Pay for Media with Meatballs
we help our clients reach, engage and win new customers
Every corporate trade transaction starts with a challenged asset, whether it’s unsold inventory, no-longer-needed equipment or some other burdensome item or unused capacity.
Our clients want to know, how are we going to remarket the asset into an approved secondary channel. That is, how can we sell their items in ways that won’t upset their current distribution channels and partners – and won’t have any negative brand impact.
It’s not an easy task, but at Net Trade, it’s the only thing we do. Each principal adviser here has over two decades of experience successfully structuring trade transactions. We’ve built a network of over 4,000 retail outlets and partners throughout the US, as well as export markets.
Case Studies
Disposable cameras
Situation: An entertainment company had run a very successful promotion that offered a disposable camera to every customer that purchased tickets for a live event that was touring nationally. At the end of the tour, the client had 20,000 cameras remaining.
Challenge: With the increasing popularity of smartphones, the market for disposable cameras declined rapidly. To further complicate things, the cameras also featured the logo of an internationally-recognized brand on a cardboard cover. Before the cameras could be distributed in any manner, that logo had to be removed, and the cameras repacked generically.
Solution: The cameras were delivered to our warehouse where a temporary staging area had been set up. Our team exhaustively tested different heat applications to determine the best way to remove the branding without damaging the cameras. After numerous tests and about 1,000 destroyed cameras, we finally figured out a process that worked and was approved by our client. The cameras were then repacked and sold to event and party planning companies to use at events such as weddings. Many of the event planners were located outside of the United States.
Frozen chicken parts
The Situation: Our client had 700,000 pounds of fresh poultry product that was made to spec for a national restaurant chain. The order was cancelled, and the client was stuck with 350 tons of poultry.
The Challenge: The chicken needed to be repackaged and sold into secondary markets that would not compete with the client's branded sales chain.
The Solution: We paid the producer the full value for the poultry. Based on our client’s approval, we employed an FDA-approved facility to repack and freeze the product. The newly-packaged poultry was then sold into approved secondary food service channels – and the repacked cases did not display the client’s brand name.
Industrial Machinery
Left Behind Equipment Presents A Dilemma
The Situation: A Net Trade client was moving into its new world headquarters. The facility was over 1,200,000 square feet – and had previously served as a heavy manufacturing facility producing turbines.
The Challenge: The facility was an incredible space, but the previous tenant had left a lot of cumbersome industrial equipment behind. he cranes left in the facility were 60-ton capacity and rigged into the ceiling.
The Solution: Net Trade purchased all of the cranes and machinery remaining in the facility. We brought in a team of riggers to remove the cranes, which were then sold off for parts and scrap. The result was that, on behalf of our client, we generated a sale at the highest possible price, which eliminated the costs associated with removing and selling all that equipment.
The client was able focus on their business, while our team successfully cleared their space and prepped the facility for the move.
Ecommerce Retailer
The Situation: This e-commerce retailer had excess inventory and customer returns that could not be placed back into in-line inventory.
They were experiencing exceptional growth which created more slow-moving SKUs along with a greater number of customer returns.
The Challenge: The inventory was composed of a small number of varied SKUs and ranged from apparel to small appliances and housewares.
The inventory was boxed but not sorted by SKU or size, nor were cartons were marked with the contents.
The Solution: Net Trade purchased the entire inventory and paid the full asking price.
The inventory was shipped to our warehouse where our staff broke down and sorted it.
Our sales team re-sold the inventory into local and regional closeout outlets over a period of six months.
The client used its Trade Credit as partial payment for national broadcast schedules during the critical sales cycles such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and Back to School.
We worked with the client’s advertising agency to develop a broadcast plan that tied into the client’s digital campaigns.
It included more direct response TV tactics along with the client’s buying guidelines that included specific dayparts, networks and program restrictions.
Our TV schedules were responsible for driving new customers to the web site. These customers provided our client the fuel to maintain it rate of growth and reduce the cost of acquiring new customers.
Our media schedules increased web site traffic and we were able to reduce the overall costs while improving the Cost Per Acquisition by 14%.
The client generated a lower cost of sales and had a channel to immediately sell any excess inventory and customer returns.
European Furniture Manufacturer
The Situation: This European furniture manufacturer sells high-end furnishings to the retail trade. Based in Italy, they have a sales team and multiple showrooms, for trade only, across the US.
The Challenge: The showrooms are updated every year to showcase new items and fabric choices. The client must sell over $500,000 of showroom samples that are no longer current.
The client has no direct-to-consumer outlets – and the showroom samples can be slightly worn. The furniture is located in multiple locations and the pieces can vary from lamps to ottomans or all types and sizes of couches.
Too costly and time-consuming to sell off the samples and the trade accounts are not interested in purchasing 50 ottomans that do not have the matching seating.
The Solution: Net Trade purchased the entire inventory and moved all of the inventory from the multiple showrooms to our warehouse.
We resold the items directly to consumers from our warehouse. We used our “friends and family” marketing as well as some local retail outlets that were willing to purchase the items as-is /where-is. Some of the furniture was also donated.
The client used the Trade Credit as partial payment for planned and budgeted print advertising campaigns, including ads in lifestyle publications as well as newspapers and Sunday magazines throughout the US. Net Trade worked with the marketing team in Italy and US publishers to convert the media plan from all cash purchases to using our trade positions as partial payment.
Net Trade had to match the specific buying guidelines concerning placement requirements as well as competitive adjacency requirements. The rates we delivered were based on the client’s negotiated global rates and the client paid a combination of cash and showroom furniture to fund the schedules.
The client has been selling the showroom furniture to Net Trade for the past three years.
Snow Cone Cups
Industrial ice makers
(for skating rinks)
Plush animals
Designer men’s shirts
High-end skincare products
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Think you won’t be able to unload your inventory because it’s too big, or too perishable, or just too difficult? We’ve probably handled it – or something very much like it – before! We have decades of unique experience, and there’s little we haven’t done.