Grand Avenue Baby

Organic Apparel: Good for Your Baby, Good for Our Earth

Organic apparel may seem like a marketing ploy, but there’s more to it than a hang tag. More insecticides are used on cotton than any other crop in the world and the use of heavy chemicals continues during cotton production and processing as well; as much as one-fourth of a pound of chemicals to make one cotton t-shirt and two-thirds of a pound to make a pair of jeans according to the Pesticide Action Network. These chemicals and heavy metals are either carried around for the life of the clothing – slowly off-gasing onto the wearer – or released into treatment plants, sewers and rivers, leading to one half of the world’s wastewater problems. The chemical runoff is so pervasive that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified many textile manufacturing facilities to be hazardous waste generators.

Beyond these health and environmental concerns, the end result of cotton grown and produced with conventional methods is a weaker, inferior cotton garment because the chemicals used in the growing, processing and dying of the cotton ultimately breaks the fiber down.

Organic cotton provides an alternative, offering unparalleled softness and quality and is safer for children and adult’s health.

Sage Creek Organics’ stylish collections for infants and toddlers are a great example of how far organic apparel has come. The company’s affordable heirloom quality soft organic cotton pieces are produced using methods and materials that have low impact to the environment and are safe and healthy for children.  

 

The Cradle put it perfectly, “We’re talking 100% natural goodness here! And, they have a large variety of colors and patterns to fit your style or mood. It’s good for your baby and good for our earth.”

We hope you’ll take a look for yourself!

 

Beaba Babycook: Convenience & Cost Savings

Everyone knows that making meals at home saves money. It's time that is worth so much and why convenience so often trumps savings. The Beaba Babycook puts the convenience factor in the baby food equation making it easier for time-starved parents to choose homemade baby food over commercially prepared food.

Recently introduced to North American juvenile products retailers by Scandinavian Child, the Beaba Babycook baby food maker is a one-of-a-kind compact appliance that functions as a steamer, blender, warmer and defroster. With a press of a button, the Babycook steam cooks vegetables, fruits and meats and then purees or blends foods to the desired consistency; all while preserving their vitamins and flavors and time -- meals are ready in less than 15 minutes! The Babycook can also be used to quickly reheat or defrost precooked foods, and is very easy to clean.

Add to the convenience factor fresher foods to help children develop lifelong tastes for healthy fruits and vegetables and less waste and you’ve got an easy recipe for saving money.*

*In comparisons with major brands of commercially prepared baby food, the Beaba Babycook saves parents between $300-$560 in just six months.

Grand Avenue Baby Celebrates New Showroom at CMC

In January 2009, Grand Avenue Baby opened its first brick-and-mortar showroom in the heart of the children’s business in Los Angeles at the California Market Center’s Kids on 6.  Los Angeles is one of the most influential markets for the baby and maternity category, and California Market Center (CMC) is the only showroom center in the country open for business 365 days a year.  Grand Avenue PR clients are showcased in the Grand Avenue Baby showroom and our clients now have the opportunity to utilize the showroom as a sales channel as well.

 

We're celebrating the opening of the Grand Avenue Baby showroom and kicking off the LA Market tomorrow night. If you’re in the area, please join us!

Is Daylight Savings Time making bedtime a challenge?

If a week of tough bedtimes is getting to you, try these three steps to help your child (and you) get some much-needed sleep!

1. Develop a sleep routine. Adults benefit as much as children from having a consistent series of calming activities to help them wind down at the end of the day.

2. Incorporate sound. Sound can be an extremely effective part of the sleep routine because repetition of a certain pitch or tone helps the brain slow down.

For a baby, monotonous sounds are especially calming because it mimics life in utero where baby was accustomed to hearing his mother’s heart beat and the sounds of the womb. Cloud B's Sleep Sheep™ provides an audio pacifier that can calm even the fussiest babies to sleep. Tucked safely inside a soft, fluffy sheep that attaches to the outside of a crib with a Velcro tab, the sound box lulls babies to sleep with the soothing sounds of a mother's heartbeat, spring showers, ocean surf, and whale songs.

Toddlers and big kids will love Cloud B’s Gentle Giraffe™, which offers a unique compilation of soothing sounds that educate as well as de-stimulate by transporting young listeners to the beautiful and mysterious plains of the Serengeti. The removable sound machine tucked inside Gentle Giraffe's back offers the relaxing sounds of rhythmic drums, a waterfall, the sounds of a safari trail, and quiet giraffes.

3. Be consistent. Consistency is the hardest part of developing a lasting habit, but experts agree it is the most important element of a good sleep routine and a lifetime of better sleep. Before you decide to save time by skipping a step in the nighttime routine remember: when children sleep, parents sleep.

Food for Thought: The Difference Between PR & Publicity

A good friend asked the question just last week: what is the difference between PR and publicity? The terms are often used interchangeably, but shouldn't be. Seth Godin explains it well in his blog today. Publicity is helpful, but it’s not PR. 'PR is about strategic crafting of your story. It's the focused examination of your interactions and tactics and products and pricing that, when combined, determine what and how people talk about you,' he writes.

In a nutshell: PR is what will help build a brand in the long run and why connecting the dots between sales, marketing and PR is critical now.

Are We Back in the 90s?

We opened a letter from a leading household cleaning brand today. It was addressed to a client their PR firm repeatedly contacts via our office even after several attepts to redirect their outreach (but that's another story.) 

The CEO wrote to a client about the company's commitment to the principle of transparency in product ingredient and safety information. The letter appalled us on so many levels.  As eco-conscious mothers we are left wondering why it's taken the nearly 100-year-old company until now to list all product ingredients and as marketers, we're appalled at the inefficiency of communicating this message via snail mail. Not only is it ineffective, it's wasteful. How many trees were cut down for the paper and envelopes for this mailing and how much staff time was spent stuffing envelopes and attaching labels?  And don't even get us started on the thought of how much money this company is spending on this campaign.

Just another reminder that bigger isn't always better. Afterall, the '90s really are over.