Tom Ponrick had a problem. He had his own business, Mountain Abrasives, that sold supplies to ski and snowboard rental shops. Business was good, too, but there was nothing that distinguished his company from his competition. His products--sanding belts, files, nylon waxing belts and ski wax were, well, boring. He needed pizzazz--he needed a marketing image.

Dr. Zag fixed all that. So did his slogan: "Go Fast Or Go Home." And the T-shirts, stickers and turtlenecks with Dr. Zag's bearded face on it.

Dr. Zag, a fictional character, was born in the early 1990s in a brainstorming session involving Ponrick and his wife, Leslie. Soon Dr. Zag's stickers appeared on car bumpers around town and friends reported spotting t-shirts from the Virgin Islands to Alaska. Boring business, good-bye. "The name is everything. It's a great marketing tool because it builds word-of-mouth," Ponrick said.

Dr. Zag's is a well-marketed ski wax. Very well-marketed: Business was up 52 percent in the 1995-96 ski season and continued to climb 20 percent in 1996-97. To achieve these results, Ponrick relies on several marketing tools.

Rather than hire a sales force, he favors direct mail and the Internet. New last winter is his Web site, www.drzags.com, which has an on-line catalog geared to the consumer.

Ponrick favors the Internet because, "It's a marketing tool with access to millions of people, so why not try it?" And it's very cost effective. "You don't have to spend $10,000 on a national ad campaign to get the word out about your product," Ponrick said. "For less than $1,000 I was able to establish a presence on the Web that will last indefinitely.

To create his site. he hired Joel Schulman, a close friend who designed his catalog and other print material. "Joel has an excellent local reputation. I think it's important to use someone who has expertise in HTML. I think my time is best spent running the business and I wanted to leave the computer work to an expert."

With Joel's help he was able to convey to skiers the essence of Dr. Zag's--it makes their skis faster and smoother. Made from synthetic paraffin, the wax is harder so it stays on skis longer. His site, featuring the trademark face of Dr. Zag's , is divided into three sections_one for consumers, ski shops and industry professionals such as ski instructors.

The consumer section has an on-line catalog with products such as t-shirts, turtlenecks and water bottles, with an 800 number as the call to action. The other two sections offer an on-line form to complete to order products or receive the catalog.

Ponrick requested short pages with quick access and a wealth of information. "I didn't want people hanging around tapping their fingers waiting for the pages to load. "People tend to load up their sites with graphics and gadgets that just slow down the loading of pages. This is deadly to a web page," said Ponrick.

Schulman and Ponrick work as a team to manage the site. They haven't made any changes since they launched it in November 1996. To promote the site, they are looking at links with other related sites, such as snowboard and ski sites. "Links are the key, but finding the right ones take time. I'd like to find someone who knows more about the Internet than I do so I can get linked up with similar sites."

He also lists the URL on his catalog, which is mailed to 4,000 ski shops worldwide. He plans to explore various advertising opportunities on the Internet and see if they would be a good match for the Dr. Zag's message.

Ponrick's advice for others is, "Find an expert you like; don't spend more than $1,000; and keep it real fast." He applies the same principle to his web site as he does in his ski wax motto, "Go Fast or Go Home!"