Blazing blue skies, brilliant sunshine and sweltering heat. It’s the height of summer, so our thoughts must be turned toward – ice melter?

Crazy, right? But par for the course for those of us in the branding and marketing business. We start thinking retail Christmas in July to have the packaging, point of sale and promotions ready to roll out in-store when fall turns the corner; digital and print campaigns and strategies planned well before that. In the case of some of our manufacturing and distribution clients, the balmy months of June through August have been all about ice melter.

At Ink Tank, we’ve been developing brand-name and private label ice melter packaging for over 30 years. That’s also just about the number of different ice melter brands we’ve created, along with multiple SKUs and all the sales and marketing tools to support them. Ice melter isn’t something most people think about –  except for the mad dash to Canadian Tire following the first snowfall or ice storm. But it’s there on the shelf when you need it – safety and liability insurance in a bag. In the case of commercial customers, its an automatic line item in their budgets.

So here we are, once again, feeling the cold when it’s hot outside. This summer, we’ve been redesigning some of our landmark brands. After years of healthy shelf life and sell-through, they were ready for a brand refresh. Current strategies, a new look and new private-label customers also called for additional SKUs and sizes, developing advertising to promote new green accreditation and producing exciting new sales tools for agencies and distributors across North America. The sales season starts in two weeks. Our client is ready!

It’s been fun, as always, but we’re happy to temporarily get out of the cold and enjoy the last throes of summer.