The neon signs and posters at the bar? Those kitschy grocery store displays that highlight your favorite brew? They're often paid for by the beverage distributors.
Though all part of the cost of doing business, they can be pricey. So, it was only a matter of time before an entrepreneur found a way for businesses to recoup some of their expenses.
SignTrak, a Cincinnati software development company funded in part by CincyTech and Ohio Third Frontier money, has put the web to work to that end. The point-of-sale promotional items are often ordered by the same sales people who meet with bar owners, restaurateurs and grocery store buyers to take their beverage orders; they then relay sign orders to largely in-house print shops.
Before SignTrak, that sometimes left a long and error-prone paper trail.
"Without our software, it's a very manual process. Everything's on paper, which the salesperson has to take back and stuff into a slot, the print shop prints it and sends it out. 'Oops, there's an error.' And back it goes to the print shop," says SignTrak Executive Vice President Denis Clark.
Using SignTrak's web-based service, the customer can proof the point-of-sale promotional items online, cutting down on errors, and print shops can manage their workload better, boosting production by up to 20 percent, Clark adds.
The company's founder, Mark Fullerton, designed the first system in 2004 for Walton, Ky.-based Chas. Seligman Distributing Co. The distributorship's president, Jennifer Doering, was so impressed with the results, Clark says, she took it to an industry conference to show it to others.
SignTrak launched in 2007 and now counts seven of the 25-largest beer distributorships in the nation among its clients. It employs ten.
Source: Denis Clark, SignTrak
Writer: Dave Malaska