Grand Avenue Baby

Connecting the Dots: A Brief History of Grand Avenue Baby

Grand Avenue Baby launched in 2006 and quickly earned a reputation as a go-to resource for the best products in the mom and baby category for media, influentials (celebrities, stylists, tastemakers) and consumers.  Since the beginning, we wanted Grand Avenue Baby to provide clients a holistic approach to PR & marketing because as long-term marketers, we know that celebrity outreach and public relations must go hand-in-hand in order for a program to be successful. So while we continued to outreach under the Grand Avenue Baby name, our firm name became Grand Avenue PR to better communicate who we are and the services we provide.

 

Our commitment to taking a holistic approach deepened as we watched amazing brands struggle to translate media and celebrity exposure into sales. Companies must connect the dots between PR and Sales to achieve maximum results. To help companies achieve these results, we evolved the Grand Avenue Baby concept to be able to offer companies an innovative and integrated solution to PR, Marketing and Sales: the Grand Avenue Baby Showroom.

 

In January 2009, the Grand Avenue Baby Showroom opened in the hub of Los Angeles’ Kids business at the California Market Center.  Through our brick & mortar and online showrooms we showcase a unique, hand-picked mix of quality brands – the finest in mom and juvenile accessories, apparel and gear – to media, celebrities, retailers and consumers.  Visitors to the Web site gain access to product information as well as Grand Avenue Baby blog posts on industry trends and highlights, products, topics and expert commentary and opinions.  Visitors to the showroom have the opportunity to “touch & feel” product and see it showcased in a retail environment.

 

The Grand Avenue Baby showroom package is an ideal solution for upcoming brands in need of a PR & Marketing launch and for established companies with internal marketing and/or sales teams that need tactical support. While Grand Avenue PR provides tailored, individualized PR and Marketing services, Grand Avenue Baby is a unique and affordable option for companies who need support with Media Relations, VIP Relations, West Coast Retail Relations, or a combination of the three.

 

Are you connecting the dots?  If not, we’d love to talk to you.

Finding Inspiration in Housewares

If you've read InStyle, O, Elle Decor, Real Simple, Metropolitan Home (and the list goes on) in the past few months, chances are the hip housewares from Alice Supply Co. have caught your attention. The brainchild of two fashion industry executives, Alice Supply Co. came alive with help from the creative genius of Clive Piercy, the founder of design office Air Conditioned.

Clive has crafted visual identities for companies like Roxy, Ekla, Quiksilver, Fathers Office and Hillstone (Houston's, Gulfstream) and generously shared his knowledge with small business owners during an evening with SMARTY. Very quickly into Clive's presentation it became enormously clear why I find myself coveting a garden hose and tool box.

It also became clear how important it is for a company's visual personality to reflect their product or service. If you're trying to create differentiated positioning in the marketplace, ask yourself:  What is your brand spirit?  What are the adjectives used to describe your brand? And then invest in design.

Food for Thought: What Story Are You Telling?

Does Your Brand Tell a Powerful Story? - Brand Story - Entrepreneur.com

We highly recommend this article to anyone building a business. Strategic storytelling and brand guardianship are critical and why we believe PR is more important than ever before. Why?  Seth Godin explains it perfectly: "PR is the 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." 

PR is not just about publicity, which is exactly why as PR professionals we provide our clients a “full service” approach to building their brands. We’d love to tell you how.

 

 

 

The Children’s Place Teams Up with Celebs to Benefit Books for Kids

The Children’s Place’s “Books for Kids” campaign is featured in today’s Celebrity Baby Blog Reviews newsletter and we had to share it. Not only to promote the auction and a great cause, but also because we love when marketing makes sense: The Children’s Place raising money for a children’s charity with child-friendly celebrities incorporating a product children use!

More than 40 celebrities, including Miranda Cosgrove (bag pictured,) Miley Cyrus, David Archuletta, Paula Abdul, Dwyane Johnson and Tina Fey, took a break backstage at the Kids Choice Awards to decorate their own The Children’s Place messenger bags to help raise money for the Books for Kids Foundation. The messenger bags (a.k.a. book bags) feature designs and autographs from the stars and are available on eBay through April 24th. The bags with the highest bids today: David Archuleta ($895,) Miley Cyrus ($490,) Taylor Lautner ($480,) Hilarie Burton ($455) and Tina Fey ($410.)

Founded to promote literacy among all children with a special emphasis on low-income and at-risk preschool-aged children, Books for Kids creates libraries, donates books and partners with literacy programs to develop the critical early foundation and skills which young children need to be successful in life.

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.

Even My Four-Year-Old Wants a Snuggie

Ad Age's headline, "Marketing's New Red-Hot Seller: Humble Snuggie" caught my attention today because we laugh about the Snuggie a lot at home. We watch a lot of football and basketball games and have seen the commercial many times since October. When it came time for my husband's "As Seen on TV" Secret Santa exchange at work, the whole family was pulling for a Snuggie. (He came home with a perfect pancake puff pan having had the Snuggie "stolen" by an eager co-worker.) Our four-year-old continues to remind us why we need a Snuggie.

The Snuggie may be a running joke in our house and on YouTube, but the people laughing the hardest are the ones behind it. Allstar Marketing Group is laughing all the way to the bank having sold over 4 million Snuggies, nearly $40 million in retail sales, in the past three months.

All humor aside, what really got my attention in the Ad Age article is how the Snuggie has benefitted from the down economy. "The timing worked well on many fronts for Snuggie. With conventional advertisers pulling back, remnant time for direct-response ads has swelled. And because apparel and other consumer-product sales are down, plenty of idle Chinese factories are eager for business."  It reminded me of something Robert Kiyosaki wrote in his recent Entrepreneur article, Go Big or Go Home: "Businesses that promote while others cut their ad budgets have a better chance of getting bigger . . . even if the economy is shrinking." 

Sure it helps to have a desirable product or service, but it helps even more when you keep telling people about that product or service. 

Click here to read the whole story. http://adage.com/article?article_id=134080

Posted by Karie

Go Big or Go Home...Robert Kiyosaki Reminds Businesses to Continue Investing in Marketing

In the November issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, Robert Kiyosaki, an investor, entrepreneur and author of the Rich Dad series of books, warns business owners to resist the urge (and their accountant's advice) to slash marketing budgets during this down market. "When times get tough, your job is to promote more, not less" he advises readers.  We couldn't agree more!

The link to his complete article is below:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2008/november/198022.html