First, I’d love to see Grow! bars come in boxes of 12 or 25 as CT mentioned.
As far as macronutrient profile, play it middle-of-the-road…say, 30g protein, 40g carbs (10g sugar would be respectable), 5g fat. That would probably appeal to most of the market.
We know you’d have decent protein, but don’t forget the carbs…keep it low glycemic and natural…you know what I’m talking about.
I agree that a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals would be the icing on the cake. Don’t feel like you have to go overboard, just the basics…but also include Zinc and Magnesium.
Anderson had some good input on pre-ordering Grow! bars…ya know, give the peeps at Biotest a flavor for the market.
And don’t forget flavor…gotta make sure they taste good. Recommend 3 flavors…chocolate peanut butter being one of them.
I know I’d buy them up regardless of the flavor. I got some of the last boxes of lemon flavor as the bars went off of the market and loved them. The way I see it, as long as the product is high quality, then a person with some kind of sensibility isn’t going to pass them up. We know that the T-Nation disciples are going to be rabid about getting hold of these bars, and naturally we all would lure our buddies and acquaintances into trying them out (i.e. put down that Snickers and try a manly protein bar). There are already repeat customers making daily meccas to the site and they continually attest to the ethic and quality of Biotest products. I would say that Grow! bars are a worthy risk. When they left the market, I stopped buying bars and made room in my truck for a tub of Grow! to be hauled to and from the gym. By the way, I’ll pay to reserve a couple boxes of those bars if you nail down a production date. I’m definitely a repeat customer for Grow! bars. (Please keep the lemon flavor flavor too!)
Bring back the bars. As far as flavor for me soemthing chocolate, a berry, cookies and cream, peanut butter, Hell i would by a case of each today if below 2.00 per bar. Go with a big box make it worth while.
ROd
in reality though, I’ve been searching for a bar that doesn’t contain soy and gelatin/glycerin and it’s damn near impossible. I’ve only found 2 brands, and honestly, I’d rather y’all get my business than the other two companies.
How about an update here Tim? Its quite clear there is demand for the product…
[quote]Tim Patterson wrote:
Regarding GROW! bars, if you (T-Nation) want them, we’ll make them! Bars are now kind of a nutritional staple. As such, I want to produce something in the category.
one of the most effective mkting strats for GROW! (IMHO) is how it is as cheap as eating but so much more convenient.
So…compare bars to a scoop of GROW! for nutrition. I.e. 1 scoop= 90 cents (or whatever it is), one bar = 2.00 but there is more protein.
Thats a terrible explanation but basically I would expect to pay the same as the price for equivalent powder plus another % as bars are fun and convenient.
To address the price and staleness factor perhaps a sliding discount scale would be preferable?
For instance on a 1-box order the bar is $2.00.
On a 3 box order $1.75, on 5 boxes $1.50.
That allows for a good margin (not tremendous but healthy) on the ad hoc orders and allows we bulk eaters to snatch up significant cost savings. Thus keeping your stock fresh.
TC here. Hey, the 95-cent price is what it would cost BIOTEST to create a good bar. That’s not the price we’d sell it for.
What, you think we’re Mother Theresa here?
We’d slap on an acceptable profit margin, but you’ve got to let us know what you think is equitable, i.e., what would you pay for a quality bar?
Those of you who are paying a buck a bar for some other product have to realize that those bars cost about 40 cents to manufacture. They use dirt, naval lint, and the remains of Trigger the horse. That’s why they can charge a buck or a buck-twenty-five.
[/quote]
I would think that it’s perfectly legit to sell them for $2.50-3/each or a case of 24/$25
That leaves a decent margin of 100%+ and is competative within the market for a high quality bar.
I pay about $2.25. I have no clue what your elasticity of demand is but I assume that your turnover would be alot better if you could sell them at < $2
Also as far as flavors, I hated lemon.
Peanut butter was okay. Maybe a cookies and cream.
As for demand, I would occasionally by them but I am not a heavy protein bar person.
I would definitely buy Grow! bars for 1.50-2.00 per bar. It’s already been said but that’s what I pay for crappy bars now. My only reservation would be that if they don?t have a high quality carb source and no partially hydrogenated oils they wouldn?t really be much better than anything else out there that I could just pick-up locally. I would actually be willing to pay a bit more just to cut that kind of crap out of the bar. As far as flavors, I agree with the standard chocolate, peanut butter, and some kind of berry. But it would be really nice to have something that wasn?t like a desert and tasted like food like maybe egg and bacon and (hehe) beef jerky would be a cool change from the usual desert menu of bars.
“keep the packaging really simple; minimise cost!” (paraphrased)
(good point whoever said that)
i could only stretch to $1.50/bar
but im in the UK so im hardly representative of your target population. ah well.
ill eat any flavour, even dog poo flavour.
I would definitely purchase Grow! bars!!! There are times when a shake just isn’t practical - traveling, commuting, etc. As far as price goes, some people keep saying they’re currently paying $2.50 for a bar, which is probably in a GNC or similar store. That means that they are paying for 2 or 3 profit margins, the manufacturer’s, retailer’s and possibly shipper’s. If you will be selling them through a retailer, I would say $2.50 - $2.75 would be fair. However, if you are selling them on T-Nation and cutting out the middle man, then I think $1.75/bar is fair (shipping not included) for buying a case. As for flavors, I always go with chocolate or PB although I’ve found the tastiest to be PB and Chocolate combined.
[quote]JSEXTREME wrote:
WHAT IS THE VERDICT BIOTEST? ARE YOU GOING TO BRING BACK GROW BARS OR WHAT? THE DEMAND IS HERE. IF BIOTEST MAKES THEM, T-NATION WILL EAT THEM!![/quote]
I agree with this statement. I personally was consuming 2-4 GROW bars a day while they were available. I would gladly pay 2.00 to 2.50 a bar, I liked the lemon myself. Pls bring them back.
Chocolate bars of different varieties are probably a safe bet.
While you will likely continue to get disagreement about what absolutely absurd flavors you could potentially make (oh yeah how bout a watermelon bar), it is always safe to fall back on chocolate varieties if turning inventory is what is a concern.
If you could drop the sugar (and yes, although one person in the T-staff mentioned how we should not necessarily bastardize sugar at one point - it remains unfortunately blacklisted for many and I am not sure that is unwarranted) - I am sure you would get more buyers. Hell set the standard - figure out a way to perhaps not eliminate ALL of the carbs,yet really make something that would be worthy of a bodybuilder’s lifestyle and food choices.
