Changin it UP for Thanksgiving

My dad passed away a year and a half ago. I knew the first Thanksgiving would be rough and sure enough my mom came to me and asked if we could just cancel Thanksgiving. She was tearful, she was tearful a lot, but this topic I could see was not going to work for her.

I replied, " I have been trying to cancel Thanksgiving for 30 years, it just isn t possible, but let me see what I can do." I have two daughters and they like Thanksgiving--at least the idea of it.

So last year I made a reservation at a hotel close to Union Square shopping and Dinner reservations at a French Restaurant. I made a little gift of a stone with a word and writing for each of the girls and placed it in a little jeweled pill box from China Town next to their place settings. The word represented what I would hope for each of them to focus on in the coming year.
Acknowledgement was for my mom to acknowledge the progress she was making in creating a new life and how she touched so many people. Joy was for my little one going into puberty. Respect was for my eldest one going into advertising, to respect the people she worked with and her self and her body. Trust I gave to myself, to trust someone to love me, and Love I gave to my boyfriend.

I wouldn't say that it was a huge success, it was a bit like a scene out of Gilmore Girls, but, they seemed to remember the highlights. We are repeating it this year and bringing a home made pie with us. So we didn't cancel the holiday we just made it our own special day.

Branding and expanding too soon

It is a difficult when building a brand and getting the word out to not fall into the trap of wanting to satisfy everyone. The book 'Crossing the Chasm' deals with the subject of 'the beach head' and thinking in terms of having to choose a beach head in order to cross over, this offers a visual sense of Branding.

I like to use words like, Target Audience and Position in the Market Place, but even the best in Marketing get confused with this--especially if the product can cross many markets and play in lots of playgrounds.

I recently worked with a couple of start ups, one is a CRM software... getting the
'talking points' or the 'elevator pitch' down to 3 simple points of benefits and differentiators was really really difficult for the founders. Getting them or yourself to see the strengths vs the competition is not a simple task.

Establishing the tone and the voice of the company is done with a visual collaborative process that works with words and pictures.

As I apply my own knowledge to my own brand, " Urban Cowgirl " I tend to
get caught up in the excitement of the possibilities. It is a lifestyle brand, for
girls on the go. This is really broad -- the voice and tone need to help in fine tuning who that girl is.

We get the girls involved in the creation of the brand, by having them try it and running a quick market study when we choose a final formula for the foundation or the color for the compacts or telling us where and how they will use it. Does it fit into their life?

This allows us to fine tune our brand, to a specific market. When you fine tune who you are, you can become the go to brand for that niche, or group of consumers.

It 's on going...

BrandingMom Intro

I have spent most of my life being a mom. I have also spent most of my life being a graphic designer/branding expert. Both hats are an amazing insight into human nature and that certainly helps in keeping the mind fresh.

I wouldn't be much of a designer or a marketing person if I didn't have a window into the 'teen market', or the 'mommy and me market' or the 'conservative blabber mouth PTA leader market'

In fact I think being in the marketing field and branding specifically has been a release. The industry as a whole has, what I have found, a wealth of really intelligent and open-minded current and creative minds. I honestly can t say that of the suburban world. I have managed to squeek out the best of what this suburban world has to offer and have met some of the more creative minds that reside here.

At times I have spoken from one hat or the other, but recently it dawned on me that I am a melding of the two. Without sounding confused with my duality, I thought it would be an interesting exploration to embrace the two as a blogger.

Both of my children have benefited from my creative endeavours. My eldest just graduated and is working in a global agency, and my youngest is entering puberty.

I am in the midst of my umpteenth midlife crisis and looking forward to where that takes me.

I hope to discover and grow from this blog, and mostly I hope to not embarass my children, more,

I hope to inspire them and make them proud.

hmmmm... fairly painless and benign for a first post.