CPR tags above par for safety-conscious golfers

Long Island Business News, Jul 22, 2005 by Adina Genn

Gregg Raffa considers his company, New Hyde Park-based Life Tags, a business that provides a public service for golfers. The company sells four-and-a-half-inch-square plastic tags with CPR instructions and instructional visuals printed on one side, and a customized logo or additional safety instructions on the other. Those handy instructions can mean the difference between saving someone's life on the golf course, and waiting for an emergency medical crew to arrive.

Golfers are susceptible at any age because of the heat, Raffa said. Golfers can affix the tag onto their golf bags. Shaped like crosses, the tags have a white background and red border and cost $2.10 each for up to 100 tags, with discounts for larger orders.

Raffa said he picked up a patent for the product in 1997. But I didn't do anything with it until January 2005, he said.

That's partly because Raffa also runs Raffa Entertainment Group, a Mineola-based music and entertainment group that provides musicians, dancers, laser light shows and more for special events and parties.

But in January, Raffa began running ads in Long Island Golfer magazine. Publisher John Glozack said that Life Tag and Long Island Golfer began a joint marketing campaign, distributing the tags to six golf courses that expressed interest in them. Raffa also embarked on a direct marketing campaign to 200 other golf courses.

Golfers tend to leave the tags on their bags, much the way skiers tout their mountain conquests through lift tickets on their jackets, he said.

He has no sales reps. Everything's me, he said.

Raffa hopes to showcase the product nationally. In May, he got the ball rolling by contacting the national headquarters of the American Red Cross. Raffa figured there might be a natural fit with this organization, considering the tags' shape.

I made a cold call to see how they'd endorse it, Raffa said, adding that he hopes to give a percentage of sales to the American Red Cross in exchange for an endorsement.

That call led him to a marketing director at ARC's corporate partnership and cause marketing division.

I sent her a sample, Raffa said. She obviously liked it. She sent me an application.

Raffa's family has played a big part in developing the tags, which feature instructions that comply with the CPR directions put forth by American Red Cross and the American Heart Association. That kind of information is public domain, added Raffa, who researched the ins and outs down to the last detail. The verbiage used on the tags was developed by Raffa's wife Stephanie, a registered nurse, and his daughter, Michele Broming, a cardio technologist. Calls to ARC and AHA confirmed that CPR instructions are part of the public domain.

Raffa also learned that Life Tags would not held be liable for any damages, so long as the company follows the law in the way it provides CPR instructions. His daughter, Christine Raffa, a law student at the time who now works at the law firm Mariotta Ricigliano in Garden City, did the research. She studied New York State's Civil Practice Law & Rules, a series of procedural guidelines.