This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. - Fight Club
Industry Brat.

I agree with this.
start with some distribution of your ready-made mixtures. Make sure you have a flier or some other material with every bottle that lets consumers know that they can customize it any way they want on your website.
I'd been racing for years before I heard of you...word of mouth.

Get the word to the masses in the LBS's and other stores. Make sure the education is there too.

"Thank you for your purchase. We appreciate your business. In an effort to keep our consumers informed, please be sure to visit our website where we have event-specific mixtures as well as fully customizable blends for your nutrition and taste needs."

They banned you...good for them, bad for you. You got screwed...don't follow that up by making an emotional decision that will end doing little for your business at best, hurting your bottom line at worst...and possibly getting your company sued.

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________________
Blogging

 
I think all the sports drinks companies just sell overpriced maltodextrin, or glucose, or fructose.. or whatever....

I buy a big tin of powdered ice-tea from the grocery store, tastes great and it works just fine. I buy Mars bars multi-packs for solid nutrition.

Total cost of nutrition for my last IM was less than $5.

For training, I mostly go healthy with homemade Muesli bars, and diluted fruit juice in my bottles.

FTR, Powerbar products are JUNK FOOD. They have more processed crap and chemicals than my ice-tea and Mars. Nestle should be ashamed to sell that to athletes...

Not a real big surprise given that most of the volunteers on the course were calling the official drink Gatorade most of the day in Madison.

I think doing Iron-on's is a quick and easy way of getting your logo out there to the masses for little to no cost. I know at AG Worlds in Australia 2006, they did this and it took no more than a minute per person. People can bring their gear (race or not) and have the logo placed on there. It will last a long while.

The larger the logo they place on their uniform, the greater % they get off on their next order. On the chest in huge letters, 50% off your next order. 2" x 2" between the shoulder blades...20% off your next order.

Also, people LOVE temporary tattoo's. But have people actually put them on the athletes/spectators, etc. It makes sure that they get up on and will last through race day.

...

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Owner/Head Coach for Endurance Concepts
http://www.EnduranceConcepts.com
Sponsored by: Cadence Bikes & Multisport & Brooks

Use Ti T'war's quote "BANNED 'cus it's BETTER" on one side of underwear with Infinit on the other and hand out for the underwear run

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____________________________________________________
"I like you. I'll gladly sit down and have dinner with you after the race. But when the gun goes off, I pretty much hate you, and I want to stomp your guts out. That's racing." -Rappstar

http://train4autism.org/

just make sure the bus is on time!

team up with a triathlon time like Endurance Nation and see if you can loop that one

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Member HED, Cervelo, De Soto Mafia

Che was too busy killing people to consider what he drank.

Che Guevara T Shirts vs. The People Who Wear Them.

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Paul Lantinga
Sable WaterOptics from See Worthy
paul@sablewateroptics.com

Hmmm. Good point.

Marketing= double edge sword.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It sure is - we had to totally abandon our 'free range silicon' marketing campaign.

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Paul Lantinga
Sable WaterOptics from See Worthy
paul@sablewateroptics.com

Getting a ton of e-mails from "industry people" with the same or similar issues. Makes you wonder what could be done if we worked together. Hmmmmmmm

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infinIT Nutrition
Custom Blended Nutrition Solutions
http://www.infinITNutrition.com

give-aways:

temp tatoos at the Pier daily
swim caps at the Pier
Infinit underpants, give them away at the Underpants run Thursday morning.
rent out the old and perhaps still vacant Hard Rock Cafe and throw a party there.
set up a tent at the entrance/near the energy lab and give away product, ice-cold samples will win you friends.
give away stuff at the Friday check-in, it's public property beyond the Pier.
associate yourself with one of the local stores to use their space as Infinit central.

Announce that Infinit is giving away some prize that all triathletes would want. Although I use your product, I'm talking about a non-drink related prize. Maybe an Apple iPad or Bose stereo.

Only way for folks to register for the prize is to come to Infinit party location, maybe a house, hotel suite or bar/restaurant.

You collect names and contact information for future mailings, and at the end of the night give away Infinit product and logo gear along with the grand prize. Maybe everybody who attends gets an Infinit hat, technical shirt, etc. You also have nice Infinit kits for sale, and product.

You get this out to everybody via tri forums and have hula girls at airport hang around luggage area and pass out fliers.

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http://jmassieblog.blogspot.com

Bingo Michael!

I also like the idea of getting the pre-mix stuff out there.

While I did o.k. on the Osmolality for the most part, I probably was a little too high on the carbs on my custom mix trying to keep the fueling on the bike being liquid only. Was my bad, but is the down side of custom is we can shoot ourselves in the foot (or gut)

You also could help people maybe a little quicker as well.

Sell smaller test samplers in the stores (EFS was giving away small 5 or 6 serving cans at one of the events I was at) and then have the athlete use them, come back with what they liked and didn't and gives them a better base point to tweak before buying a larger serving bag or decide the pre-mixed worked fine.

You can also do a promotion if you do a small 6 serving can/bag... and do Try 6 servings and get 3 towards a future purchase / custom mix.

Some excellent ideas here.

I have never been to Kona but I would have something mobile to go where the athletes go. Be it at the swim practise, on the course in the run up to the race, at the popular social venues.

You want to be able to get their details to build up a marketing dbase, so everything has to be personal 1:1.

I would give out Infinit swim caps at the swim practises. How about those little gym bags that some races give out. Small gym towels that can be used in transition.

Crop tops? Running vests? Bike socks are a favourite as well.

Those blow up tube things that the kids love to make noise with. A big inflatable Infinit bottle at the practise swim?

I would target kids with small T-shirts as well, they can be like mom/dad.

How about an infinit ankle strap for the timing chip.

Sorry bit of a mind dump there!

Sell out to Nestle.

Oooooo shadow expos. the dark side of ironman.......

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson