This was weird. Our first appearance within the triathlon racing course was 2002. We were rookies, totally inncocent, no idea about the race, the distances of swimming, biking and running only vaguely in mind. Our booth was small sitting in a corner of a typical countryside townhall. But we were thrilled, the first time you always are. There was only very little time to watch the race, because Barbara and myself 
were busy representing biestmilch. Then, at the end of the race day, we met him 
the »King of Roth« Lothar Leder. This encounter changed a lot, if not to say everything. How we got in contact so fast and how such a close relationship could develop – I shall tell you, but not today (because it is a soccer day!). Stay with us. It is a wonderful story. We owe him a lot, thank you Lothar.
Archive for June, 2006
2002: Challenge Roth in retrospect
Challenge in Roth
From 2002 to 2005 we have been every year in Roth at the good old race as it’s called by insiders. It has been the European longdistance triathlon race. Competition among event organizers became tough, and there is no »the« anymore, races draw level with each other, Frankfurt, Klagenfurt, Zürich, one name it. But anyway, it is a cool and very hot race. This year biestmilch is not in Roth. As you might have read, we are currently changing our marketing strategy from tip to toe, and we simply didn’t make till Roth. This is why the biest is troubleshooting for the whole team on http://www.tri2b.com/289-Specials_ChallengeRoth2006-.htm While everybody else stays in the office to work out »pulp biestmilch« 
www.biestmilch.com Chris McCormack http://chrismccormack.com/, is keeping up our small biest flag. 
. Chris told me yesterday on the phone:»It will be a tough 8 hours job. I am glad when it’s over, but I feel fit and relaxed.« And he is looking forward to some partying in Frankfurt after the race. Chris too got infected by the world-wide soccer virus.
I shall spend the weekend in Roth to keep my fingers crossed for my dear friend Chris, one of the world’s best triathletes. You will hear more about me at the race on the coming days.
Modulation: only a fuzzy word?
Elaborating the positioning of biestmilch took us a lot of efforts. Beforehand, we had to understand the body and its complex regulation systems.
Looking back today, everything seems so easy, so straightforward, biestmilch as a substance and an article finally got the flow, standing on a solid common base in sports and disease. There is a rhythm in the story, now. But this took us time and hard work.
I remember in March, 2003 my brother and I where sitting in my brother’s office in Vienna trying to bring together such diverse observations like biestmilch improving endurance performance, dampening allergy symptoms and reducing infections. We had a guess but no certainty, we knew we had to get deeper into the relations between immune system and stress reactions. Bernd and I had already worked on a few medical project on shock and whole body inflammatory syndrome. We had the feeling that there could be a clue, a partial solution at least for our conflict in those days.
Immune system controls metabolism
The first step for us was to gain awareness about the influence of the immune system on the body’s energy distribution especially under conditions of stress. With the help of Arthur Bowe, a wellknown American surgeon who coined the term »the wound – a parasite organ« which means that the wound and the healing process have absolute priority in energy supply. We discovered the importance of the immune system in distributing energy and controlling metabolic processes. We had no doubts that this was one of the reasons why biestmilch shows effects like increasing endurance performance capacity.
During the years to come there were many more bits and pieces added to this approach. But we had a solid basement now to build on. And, depsite the fact that our picture of biestmlich and its mode of action was still rather vague at this point, it was then when we decided to call its action modulation.
We also defined modulation. For us it is the ability of a complex substance like biestmilch to change the state of a complex system like our body by minute but regular stimuli.
Spring 2003, after 3 years the first conclusive positioning of biestmilch was born, still rough, but we were happy to be on the right track now. Many more steps of fine-tuning sould follow, but the base was founded.
Cooler Tipp für heisse Tage
… ein Hemd mit eingebauter Klima-Anlage. Wo trägt man denn die Batterien für dieses Ding?
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2006/06/19/usb_air_conditi.html
Was es alles gibt! Leider bis jetzt offensichtlich nur in Japan erhältlich. Es sei erlaubt an dieser Stelle: »Crazy Japanese!«
There was a name, and then?
Biestmilch, the name was born http://biest-blog.typepad.com/biest_blog/biestmilch_company/index.html. A big step, what a relief. We felt good with biestmilch, a name with a high potential for brand recognition, we thought (till now history proved us to be right). The next important part was to create a logo that already carried the story inside.
Bernd, Arne and I knew that we were in need of a biest. In those days I was very much hooked on Mandarina Duck bags. I had wallet which came with a logo that gave me the ignition to today’s logo.
With this creature in mind I wrote a briefing featuring the biest’s character. It should be an in-between being, neither human nor animal, neither cow nor biest, more an insinuation than a being from this world. This was in December 1999. Jörg showed up in the office and said one sentence after he had read my text. He said: »the character, the features of this creature are meant to be vague, not concrete giving people room for their imaginations.« Yes, I thought, he got it. I was convinced that we would fit together.
The result of our first cooperation on a trip around Hawaii
Intermezzo: Vienna
Correct, I should be in Vienna. I am not. I am sitting at home torturing my computer. Why? I was not able to get on my flight. I got up at 5:30 AM, smashed and slowed I reached the airport Frankfurt at 7:00 AM. The ticket in my hand I approached the quick check-in machines not expecting any troubles. I inserted the first piece of paper of the three in the wallet. Amazingly enough, the machine told me boldly: »You are not booked on this flight«. I took a closer look, it was the ticket from Vienna to Frankfurt. Okay, clear cut, I took the next piece of paper I had in my wallet. Again, the machine denied the booking. I had inserted the receipt. Slowly I got impatient, because I was running out of time. The moment, when I tried to realize my last option, the machines gave in, at least 5 of them. The system collapsed saying »störung«.
Now an airport employee came towards me. I felt already guilty, but pretended to be innocent and astonished. The guy explained to me in a very poor German – I had problems to understand him in my fairly retarded status – to refer to the counter. So I did. The lady solved my problem easily. »Your are not booked on this flight, your flight is on the 25th of July.» A »shit« slipped off my tongue.
This is why I am here. A flight to Vienna and back would have cost me more than 1000,- €. Thus, I stayed home. I got my lesson. Don’t do to many things at a time.
To testify that I was there:
Biestmilch: The creation of a name, a story and a logo, part I
It was in December 1999. Arne, Bernd and I, the proud proprietors of a company especially founded to market a strange and unknown substance called colostrum or first milk, were sitting in our old office in Wiesbaden mulling over the right name for our future product.
It should be a name that told a story, and could be representet by a significant logo. The product name, the product story and the logo should embody a world of its own, a world people were able to keep in mind, recognize easily, and very important, were prone to like.
For hours we were tossing around words, none was cercive. Finally, my brother asked:»Isn’t there an old expression, or some historcal aspect we could consider. «Arne answered in his sober and unspectacular way. »In the very North of Germany we calle it biestmilch!«
Bernd and I cried out with one voice: »That’s it, and, that was it and it still is.« You won’t believe how many »wise and old marketing experts« advised us against choosing a name they considered as negatively tinted. We didn’t care. For us the name was perfect. It conveyed a story and was unique. Next step was to create a logo, a biest. This is when Jörg came into the game.
You know, I am busy working on my art project in Vienna today, therefore I shall continue to tell you the story about the logo when I am back on Monday. Have a nice Sunday, with or without football.