This blog is on the move...

America 2010: The Great Recovery is moving from blogspot and will be linked to the new Ice Caters blog at http://www.iceonesource.com/

A REAL reality check

The past two weeks have been somewhat of a blur, as life and priorities were instantly re-ordered the moment I learned that a young cousin--the only other relative also calling Atlanta home--was the victim of a tragic accident.   She was hit by a car during a morning run, airflighted unconscious to the closest trauma hospital with severe brain injury.   Thankfully, she is still with us and we can focus on questions such as the extent and length of recovery possible.

The re-ordering of priorities that occured immediately is more acute and pales in comparison to the kinds of re-ordered priorities that led me to launch this blog.     To repeat the previous post mantra--"It's not about things...."  It's about people, relationships and finding the happiness and satisfaction in every day, in every minute.  I'd also now add that it's also about having your health.   That's something that I have taken for granted for too long, and in moments like these--when a young life and the surrounding lives--is forever altered by an unplanned, highly uncontrollable and unreversible instant, having your mental and physical health becomes a significantly higher priority. 

How have you changed?

Things are different.

The priorities that we had just a year or two ago have shifted. I am finding that many things that I once valued no longer matter quite as much. Take home ownership for instance. My wife and I recently moved into a wonderful home in a fantastic neighborhood. What I love most about it is that we don't own it. We're living in it until it sells. We're still homeowners, but only until the house we moved from sells. We, as many of us have discovered, recognize that the American Dream of home ownership ain't what it used to be. A home today is not an investment vehicle, nor should it be what defines your social and economic status. A home is a thing. What matters is what makes you happy. Believe me, I like to live well and enjoy the amenities and qualities that a fine home offers, but these are things. They just don't seem to matter that much anymore. Things are temporary. They may help in the pursuit of happiness, or at least we may think they do, but what I have discovered makes me happy is quality of time with family, friends, business colleagues and everyday positive experiences in life and in business that stay with you forever.

I am an avid boater, and in recent years, owned three boats (at the same time). As of about two weeks ago, the last of the three was sold. Technically that was my son's, and he just moved to Boston where he can't even park a car outside his apartment, never mind dock a boat. There was a time that boat defined him, was his social and activity center. But it's a thing. He was the first to recognize it.

I admit that I missed not spending the first labor day in a decade not out on the Lake, but my wife was quick to remind me that if I really had to be out on the lake, I could speed dial any number of friends who would be more than happy to meet me at the dock or rent a boat. I opted for none of the above, and instead we spent a great day listening to blues and eating barbecue at the park followed by a dip in the pool and a backyard cookout with friends.

Sure there are cycles, and I'm not an economist, but I feel like I am experiencing an evolutionary tidal shift in thinking. Do you feel it, too? I have begun to call it the "New Real". This is what I see as the developing focus for what I have dubbed AMERICA 2010: The Great Recovery.

We are all thinking a little differently than we did two years ago. We're thinking differently about things. And that will lead to new ideas, new businesses, new social trends and a general resetting of goals and how each of us define success and happiness. It's wreaking some havoc in the markets, where the consumerism of the past is no longer.

That's just more proof that it's not about things. So what is the NEW REAL for you?

The Great Recession: Excuse or Opportunity?

Whenever I hear talk of "this economy" or how "slow things are in the industry (name your sector: Hotels, spirits, wines, catering) as a knee-jerk email reply to a message, I say to myself, either they have not read any of the messages we've sent and still assume we are an old fashioned ice carver or they are simply destined to fail because of their own willingness to succumb and be doomed by inaction.

Sounds harsh doesn't it?

Well then, how do you explain the growth and major account successes that Ice Caters is Experiencing today?

We sell frozen water in a box. Who in their right budget conscious mind needs an expensive ice sculpture? No one, that's who.

Here's the difference. Ice Caters is not an ice sculptor. We offer an experience. A memorable and ground breaking experience for customers and guests. What we offer is generally smaller, easier, and much less expensive than traditional full block designs.

This is what smart marketers have discovered. Ice Caters offers sales generating opportunities, not budget draining and logistically worrisome scenarios.

And if we've continued to grow and catch on during the Great Recession when everyone has been frozen into inaction, perhaps you owe it to yourself (and your company) to take a deeper look.

If you are thinking "we don't do ice sculptures anymore" or "we don't have budget for ice sculptures." what you have yet to recognize is that we offer a range of never before possible solutions that are all intended to be sales generators:

• Logoed cocktail ice (your brand in every drink!)
• Individual serving and table top designs that generate an immediate and lasting response. (Just order the Seafood appetizer at Wynn or Encore Las Vegas, or the caviar room service at Caesars Palace, or even the house specialty Gin and Tonic at the SLS Beverly Hills).
• Not to mention our simplest offering that is guaranteed to create a major impact: Ice Balls.
  

By the way, these are all items that have been actively helping our clients sustain and grow sales of high margin menu items while some of you have been wringing your hands over how slow sales are during this Great Recession..

For Brand marketing ROI, just ask the national accounts team at Pernod-Ricard what their VIP national customers remember from the great party they threw at South Beach earlier this year. Okay maybe the venue (Versace Mansion), but I bet you a case of Ice Balls they're still talking about the Absolut bottle shaped cocktail ice in every drink. That's delivering ROI that matters.

So be on the offense.

Think out of the box. Create sales, marketing and customer success with an Ice Caters program that will deliver ROI for you.

We may offer "ice in a box" but we specialize in helping you succeed by thinking out of the box.

After all, We sell frozen water in a box. Surely we can be part of your sales strategy today and join us to chronicle innovation and success in America 2010: The Great Recovery.


Ice Caters is launching America 2010: The Great Recovery is a year long project to chronicle the success and accomplishment of individuals and organizations within the hospitality, beverage marketing and culinary industries. It is a national project sponsored by Ice Caters, in association with leading industry innovators.

Please contact me to get involved. Be part of the movement.

Michael Shoer

Founder and CEO

Ice Caters.com

mshoer@icecaters.com