Food and Drink Expo at the NEC

I didn't know what to expect as I received some tickets to the show only a few days ago. It gives food and drink manufacturers a chance to show their wares to supermarkets, deli's etc. I assumed that it was going to be all the major companies like Coca Cola and Birds Eye but it was mainly smaller start up suppliers which made it more interesting. My aim was not only to look at how the brands are developed but to possibly see some opportunities where I could redesign their packaging for them.

The one draw of these shows has to be all the free samples that are available which, believe it or not, I resisted them all. The last food and drink show I went to I had had such a mixture of different foods that I didn't feel that well on the way home, so that was the reason for abstaining.

As well as the Food and Drink Expo, there was the Farm Shop and Deli Expo, National Convenience Show and the Forecourt and Fuel Equipment Show. It was no surprise that the last show, I conveniently didn't visit.

The first stand that I stopped at was the people at Firefly, who were selling their range of original fruit juices. Their initial idea was to find a refreshing and delicious soft drink that wasn't packed full of sugar, so they decided to make their own. They had three simple rules. It has to be delicious, it has to be natural and it has to be unusually good.

What attracted me to them first was the bright colours and the nice type treatment. Their stand was quite busy mainly because they came across as really passionate about their product and were very easy to talk to.

Next, the stand at Sheepprint caught my eye mainly because of the clean printing on their plastic tubs. What they do is actually put the label inside the plastic skin of the container so it is a lot more durable for frozen products and retains the colours and shape easily. They can also graduate the labels in stages throughout the plastic so you can have a very slight three dimensional effect. During the conversation it came to light that they were looking for more packaging designers as they also offer an in house design service. So I will send them my portfolio and maybe get a few initial jobs from them.

Thinking of a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have had the confidence to even suggest that I could help but I have realised that I have some good skills and have to start somewhere. Plus, if I want to start a competent freelance studio, I have got to promote myself more as a professional designer. With the recent placement opportunities, I know after the first one that I will have gained a lot more information and hopefully be more confident in my abilities.

Another design that caught my eye was the stand for Chi Coconut Water...

I picked up their information leaflet which has been designed really well. They have a lot of health claims that they attribute to their drink but it is well known that natural coconut juice is great at re hydration and is used as a beauty aid. Their harvesting and processing procedures allow them to package and pasteurise natural coconut waters that are biologically pure so there is no need to add any preservatives. The best aspect of this product is that it has no cholesterol, is fat free and is naturally low in calories. What helped them even more is again, the people manning the stand were enthusiastic and engaged everyone walking past their stand.

After this I grabbed a coffee and had a good vantage point of quite a few stands to watch how they approached people and tried to engage them. It was quite interesting how many different styles there were. The extremes were the worst. What I mean by that is the ones that were too shy and never even said hello or the ones that were trying to read peoples badges and basically standing in the middle of the aisles were unable to grab anyone to their stands. There is nothing worse than somebody who is really over the top and pushy as you worry what they would be like to work with in the long term. On the opposite scale, the ones that were just standing there, playing with their mobiles, reading a magazine, might as well just thrown their stand expense down the drain. I know how much a stand costs at the NEC and there is no way I would waste that money if it was my product.

The stands that were providing popular had two distinct advantages. Firstly, they had a great product to sell. Because there were free samples everywhere, if your product tastes fantastic, half of your job is done. Next it's down to the price and that's when you need a good salesman who can close a deal every time. Now because I am a bit cynical of sales techniques, I tend to shy away from professional salesmen because I had to do it myself and know a lot of the tricks and persuasion techniques, which rely a lot on reverse psychology.

My favourite people are the ones that are genuine and friendly without being pushy or over confident. There was one stand I was watching that were selling there own brands of cheeses. It was one of the smallest stands but they were actually queueing to place orders. What made them stand out was the owners themselves. Basically it was a farm on the Isle of Man who had decided to diversify into making their own range of cheese. They were genuinely nice people and the farmer was a bit of a character anyway which only helped them even more. When I had finished my drink, I went to investigate and as soon as I walked past the stand, it was a nice greeting and he couldn't wait to show me his cheeses. It is hard being on a trade stand for days and staying enthusiastic and engaging clients all day, every day and I was really impressed.

I sort of felt sorry for the stand opposite who was selling their own range of ice creams. But the lady on the stand was failing to engage anyone even though she had a ready made audience straight in front of her which she could have attracted. Another problem was the overall packaging design which looked like someone had designed it using Word. It looked very poor with a lack of unity and quite poor typography. The big plus was the product itself was fantastic. It was the only sample I had, probably because it was quite hot in there but also there were some different flavours. So I offered my services and said that if she wanted to, I would be prepared to help them get started with a unifying look to their brand. Obviously they are struggling with the financial side but as I need credible work for my portfolio, I indicated that it wouldn't cost them a lot of money at all as I am more interested in helping them improve the labelling for them. Also, if I can use all the designs for myself, I am getting something from it anyway.

Overall, it was another useful visit as I not only had a chance to look at some new packaging designs but also watching how people approached possible clients.

Also, I have had the confirmation from Holmes and Marchant for the first placement starting on the 10th April for 4 weeks. I was a bit worried about trying to find somewhere cheap enough to stay in Marlow as it's an expensive place to live. Luckily a new Premier Inn has opened four miles up the road at High Wycombe and as an incentive, there are some great special deals going. At least you know what you are getting with Premier Inns as you get great breakfasts, comfy rooms and somewhere to work. As an added bonus, because I have booked the month, they have thrown in free WiFi for me as well.