Tasty Image

Sweet iPads, Tasty Image-Style

 

The iPad might be one of the most recognized images in our technological world. For Adrian Vargas, CMO of iSuites in Pompano Beach, FL, iPads are central to the core of his company’s focus, creating Smart Hotels. In a Smart Hotel, which is the hottest trend in the hospitality industry, guests are able, with a single iPad, to control their lighting, temperature, TV, and personalized music, as well as schedule wake-up scenes, request housekeeping, valet service and more. What better way to catch the eye and attention of a potential client than a sweet edible 3D iPad with his company’s photo printed on the screen created by Tasty Image.

Vargas wanted chocolate iPads to promote his electronic concierge services, and he did what everyone would do to find them. “I researched online,” he said.  “I was looking into making a chocolate mold of the iPad to send to potential clients and it was going to cost me $350. Then I found Tasty Image. Printing on chocolate was a much better idea and the price was right.”

Once he started working with the design team at the Tasty Image Chocolate Shop in Jupiter, Florida, the process was quick and simple. “They didn’t ask for a design fee and made one up right away for me. [They were] easy to work with,” Vargas said.

Vote for your Favorite ChocoDoodles

Let's see, kids ... chocolate ... drawing and doodling ... what's not to LOVE?

This month we celebrate the Grand Openings of two new Tasty image stores with a ChocoDoodle contest for kids! Two new Tasty Image stores in Bethesda, MD and Mount Pleasant, SC are sponsoring ChocoDoodle contests for families and children who visit their stores.

Two lucky children, one from each store, will win a Grand Prize iPad and a week at Cocoa Camp for two.  An additional first prize winner will win one full day at Cocoa Camp for two.

The contest lasts until February 13, and winners will be announced on Valentine's Day, February 14.

ChocoDoodles are chocolate lollipops with an edible black-and-white drawing on them.  Kids visiting the new Tasty Image stores may pick their ChocoDoodle from among a selection of themes and color them with edible markers.  The child with the most votes wins!

Go to http://woobox.com/5aqq5x to vote for Mount Pleasant, SC kids.

Go to http://woobox.com/pwvvjf to vote for Bethesda, MD participants.

You can vote every day!

Here are some more of our favorite ChocoDoodles (gee, it's so hard to choose)! Follow us on Facebook to see more ChocoDoodle entries and to see who our lucky winners are on February 14!

Bidding War for a Delectable Christmas Tray!

Join us in the fun on Facebook!  This luscious chocolate truffle tray retails for $84.99, and we are auctioning it away to the highest bidder!  Place your bid before midnight on Monday, December 17 and you could be the lucky winner.

This delectable tray has six tiers of chocolate and over 1.5 pounds of chocolate.  Chocolate, caramel, champagne, and coconut ... what's not to love?  Offer this tray at your holiday open house, give it as a gift to your office staff, or surprise your mom.  Bids are welcome, no minimum raise!

Scan and Eat! The Newest Way to Promote Your Business with Chocolate

Fabri-Kal, an environmentally friendly food packaging company headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan recently ordered 1,000 chocolate coins with their logo and QR code.

"I’m going to use them at an upcoming trade show as a giveaway," says marketing associate Casey Kittredge.  "The QR code drives traffic to our newly designed website. Specifically, people will land on a video that explains FK’s current capabilities."

"Also, as a side note I would like to mention how excellent your service is.  Cindy is great!!  She responded in a timely manner as well as being extremely efficient.  I had a tight timeline and the chocolates were delivered ahead of time!"

Our thanks to Fabri-Kal for both their business and their compliment!

 

Think Pink! Your Orders Contribute to Breast Cancer Awareness

During the month of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Tasty Image will donate 10% of all proceeds from online orders to the Susan G. Komen Memorial Fund.

Tasty Image prints completely edible images on chocolate lollipops, bars, coins and cookies.  "Our product is in demand by people organizing or promoting fundraising events and races," according to marketing manager Mary Baker.  "Pink, women, and chocolate - the ideas just naturally go together."

Store manager Cindy Patterson adds, "We have a library of "Think Pink" slogans and logos, but we can also print anything a customer wants on the product of their choice."

"We want to give back to our community and to this cause," says Baker, "because many of us here at Tasty Image have either faced cancer or lost someone dear.  We always rejoice when we get a Think Pink order because it makes us feel that we're contributing."

Tasty Image Store Owners: 100 Days Until Christmas. Are you ready?

The countdown is on; September 16 marks 100 days until Christmas. While the majority of your sales will be after Thanksgiving, it’s likely you’ll have some early shoppers. Plan well to set yourself up for success.

Order early. Place all third party orders (cookies, non-chocolate candies, etc.) at least two months in advance of any selling season (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc.). Additionally, any holiday-themed molds or preprinted items should be ordered from the warehouse before Halloween. Placing these orders in advance of the holidays will help prevent out-of-stock-issues for you and your customers.

Corporate Gifts - How to Market for Multi-Unit Sales

 
 
October is the right time to start pursuing corporate Christmas orders.  A little early, you ask?  Not at all!

Although the personal gift shopping frenzy traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving, smart assistants and business owners begin selecting their client gifts much earlier in the season.  Imagine you are working for a stock brokerage firm with over 200 clients, and you’ve been given the task of finding a Christmas gift that will please everyone and can be imprinted with the company logo.  If you wait until November, the personal shopping pressure will make it harder to get your order filled—that’s when things get put on back order.  Plus, at many larger firms, an assistant may be asked to find several gift suggestions and run them by the director or a board for approval before ordering. 

Tasty Image Supports 'Relay for Life' in Walla Walla

Tasty Image was a proud sponsor of the Relay for Life event to support cancer in Walla Walla, Washington.  The weather was gorgeous, bands were playing, and families and friends of cancer survivors and victims gathered to celebrate, remember, and contribute to the cause.

Relay For Life is the main volunteer-driven fundraising event of the American Cancer Society.  Originating in the United States, Relay For Life has spread to 21 countries. Relay events are held in local communities, campus universities, military bases, and even in cyberspace. Although the main objective of Relay is to raise money for cancer research and cancer patients, the event is held to spread cancer awareness, celebrate the lives of survivors, remember those who lost their lives to cancer, and unite a world-wide community in the fight against cancer.

For more information on how to join Relay for Life or start your own Relay team, visit the Official Relay for Life Website.

Spring into Action: 5 Ways to Take Your Business Outdoors

Spring is coming, so think outside and outdoors!

1. Apply for booths at your local farmers market, street fairs, and wine festivals.  Hand out brochures and order forms.  Charm families by handing out free samples for kids.
2. Look for outdoor fundraising events like marathons and bike races to support.  Offer to print some free chocolates for every 100 chocolates the event orders.  Show up in person and volunteer to show your support!
3. Kids love chocolate and sports!  Team up with your local portrait photographers to do live imaging on team photography days.  Kids and parents have to wait for the team photos, but you can hand them edible image chocolates right then and there.  Parents will buy in multiples!
4. Reinforce everything you say with a well-written brochure.  Hit the targets that people care about, like fair trade and health-conscious choices.  Highlight your kosher and low-sugar options.  Use colorful photos, and always include ordering and inquiry informaton. 
5. Classy polos, hats, and tank tops help to spread your brand awareness. Keep them upscale, because everyone likes to be associated with a “cool” brand.  Women love sleepwear too, so think about flirty tanks and undies with chocolate-themed sayings.

Microsoft Serves Up Tasty Image Heart Lollipops on Valentine's Day

Tasty Image LIVE events are a great way to entertain clients.  And on February 14th, Microsoft thought so too! 

Microsoft's More Than Likes Can Say event attracted over 100 people from social media networks and internet technology to discuss a pending partnership between Bing and Facebook. A technology partnership between the two will allow Bing to create website rankings from Facebook 'Like' activity, similar to Google's Pagerank.

The event was part of Social Media Week in New York, and the speakers included well-known tech gurus like Brett Martin (founder and CEO of Sonar), Gilad Lotan of SocialFlow, Stefan Weitz of Microsoft and writer Jason Kinkaid from TechCrunch. 

Microsoft asked Tasty Image to create edible image chocolate heart pops for guests.  Our combination of traditional chocolate and fun technology was a perfect way to say "Happy Valentine's Day, from Microsoft!"

Chocolate is Always the Solution

Tasty Image chocolates make great party favors and gifts.  But did you know that chocolate – especially Tasty Image chocolates – can solve problems?

To expand your marketing in 2012, look for ways that your Tasty Image products can help others solve their problems. Whenever someone says, “gee I wish I could …” ask yourself, can Tasty Image help?  Send a few samples, get a test order, and enjoy residual sales and repeat traffic from happy customers.

Here are two real life ways we helped clients solve a problem.

Weyerhaeuser is the largest exporter of timber and wood products in the United States.  They operate an entire seaport in Longview, Washington and export wood to South America, Europe and China. Gary Cooke, the safety class instructor for Weyerhaeuser, was conducting live re-enactments in his safety classes and handing out chocolate as a fun way to reward employees for accurate responses.  “I was basically ‘borrowing’ handfuls of chocolate from the company dispatcher each week,” he said.    Tasty Image provided Weyerhaeuser with logo-printed chocolates.  “They’re a huge hit,” said Gary.  “Now we’re thinking about ordering logo-printed bars as Christmas gifts for our clients and loggers.”

The Boston Globe is the largest and most venerated newspaper in the United States.  The Globe has been active in reinvigorating downtown Boston by sponsoring a QR code treasure hunt through downtown stores and restaurants.  We helped the Globe promote their new website and online presence by printing thousands of QR code chocolates as giveaways. 

Got Clients? Start Planning for Christmas Now

Too early to think about Christmas?  "It's still seven weeks away!" you protest.  "I always wait until the week before to do my Christmas shopping."

Ah, that may work for your personal shopping, but if you want to let your clients and customers know that you appreciate their business with a Christmas gift, take a tip from other businesses.  Many firms begin planning their gift campaign as early as August.  "We always choose something that can be imprinted with our logo as a gift for our winemakers," says Ryan Render of Seguin Moreau, which produces French oak barrels for the wine industry.  "We have to make sure our supplier can get enough items, have them all embroidered or printed with our logo, and get them back to our sales reps by Thanksgiving.  Not much happens in December, and we like to deliver the gifts in person so it's important that our sales reps have them in their hands when they make their last calls of the year." 

Would you like to hand deliver a fine gift with your business logo on it?  Tasty Image can make your ordering easy.  Everyone loves chocolate!  And we have a wide selection of customizable chocolates in every price range - chocolates that can be edibly imaged with YOUR logo.

Order now and look forward to seeing your clients smile when you thank them in chocolate.

For orders over 200 units, call 877-742-2626 toll free and inquire about quantity discounts.

Visit our website for more photos and information on our Gift Towers!

Get Ready for Back to School Season

 

By Derri Cerbone, founder of Tasty Image

Looking forward to fall?  Crisp air, crunchy leaves and football games.  If you are a Tasty Image owner or enthusiast, here are some creative ideas for chocolate incentives, fundraising, and prom activities.  Visit decision makers at your local school now, while energy is high and everyone is planning events.  Call ahead and make an appointment with a school official, and then visit with some colorful school-themed chocolates to leave as samples. 

Suggest a "back to school" kick off.

Before meeting with a school official, print an image of the school mascot on chocolate lollipops and decorate your pops with ribbons in the school colors.  Suggest selling the lollipops for a profit to raise money for team uniforms, field trips, and other school activities.  Come prepared with quantity pricing and suggestions for selling the items at bake sales, in the school commissary, and as student neighborhood projects.  Also bring high-quality digital photos of your product so teachers and students have photos to use in student newspapers, sport schedules and posters.  Think your fundraising project through, and make it as easy to implement as possible.  Provide a written, step-by-step guide and include the profit that the school can make. 

Incentives and rewards

Many schools offer rewards to encourage good behavior and/or honor roll recognition.  Allow the school to purchase printed chocolate items at 25% off to give out to their star students.  Remember, every student and family that receives an edible image reward will remember your store when they have private celebrations! 

Prom night

Meet with the prom committee.  Prom is usually funded by the junior class, who raise money all year long.  You can offer edible image items with a ‘heart’ theme.  It’s also an amazing opportunity to bring your edible imaging equipment to the dance!  “Take a picture with your prom date and get it on chocolate while you wait!”  (Tip:  Bring your own white backdrop.  A white backdrop is clean and uses less ink than a dark backdrop - it will dry faster and stay neat while handling.)