New Pig will be the recipient (once again!!!) of three Product of the Year awards at the Manufacturing Summit and Awards ceremony to be held in Chicago on March 29th. The products honored are:

PIG BLUE™ Absorbent Mat in the Maintenance Product Category

PIG® Sheet in the Maintenance Tools and Equipment Category

PIG® Vapor-Control Latching Drum Lid in the Fluid Handling Category

The readers of Plant Engineering magazine voted for the products they deemed best in each category as featured in the November issue. New Pig may receive a gold, silver or bronze medal based on the results of this balloting. Winners will be announced at the ceremony in Chicago during the Manufacturing Summit and will be recognized within the pages of the April 2010 issue.

We’ll keep you posted on the results!

A train full of  toxic chemicals is barreling this way. Will Denzel Washington be able to stop it??

I’m talking about the movie Unstoppable. This project is more than a year away from release, but we care about it around here because some scenes will be shot five miles from New Pig in Tyrone. Denzel himself may come to town!

We’ve worked our contacts to let the production people know that we’re ready to provide any assistance they might need. Our message was along the lines of: “You’re making a movie about an imminent toxic spill, we have the world’s largest selection of products for managing liquid messes. If you need anything, give us a squeal!”

Image © raven – Fotolia.com

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary (or as we say around here, HAMiversary!) to Pollution Engineering Magazine.

40 years says it all. As the editor, Roy Bigham, points out in his outstanding historical editorial, “The company mission is to serve industry professionals by delivering useful, timely and accurate information through its magazines, websites, conferences and events. In 40 years of publishing the magazine, that commitment has never wavered.” BRAVO! They have persevered and served their readers well..

Despite the dramatic changes in industry, as well as in publishing, somehow Pollution Engineering has managed to keep up with it all and excel. Needless to say, they have been a reliable resource on safety, environmental, compliance and health issues for New Pig since we began in 1985. They’ve treated us right for 24 years.

Best wishes for another 40!

Balloon image © James Steidl – Fotolia.com

Oscar Mayer, the third Oscar Mayer to head the famous meat products company, died at age 95 on Monday. Condolences to his family.

This brings to mind the jingle, of course (“My bologna has a first name …”), but also a little-known fact … so little-known that it will be news even to many New Piggers …

New Pig owns the toll-free number

1-800-HOT-DOGS

(1-800-468-3647)

Yes, with a “D” that goes with the number “3.”

Image © JLV Image Works – Fotolia.com

Mind you, the phone number that we promote everywhere (and have even registered as a trademark) is 1-800-HOT-HOGS® (1-800-468-4647), with an “H” that goes with the number “4.”

But it’s possible to mis-hear or mis-remember “HOT HOGS” as “HOT DOGS,” so years ago, after we became aware of this, we acquired the “HOT DOGS” phone number as well, so we would still get those calls.

By the way, I feel free to point out this tiny flaw in our timeless toll-free number (a) because 1-800-HOT-HOGS has generated countless laughs and smiles, and (b) because yours truly happens to be the Pigger who originally suggested 1-800-HOT-HOGS as a phone number just about 24 years ago (speaking of little-known facts!). I got a $200 prize for that! Nice money now and even better back then!

Anyway, our having 1-800-HOT-DOGS is all part of our customer service! If our customers encounter a common problem that we can fix, we’ll fix it!

We do get the occasional call over the HOT-DOGS number asking for hot dogs or hot dog vending equipment (and we try to be helpful with those as well), but …

Sorry, Oscar Mayer!

Sorry, Ballpark!

Sorry, Nathan’s and anyone else who might be interested in 1-800-HOT-DOGS …

… but we’re keeping it!

I sent the following message as an email to all Piggers, and we decided to share it here as well—not to toot our own horn but to show our passion for our company and our work.

YES, I’m PIGGER PROUD…AGAIN!

Piggers know that meetings, conferences, group tours of our facilities go on here all the time for customers, prospects, suppliers, students, teachers, consultants, salespeople, joy seekers, whoever! No big deal.

Anyway, this past Tuesday, 42 high school students and 4 faculty met with six departments in three buildings to learn first hand about how a local business operates and what career opportunities are available in their own community. They experienced not only our people up close and personal, but also our products, marketing, manufacturing, warehouse / distribution, human resource services and customer service. They raved about their visit. No surprise—it happens ALL THE TIME and that’s what’s amazing!

It’s the norm here, and it should never be taken lightly. But it’s not the norm in most places. It’s just remarkable how consistently enthusiastic, professional, and friendly everyone is toward fellow Piggers and visitors. After each visit, without fail, our guests have always expressed nothing but the highest praise and admiration for our people and company. And they’ll share their delightful New Pig experience with many others. That’s powerful and a very important element of our success.

Sometimes we get to play a major role like the six managers who presented on Tuesday and sometimes just a minor role. But everyone contributes to the whole. Whether we realize it or not, no matter what our role may be in the company, we’re all in a sense in public relations, sales and service.

The face we show to the public is a major element of the PIG® Brand. We are New Pig. May it always be so and never taken for granted.

Thank you to Pam and Paula at the Altoona Area School District
for providing these photos!

Here’s the official announcement about New Pig’s second Catalog of the Year award, as mentioned in an earlier post.

We’re humbled and grateful and will just keep on working hard!

On Wednesday, May 6, the “Academy Awards” of the catalog industry were announced at the Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants in New Orleans. Once again, New Pig brought home the bacon!

The Big Pigalog® 2009 Buying Guide US Edition won Gold in the Industrial Supplies category. That makes 8 consecutive years that our Big Pigalog® catalog has won gold—quite a feat!

Click here to page through the entire Big Pigalog® 2009 online

But don’t put your hooves together yet, there’s more good news. The 2009 Big Pigalog® 2009 Buying Guide UK Edition not only won its 5th consecutive Gold in the International division, it also won Catalog of the Year honors! Bloody good, one might say!

By the way, our Big Pigalog® Buying Guide US Edition was also named Catalog of the Year in 2006.

Winning top honors over tough competition year after year is a tribute to our Creative & Marketing team for its commitment to copy, design, and production excellence. More than just creative awards, however, these honors reflect what the rest of our company is doing worldwide—product quality, manufacturing excellence, brand energy, customer service beyond belief, merchandising expertise, marketing prowess and systems strength. This award honors all Piggers in our quest to be a world-class organization.

New Piggers in our shipping area make sure that orders race out of here. That’s fitting, because our headquarters is on a former racetrack.

Yep, the Altoona Speedway. Quick facts:

• Operated 1923-1929
• The track was made of yellow pine
• The highest recorded speed was 138.6 miles per hour

See more information and pictures here.

Imagine the thrill for those spectators … had they only known that they were at the future One Pork Avenue!

There are two ways to view most situations: positively and negatively. During this economic downturn, many Americans struggle to see the positive in anything. Bombarded with bad news, it’s easy to feel negative. But look hard enough, and the positive is always there somewhere. Even with dirty ol’ pigs!

The naming of our company’s first invention, the PIG® Absorbent Sock, may be a good illustration of how people can view the same situation (or word in this case), both positively and negatively at the same time.

When we started New Pig in the mid-80s, we spent most of our time asking every maintenance manager and safety director in central Pennsylvania to try our new product, an absorbent sock nicknamed “the Pig.”

Generally, the conversation began with a simple statement: “If you have a minute, I’d like to demo a new product for you that absorbs liquid around leaky machines—we call it a pig absorbent sock.”

“A what? A pig sock?” would be the usual response. That tiny word pig got their attention and would usually stir a hearty laugh or inspire an amusing retort related to Pigdom like “Are you Boss Hog?” or “Where’s Miss Piggy?”

In a way the word Pig changed us from timid to brave salespersons because we could anticipate its positive effect on the sales situation. Establishing a warm rapport between the potential customer and salesperson is primary, and Pig gave us, and our fledgling company, a fighting chance to share our new product’s features and benefits.

On the other hoof … er, hand, we discovered the word Pig had its negative side. When it came time to officially name our product, we hired an advertising agency to brainstorm some “real names.” It didn’t take them long to come back with a list of more than 30 names and with the warning, “You can not call your products Pigs. Industry will never accept it.” Wow, from their experience, they made a strong case for the negative implications of the word Pig. Use your imagination here.

Yes, a case could be made for the positive or the negative of Pig, but as we considered the pros and cons of that tiny word, one overruling thought stuck in our minds: the positive, fun response of our customers. So we rejected the wisdom of the “marketing experts” and went with the nickname simply because our customers loved it. And that decision has made all the difference. There’s a pig lesson in there somewhere.

Images © Adrian Niederhäuser – Fotolia.com