Case Study: PaperChef
Sonray started selling PaperChef parchment paper in April 2009. Prior to our involvement, the brand had established sales across Canada; in the first year, Sonray tripled the unit sales in Western Canada. Sonray was drawn to this product for a number of reasons: an opportunity to raise a great deal of brand awareness, the quality of the product, the fact it is environmentally friendly, and their parchment bags are extremely innovative. PaperChef has a superb product but was looking for a new market strategy to increase consumer awareness and usages.
Using our brand management expertise, Sonray worked with PaperChef and suggested they create a 10–foot (instead of their regular 41 square foot) rolls of parchment paper. They soon coined the word “The Discovery Roll”. We deliberately planned to build elaborate booths at home and interior design shows instead of food shows so that we would stand out from the usual home and interior exhibitors. This technique has proven to be very effective as it stops anyone passing by long enough for them to ask the question, “Why are you guys at the home and garden show?” “What’s so great about your products?” At this point, PaperChef had 100% undivided attention by the potential life-long customer. We were then able to educate their consumer about the product’s different qualities, and offer them a “Discovery Roll” to take home and try for themselves.
After the first “test show”, Culinary Papers committed to making their booth stand out alongside Sonray’s booth. We created a replica 14-foot tower of the PaperChef parchment paper roll. A 65-inch plasma TV was bolted to the tower as our silent salesperson. This took advantage of the numerous assets on their website, like the YouTube video recipes.
PaperChef enjoyed so much success at the tradeshow they now want to do tradeshows across North America, such as Home & Garden, and Green Living — anything but food shows! This case study demonstrates Sonray’s ability to manage both the manufacturer and retailers to drive sales to create a success story.
In 2010, PaperChef is filming at different restaurants in Paris, New York, and Vancouver. A chef will prepare a recipe with parchment paper, film it, and put a video clip on PaperChef’s website. We are so pleased we have assisted PaperChef in creating such brand awareness and know that it will soon be a household name.