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Pura Vida Coffee
Gourmet Coffee Company Perks the Interest of Investors
with Rich-Media Presentation
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Country
United States
Industry
Nonprofit Sector
Customer Profile
Pura Vida, producer of gourmet coffee, is based in Seattle, Washington. The company is 100 percent charitably owned, with all company resources focused on helping at-risk children in coffee-growing countries.
Business Situation
Pura Vida wanted to both broaden the reach of its marketing message and reduce its travel expenses.
Solution
Using a dynamic rich-media presentation developed on Microsoft® Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, Pura Vida is extending its message to potential buyers and prospective investors throughout the United States.
Benefits
- Annual marketing savings of up to U.S.$124,000
- Efficient delivery of high-value content
- Engaging, convenient presentation
- Easy-to-use and affordable platform
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Dedicated to helping at-risk children in coffee-producing countries, Pura Vida Coffee is a cause-driven, premium beverage company with a strong message to send to prospective investors.
The company's approach of relying solely on the live presentation efforts of President and Cofounder John Sage was time consuming, costly, and limiting the reach of its investment message. With help from Brice Consulting, Pura Vida Coffee used Microsoft® Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 to combine audio and video with PowerPoint slides in a talk-show style presentation that can be viewed on CD or online. To date, Pura Vida has saved an estimated U.S.$124,000 in time and travel expenses by using the dynamic rich-media message in place of one-on-one presentations and live events. And its president can focus his efforts on all-important fundraising follow-up.
Situation
Pura Vida Coffee, a gourmet coffee company based in Seattle, Washington, is 100 percent charitably owned, using all of its resources toward the benefit of at-risk children and their families in coffee-growing countries. The company is committed to carrying 100 percent certified Fair Trade, organic, shade-grown coffee, which raises the living standards for farmers and their communities while protecting the environment in countries around the world. Pura Vida Coffee sells its premium products and services to universities, businesses, and churches, as well as through online retail sales to individuals. The organization primarily secures funding for its programs through individual business investors.
To secure investment funding, Pura Vida's investment solicitation and marketing efforts have included mailing printed collateral to prospective buyers and investors and providing Internet links to PDF files that explain the company's remarkable model and mission. The company also routinely sends President and Cofounder John Sage to the sites of potential investors to promote the company through live presentations.
However, sending the company president around the country for one-on-one presentations has been costly and time consuming. Pura Vida wanted to find a way to capture the energy and passion of the president's live presentations in a rich-media format that could be sent to prospective investors in his place. This would broaden the reach of the company's message, save time and travel costs, and help Pura Vida meet investment goals that are critical to accomplishing its mission.
Solution
Although Pura Vida's social-enterprise business model is unique and its mission is compelling, the company still must compete successfully in the highly competitive coffee industry to obtain funding for its programs. Finding a way to broaden its marketing reach with a dynamic, rich-media presentation came to Pura Vida in the same way that many services have reached the organization-through the support of a company that volunteered time and resources to its cause. Mike Brice, owner of Brice Consulting, a Microsoft® Certified Partner and Windows Media® Service Provider, happened to be attending an association meeting at which John Sage was speaking about the challenges of getting his message out to the company's target audience.
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"We needed an affordable, robust solution to expand the reach of current communication tools to help us raise the needed funds to fuel our fast pace of growth—Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint was the answer."
Scott James, Director of Marketing, Pura Vida Coffee
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Intrigued both by the Pura Vida mission and by Sage's technology challenges, Brice decided to join the company's team of pro bono supporters who regularly donate their time and expertise to further the company's mission. He began working with Scott James, Pura Vida's Director of Marketing, to develop a rich-media solution that used Sage's one-to-one presentation to deliver the same engaging message to many.
To find software that matched Pura Vida's media requirements, Brice investigated options from both Microsoft and QuickTime. Although QuickTime offered a multimedia software package, it didn't have the ability to interleave slide content with video in a way that could effectively deliver Sage's presentation, capturing all his energy, passion, and compassion. Brice determined that Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 and Windows Media 9 Series offered the capabilities that best matched what Pura Vida wanted to accomplish.
Using Producer for PowerPoint 2003, Brice created a dynamic rich-media presentation that synchronizes audio and video with Sage's PowerPoint slides to deliver a talk-show style message that can be viewed on CD or online; it gives the recipient the sense of a live event by capturing the integrity of Sage's delivery while also keeping slides on-screen during the presentation. According to James, "We needed an affordable, robust solution to expand the reach of current communication tools and to help us raise the needed funds to fuel our fast pace of growth-Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint was the answer."
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| Screen shot of Pura Vida's Producer for PowerPoint presentation in which Company President John Sage is describing the Pura Vida Purpose |
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Since a presentation created with Producer for PowerPoint can be viewed at a user's convenience, anywhere and anytime, it fits well into the limited time that executives have available. The replay option is especially useful for viewers whose busy schedules mean constant interruptions. If the presentation is interrupted during viewing, it starts again where it left off. Even if the browser is closed, Producer for PowerPoint will restart the presentation at the point of interruption. "The ability to easily access and replay selected areas of a Producer-published presentation significantly increases the value of the presentation to the audience over other competitive solutions," notes Brice.
Also helpful for Pura Vida was the fact that Brice was able to publish the presentation easily in several delivery formats. CDs can be sent along with an investment package, and the presentation can be delivered over the Internet. Turnkey Streaming, a Microsoft Producer Showcase Partner, currently hosts the presentation.
Another way in which Producer for PowerPoint will be supporting Pura Vida's business functions in the future is as a training tool that will ensure efficient updates of information for the hundreds of university baristas Pura Vida has throughout the country. Although Pura Vida currently has a DVD training package in place for these programs, Producer for PowerPoint will be able to extend informational and operating updates, presented in slide format, to these non-Pura Vida personnel.
Benefits
The presentation created with Producer for PowerPoint is communicating the Pura Vida message efficiently while reducing company travel expenses significantly. Its easy-to-use features allow content to be managed in-house, and its ability to deliver high-quality content is helping to set Pura Vida apart from the competition.
Annual Marketing Savings of up to $124,000
Pura Vida's rich-media presentation is reducing travel time and costs for the company president. Before the presentation's production, Sage would travel in person to spread the Pura Vida message to prospective buyers and to promote the company's mission to potential business investors. On average, Pura Vida was marketing its products to universities, churches, and businesses, as well as to investors in 12 major cities on a quarterly basis. Now the company has the option of sending its rich-media presentation instead, which allows Sage to focus his time on pre-marketing efforts or following up with qualified investors. "We're saving upwards of $100,000 in his time alone by using our Producer for PowerPoint presentation for marketing—and we can add another $24,000 in travel expenses to that savings," says James.
In addition to savings in executive time and travel expenses, Pura Vida has already secured two investor units (each unit equaling a $50,000 investment) as a direct result of distributing Sage's presentation to prospective investors on the Web site or through distribution of its CDs.
Efficient Delivery of High-Value Content
Like many organizations, Pura Vida needed to efficiently deliver product information and promotional materials to prospective business customers and investors in a compelling format. The Windows Media 9 Series digital media platform and Producer for PowerPoint 2003 helped Brice Consulting provide just the right format.
"The delivery of rich-media content is absolutely key for marketing to a campus general manager or large church that may be considering product," says James. "And the presentation we created with Producer for PowerPoint is proving to be key in helping us explain the unique Pura Vida business model to potential business investors."
Engaging, Convenient Presentation
For recipients, the highly engaging and detailed presentation provides information about the Pura Vida business model. It also explains the company's mission to help at-risk children through the sales of premium coffee and how an organization can become part of the Pura Vida team. Users can view the presentation in the office on their desktop, on a laptop while traveling, or from a Web site while at home—basically, wherever it is convenient and whenever they have time.
Easy-to-Use and Affordable Platform
Based on the fact that Pura Vida staff would likely have to maintain and update the presentation once it was produced, ease of use was a criterion in selecting a solution. "One of the joys of Producer for PowerPoint is that it's so easy to use that even nontechnical staff can create or maintain rich-media presentations," says Brice.
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"When compared to other options, the overall affordability of the Microsoft-based digital media solution absolutely blows away the competition."
Scott James, Director of Marketing, Pura Vida Coffee
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Although Brice Consulting was the primary contributor to the development of Pura Vida's rich-media presentation, James now manages the content. "Turnkey Streaming's hosting solution provides an easy FTP interface for customizing published presentations, and the server publishing features of Producer for PowerPoint make the use of a hosting solution very easy," says Brice. James is confident that his IT Manager can take over additional production tasks in the future with as little as one training session from Brice.
With Producer being an add-on to PowerPoint (downloadable from the Office Web site), and Windows Media 9 Series being part of the Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 operating system, Pura Vida received a very affordable media package for little added expense. "When compared to other options, the overall affordability of the Microsoft-based digital media solution absolutely blows away the competition," says James.
Given the success of its initial rich-media presentation and the low cost of implementing the solution, Pura Vida plans to extend the use of Windows Media 9 Series and Producer for PowerPoint into other areas of its business.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on Windows Server 2003. It creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This allows you to reduce the costs of ongoing operations; deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure; and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to: www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com
For more information about Brice Consulting products and services, call (206) 226-1617 or visit the Web site at: www.briceconsulting.com
For more information about Pura Vida Coffee products and services, call (877) 469-1431 or visit the Web site at: www.puravidacoffee.com
To view the Pura Vida Producer presentation, visit: www.puravidacoffee.com/who/about/investor_info.asp
© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, PowerPoint, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows Media, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Document published August 2004
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