Year: 2010

A Rose By Any Other Name…Might not be as Marketable

Dana PhelpsBlog, Furniture PR, Public Relations, Starting a business, , , , ,

Last month I had the honor of guest blogging on Spin Sucks about the art of naming. Since then, Clairemont has named three furniture collections that debuted last week at furniture market, so we thought it would be appropriate to share the post in its entirety on our blog, too. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed naming the new collections!

A sampling of the furniture we named that was introduced during fall market.

In a few weeks, I’ll experience my annual ritual of kicking off Fall Furniture market by walking into the showroom and checking out my client’s toenails as I greet her. Yes, her toenails.

My client and I share a love. A love of OPI Nail Lacquer. Take a fashionable color, add a fun, catchy name such as Kiss on the Chic, Gliterzland from the Swiss collection or the best-selling I’m Not Really a Waitress Red, and it goes from a hue we might select once at the nail salon to a bottle we’ll buy to use again and again.

If you’ve ever started a company, you had to name it. If you lead a company or are in marketing, public relations or advertising, you’ve likely been asked to help name a product or campaign. It might not be nail polish, but chances are you want your target audience to respond the way OPI fans do. How do you do that?

Too bad it isn’t as simple as comedian Mitch Hedberg portrayed it to be. “I want to get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender….all you do is say what it does and add ‘er’. Hey, what does that do? It keeps shit fresh. Well that’s a fresher….I’m going on break.”

Start with some inspiration. From Altoids to Zima by Evan Morris tells the story behind 125 well-known brands. Morris writes that once upon a time, naming a product was as simple as taking the manufacturer’s name and adding a product description, such as Smith’s Pure and Effective Cough Syrup. Nowadays, as Morris notes, companies often create new words for brands. Google started as “googol,” a word that the nine-year-old nephew of a mathematician made up to mean a “very, very large number, ten raised to the hundredth power.”

Continue reading “A Rose By Any Other Name…Might not be as Marketable”

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Wanted: Intern Superstars

Josephine ButlerBlog, The Clairemont Team
Will you blossom into the next PR superstar?

Attention rising PR stars, Clairemont Communications is now accepting applications for our spring interns.

Who are we seeking? College students who are strong writers, grammar gurus, Tweeters, Facebookers, bloggers, floggers, Flickrers and flipping awesome

Where are we? Downtown Raleigh in the cutest office ever

What are the hours like? TBD, but we’d like to have you here approximately 12 hours a week

What will I be doing? Primary duties and responsibilities include conducting research on behalf of our clients, assisting with a variety of writing assignments (event calendar listings, blog entries, Facebook posts, Tweets, catalog copy, news releases, media alerts, etc.), working with Clairemont team members to meet client deliverables and making media and client deliveries, as well as running errands as needed. Interns are expected to work within the confines of approved written plans of activities, represent the agency in a professional manner, participate in internal meetings, read and study traditional and online information relevant to clients and the public relations industry.

What else? The internship is unpaid and must be taken for credit at your educational institution

How do I apply? Email your resumes and why you think you’d be a good candidate to Josie Butler at j@clairemontcommunications.com.

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Trick or Treat? High Point Market — Definitely a Treat!

Josephine ButlerBlog, Furniture PR1 Comment on Trick or Treat? High Point Market — Definitely a Treat!
Just one of the many beds that I picked out for myself!

In the spirit of my first Halloween as Clairemont Communications’ new account coordinator, I knew I was in for a real treat this week when Dana asked me to pay her a visit down the road at High Point Market.  Not only had I been missing her (she was away most of this week and last), but I knew I would get the chance to attend the largest furnishings industry trade show in the world –who could say no?

Well, folks, I was right. It really did end up being a treat. I finally got to meet some of our clients at Thomasville and Drexel Heritage and to see what fabulous creations they had been working on for the past six months. And they were, indeed, fabulous – I’m talking the furniture, pillows, curtains, wall colors and decorations right down to the cute display of delicious little Godiva chocolates they let me sneak a time or two. I literally felt like a kid in a candy store, wanting everything that I saw. I probably couldn’t count the number of times that I snapped a photo with my iPhone in hopes of later texting my little “shopping list” to friends and family.

Between the upholstered headboard from Drexel Heritage to just about every piece from Thomasville’s new collection, “Reinventions” (which, by the way, Dana and I worked on naming…cool right?), I had more pieces of furniture on my list than pieces of candy in my pumpkin bucket from that infamous Halloween night in 1997. But regardless of whether or not I can trick myself into believing that I might actually receive any of the pieces on my list, one thing is for sure – it was definitely a treat to represent Clairemont Communications at the 2010 High Point Market!

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Postcards: The Original Twitter

Dana PhelpsBlog, Inspirational, Social Media + Influencer Engagement2 Comments on Postcards: The Original Twitter

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting PRSarahEvans and she echoed what we tell our clients about social media. It is simply a tool. She compared it to the telephone — you don’t pick up the phone and start talking without knowing how to use it, who you want to talk with or what you want to say. Great point!

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by social media if you are new to using it. Here’s another analogy that might offer some comfort. Think of postcards as the original Twitter. People sometimes ask me, “How can you say anything in 140 characters?” My response, “Have you ever sent a postcard?”

 For companies and organizations, remember to start with your business objectives supported by your communications plan (objectives)… then strategy… then you get to tactics which can include traditional and social. If you need some help, call us!
We love blending traditional communications and social media. We also like drawing comparisons between the “old-fashioned” and “emerging” ways to communicate. Because of this, today is our first Myrtle Monday.

I have a very magical story about how I acquired a collection of several decades of postcards written to Myrtle and all of the interesting things that have happened to me since I “met” her. The story is best told in-person — ask me the next time you see me. In the meantime, we’ll be sharing Myrtle’s postcards and talking about how they relate to communications today…. or simply what we love about them in some cases. Today’s Myrtle Monday lesson: How to write in less than 140 characters. The original Twitter!

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