Month: July 2011

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“Rip the Wrap” Video Contest


If you are a current Dr. Shrink customer, you know just how strong and durable our premium shrink wrap is with varieties coming in 6 to 12 mil thick.  Some of you may not have used or even felt our thickest 12 mil material, so in order to have a little fun showing off just how strong this material is, we are running a “Rip the Wrap” video contest!  In order to participate in this contest, you will need to videotape yourself “ripping the wrap” from start to finish (or at least trying).  Here is a complete list of all rules and requirements of the contest:
 

  • Call our office or email sales@dr-shrink.com with your name and shipping address to request your 24″ x 24″ sample piece of 12 mil.
  • Your video MUST begin with stating your name and zooming in on all four sides of the sample piece in order to ensure no slits or cuts have been made.
  • Wrap must only be ripped with bare hands—use of any tools, pliers, etc. will be immediately disqualified.
  • Entire length of sample piece must be ripped.
  • Video must be saved in an AVI, WMV, QuickTime, MOV or MPEG4 format and emailed to sales@dr-shrink.com to enter.
  • Contest runs the entire month of August– starting 8 AM EST August 1st and running to 5 PM EST August 31st (Please consider ship time of receiving the sample, videotaping, and video editing/uploading).

 
If you think you don’t have the technology to upload a video, think again!  Most cell phones have the capability to record video footage which can be uploaded to YouTube.  If you can’t email your video because the file size is too big, you can easily upload your video to YouTube and email us the link instead.  We want everyone to give it a shot; fancy video camera, cell phone video, anyway you can get the footage, we want to see it!
ANY participants who enter a video TRYING to “Rip the Wrap” will win a free roll of 4″ Heat Shrink Tape and anyone who can SUCCESSFULLY “Rip the Wrap” will win a $25 credit towards any Dr. Shrink product(s).  We are excited to see everyone’s efforts to RIP THE WRAP.
 
**By submittal of your video, you give all property rights of the video to Dr. Shrink, Inc.**

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Proactive Steps to Better Warehouse Efficiency


Dr. Shrink contacted the Supply Chain Management Department at Michigan State University, the number 2 program in the nation behind MIT, to come in and audit the efficiency of our warehouse.  Brad Cook, an adjunct professor, audited the SKU performance as well as the overall operation of the warehouse over several days.  He was surprised at the current efficiency of Dr. Shrink’s 60,000 square foot warehouse, especially with only having three full time warehouse employees, but there is always room for improvement.
Based on his findings, a 3-phase plan was suggested.  Phase 1 is immediate improvements over a short term.  These improvements are almost exclusively re-arranging the current rack system and product placement.  Warehouse Manager Evan Jensen states, “One slight change can make an enormous difference.  Instead of organizing products by size for spacing reasons, we now have products strategically placed by order frequency.  This change in organization of our products has already made us more efficient when packing orders.”
Evan continued, “Also as Brad suggested, by rearranging current racking, we’ve also about doubled our capacity for order staging.  That means more orders are boxed, packed and/or skidded plenty of time in advance and ready when the shipping companies come for pick-up.”  Phases 2 and 3 will involve updated software for a warehouse management system and long-term plans for expansion.  That being said we are always looking for ways to help serve our customers better.  Through these short and long term changes, we are still focused on staying as efficient as possible.  We pride ourselves in getting our customers’ orders out to them as fast as possible, and these changes will only help us to continue achieving that goal.

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Shrinking the Recession


Over the past few years, the world has seen some pretty tough economic times.  It was extremely difficult for small businesses to stay afloat during the latest US recession (beginning late 2007 and lasting into the summer of 2009).  Dr. Shrink, Inc. felt the need to fight through the recession instead of hanging back and having it adversely affect our business.  In order to combat the harsh financial struggle that seemed to be everyone’s biggest enemy; Dr. Shrink was progressive in our approach to overcome these tough times.
Dr. Shrink knew it was crucial to be smart on where we chose to spend our money during this time.  We were still a fairly new company in 2007 (in our 15th year of business) so continuing to promote our name and the Dr. Shrink brand was critical.  We had often exhibited at trade shows as a way to promote our products, but during the years of 07’ – 09’, Dr. Shrink looked at trade shows with a heavier focus and also as a necessity.  CEO Mike Stenberg invested the time and money into exhibiting at more shows in order to promote our company and make new customers; even when it seemed like new customers were far out of sight.
Dr. Shrink has taken pride in knowing we have always been a forward-thinking and innovative company and we wanted to build on these strengths during the recession.  In addition to providing our customers with an extensive, high quality line of premium shrink wrap and installation accessories, we continued to develop new and useful products for our customers to help them stay proficient.  Creating new, innovative products takes an enormous amount of time and money. Even during this hard economic time and our reduced budget, we knew it was vital to continue putting resources into new product development.  Living up to the high standards our customers expect from us was a must and creating these new products definitely helped us grow.  In addition to bringing new products to the market, we put extensive effort into researching potential distributors to supply Dr. Shrink products worldwide.  We wanted our products to be readily available for all customers no matter what part of the globe they’re from.  Adding more national and international distributors during these hard times helped us grow even more.  In addition to these efforts to grow during the recession, we knew one thing would still be around once the recession was over—the internet.  Dr. Shrink decided to revamp the company website to make it more user-friendly and provide easier navigation.  We also optimized the site so it could easily be seen when searched online.
Lastly, and maybe one of the most monumental steps that Dr. Shrink took during the recession, was the creation of a new department within the company– our Marketing Department.  In July of 2009, Dr. Shrink hired Angela Jensen to be a full-time telemarketer and as time progressed, so did our marketing outlets and services.  We built a presence on many social media outlets and started blogging.  We also created custom Dr. Shrink flyers, which promoted our premium shrink wrap products targeted to new industries.  Our new flyers were taken to all relevant trade shows; construction, scaffolding, agriculture, wind power, packaging & transportation, the list goes on.  Dr. Shrink realized with a new marketing department intact, that in addition to marketing our own company, we could now help our customer’s promote their company.  We wanted to provide our customers (who didn’t have the resources to attend trade shows, spend time on advertising, etc.) with marketing help and guidance.  Some examples of marketing assistance offered to our customers are: custom flyers, logo creation, affordable website templates, press release kits, and many other tools.  This side of our Marketing Department has made an impact on our customer’s business, in turn helping our own.  It is nice to know Dr. Shrink and our customers are growing and prospering together.
The recession is over and Dr. Shrink has come out of it thriving by being proactive and forward-thinking.  We have developed and matured as a company and will always strive to offer our customers the absolute best products and customer service.