Local Shop Makes Good

The Puget Sound Business Journal this week features the annual University of Washington Minority Business Awards recipients, and the local branch of PromoShop took the top honor, the William D. Bradford Minority Business of the Year Award. PromoShop is a promotional advertising firm (think branded pens, T-shirts).

Their story is pretty cool. For about two decades, The Compleat Company was doing just fine with fantastic clients whose names we all know. But they wanted to grow--and they wanted to somehow accomplish that during a bad economy.

Crazy! But they did it. They pursued nationally known Promoshop and President & CEO Guillermo Kahan. Turns out they had a shared culture, philosophy--but now as a "PromoShop," the Seattle team would have a greater national reach. With the merger, and the introduction of their hugely popular EcoPromos line (which is exactly what it sounds like), the Seattle shop saw $25 million in operating revenue in 2009.

Remember 2009, when we coined the defeated phrase, "flat is the new black"? That's exactly when these Seattle promotional guys gave their success its biggest boost.

Last month I visited the Promoshop site in Georgetown and met with co-VP Glenn Leimbacher. I got to see the fruits of their labors--not just pens and Ts but brands fashioned in fantastic shapes, even from unique molds, with spot-on logos plus any range of colors. On Glenn's desk were these amazing (and reasonably priced) custom-frosted cookies with photo-sharp logos. Fun! This is not your father's "specialty advertising" business, I thought.

What struck me most, however, was the operations they're running at PromoShop. I was invited to the "Grand Tour" and they have an amazing world going on in there, behind the scenes! Not just great warehousing space like you would expect, but several different stations where they have their own embroidery, silkscreening and other equipment set up and running, onsite. Impressive. Of course they can source products and materials worldwide as needed, but I saw this as beneficial for quality control and turnaround.

Even more impressive is that their employees appeared to enjoy their jobs and each other. They all smiled at Glenn--not the "you're my boss so I guess I better smile" look, but genuine smiles and light banter throughout the tour.

This is definitely the kind of business I want to support, whether through client orders or simply writing this blog post (for which, I shouldn't need to add, I am not being compensated).

If you ever need to step it up with fun stuff that makes a statement--whether for a trade show, teambuilding event, annual meeting, or even a family reunion--consider visiting their site and you will see it all for yourself.

Marketing 101: The Difference Between PR and Advertising

Sometimes people forget that marketing to Latinos can have all the same components (and successes and frustrations!) as marketing to a more general population. No matter your target, the marketing mix can and should include various tactics, including public relations and advertising. However, there are many significant differences between these tactics. For the non-marketer, I would like to review at a very high level public relations and advertising, and their advantages and disadvantages.  

Advertising and public relations. They both belong in a cohesive marketing plan. They both require significant strategy and coordination. They both require consumer insights and market expertise. They will produce different results that can help give your brand exposure and credibility.

One big myth about the difference between public relations and advertising is that PR is "free." Marketers are spending time working on a compelling angle, talking to media contacts, pitching stories, following up and scheduling interviews, etc. All this takes time--and time equals money. But the media is free, so many companies view it as if it were free advertising. But it's not. It's not free, and it's certainly not advertising.

That bring us to the next significant difference between PR and advertising: CONTROL. In advertising, you pay media for a particular space/time/position and the content you supply is what your audience sees. No surprises, assuming all goes according to plan.

In public relations, marketers aren't buying media, so the control isn't there. The brand's end result could be no exposure, limited exposure, New York Times front-cover exposure, or even negative exposure. Marketers, and the companies and organizations we represent, are at the mercy of the media on this one. We build connections and work on media relations so that when the time comes, we understand what our contacts need and they in turn are willing to showcase our client. The payoff, of course, is that editorial exposure is seen as more reliable, truthful, objective--more newsy--than advertising.

This brings me to my latest foray into PR. Earlier this week I was interviewed by the Puget Sound Business Journal for a story on Mariners' Pitcher Felix Hernandez and his recently announced American League Cy Young Award. How might this award impact Felix' marketability? I was asked. Here are some things I shared with the reporter:

• Felix Hernandez can now be considered a local sports hero. As Fredy Montero is currently serving as Super Supplements' Latino spokesman in local Hispanic media, perhaps there is a simliar path Felix could take now that he's garnered more attention and value. (I did not specifically recommend Felix represent fast food or vitamins.)
• Remember Edgar Martinez in those The Home Depot TV spots of years past? Edgar didn't have a big command of the English language but won over audiences, Latino and non-Latino. Felix also represents that-guy-next-door that audiences could trust as a spokesperson. Because he has such strong ties with Venezuela, he would be especially effective in Latino-specific marketing.
• We didn't discuss how much Felix could earn from commercial ventures, although the range quoted and attributed to me don't seem out of bounds.

At this time I'd like to add that Felix Hernandez could be a great cross-over property for marketing to both the local Latino population as well as the general market here in the Puget Sound region.

Smart companies have long strategized their marketing to include more multicultural cues and references. This way, a more cost-effective campaign may be implemented that can still meet both audience's needs. For example, if your company is targeting Spanish-dominant Latinos as well as the general public, a TV spot can be developed to leverage similar imagery for both but with English and Spanish voiceovers or superimposed text to best communicate the salient points. This only really works if you have everyone in the room at the outset of the project and in agreement on the ad's objectives.

Sometimes companies are simply too big to get everyone together that way, and that's OK. Many times it's these same companies who have the resources to produce original Hispanic creative directed at their Latino target, which in a nutshell is the ideal way to handle Hispanic marketing.

The sad truth is that, oftentimes, Hispanic marketing efforts are left for last, really a whoops-we-forgot-about-a-big-percentage-of-our-target effort instead of embarking on a well-planned and measurable program.

The work we do at Conexión Marketing is either very local or national. National accounts have always been our mainstay, but we're here to say that with more than 400,000 Latinos permanently residing in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties, it's time to take for local companies that next step! Whether through advertising, public relations, social media, direct marketing, another tactic or a full mix, companies need to take note now that this market is being sorely missed.

The good news? There's still time to be the top-of-mind brand in your category among the fastest-growing cultural demographic!

In just a few weeks, a topline of the Census data will be announced. Things might change when people realize what it means that the U.S. Latino population is the fastest-growing--even right here in Seattle, Washington.

Read the full Puget Sound Business Journal article here (full access may require subscription).

*****************
FOLLOW-UP: To the credit of the Puget Sound Business Journal, the online version of the article was revised to properly attribute comments. Kudos to Aislyn Greene and the PSBJ for the considerate follow-up!

In this week's Puget Sound Business Journal

I've talked before about Seattle's Global Partnerships and the amazing microlending they're doing in Central and South America.

But did you know there are microcredit programs right here in Washington State?

Take a look at this week's Puget Sound Business Journal for an article on local microcredit opportunities, including a bit on Washington CASH and their new focus on helping immigrants start and grow their businesses.

Our own Gigi Basaure is volunteering for Washington CASH and sees first-hand how the programs works. After completing an 8-week systematic program of education, participants have the opportunity to apply for a small loan. These programs are now targeting Latino, Somali and Ethiopian entrepreneurs with coaches, like Beto Yarce, who work with them in-language.

I've invited Gigi to post her experiences with the program here, to give us an inside look at how it works.

This Week's Puget Sound Business Journal

In this week's PSBJ, there's a brief article by Heidi Dietrich regarding the state of the local Spanish-language newspapers, and how like all print media nationwide (perhaps globally), slower ad sales are affecting the bottom line. It also mentions how some of these papers are beefing up their online components to compensate.

And speaking of...La Raza del Noroeste has leaked that they're working on a very exciting online project. More to come!