AF - The UK brand for office cleaning supplies that really work smart!

In one of my previous jobs I was very much involved with the marketing strategy of the UK brand AF. This is a full range of cleaning products, which satisfy every office need. It was a real challenge to sell them on a highly price-oriented market as the Bulgarian one, where it is a big effort to convince the customer why he should pay a little more then he wants. Therefore, presenting the product was of great importance.
In November 2007, we made a presentation in front of a big audience at BAIT Expo (an exhibition organized by the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies). Below is one summary of AF's main advantages, which were clearly explained to the audience. The presentation was also covered by the print media.

In the beginning of November Freckles Ltd. made its present and prospects partners happy with a presentation of cleaning supplies AF, which took place at the exhibition BAIT Expo. Besides 45-minute introduction to the products, the audience received free samples and a stylish cup with AF logo.

The manufacturing company of the mentioned products is AF International and it belongs to HK Wentworth Group, founded in 1957 in UK. Its first business is technical cleaning supplies, from where later on emerges the idea about office cleaning supplies. The products have Certificate for quality 9001 and are being sold very well in more and more parts of the world. In Germany, for example, the sales amount to 4 000 000 EUR per year and according to latest research, the potential of the market is 40 000 000 EUR per year.

On of the essential points in the presentation of Mr. Peter Stefanov, managing director of Freckles Ltd., was the importance of maintaining office hygiene. It is unavoidable for every employee in an office to be an object of infections, unless precautions against them are taken. In this relation was mentioned the fact about the high antibacterial characteristics of the AF cleaning supplies, which have been tested by the famous French laboratory Rohm I Haas.

With the AF products you can clean different surfaces, screens, CD&DVD devices as well as fine spots like lenses. Besides their ability to kill almost 100% of harmful bacteria, the AF products have many other positive qualities, the most important of which is their non-flammability. Mr. Stefanov demonstrated how easily a flammable product can bring about undesired incidents at work. Besides non-flammability, the AF products are characterized by nice lemon smell and strong antistatic effect, which keeps future dust away. Still the biggest advantage of the wide product range AF is the fact that they just clean well.

It is definitely a good idea to point out some other qualities, like the extensive research and development, which every product undergoes before it is released on the market. In this way the company managed to tackle the huge challenge of integrating a real perfume smell into everyday cleaning wipes. In addition, these products are extremely easy and safe to use as well as quite harmless to the environment. You should not be worried about rashes, allergies or headaches because the company has done every possible thing in order to avoid these undesired side effects. The good news is that all the information, which you need to know for each product is described in a Material and Safety Data Sheet, which is available for everyone on the manufacturer’s web site www.af-net.com. Soon you will be able to see the MSDS translations in Bulgarian on www.freckles.bg.

Besides a detailed products demonstration, the presentation also contained some extremely useful pieces of advice about how to sell these products successfully. “Always try to understand the problem of the customer and then sell them the solution. In this way you win the customer for longer time.” – advised his dealers Mr. Stefanov.

At the very end the main motto of the presentation was reminded again: “Work smart… Work clean… with AF”.