Puffin’ up Daddy Cakes
I recently got a call from a local publicist — I won’t say her name to spare her the embarrassment because she doesn’t deserve it; she’s excellent at her job — promoting a new store at one of the local malls. She was hired apparently to get the word out about the store. So, I thought, maybe it would work well with the “Checking In” feature I do for Friday’s paper. It’s a simple-enough feature. Usually I e-mail questions to the owner or manager of a business and they reply back — a standard e-mail interview.
The publicist was happy to oblige. It’s a no-brainer. Free media for her client. I warned her, though. Whenever I’ve dealt with big chains they always manage to run you through a series of obstacles as they try to over-control the message. It’s so annoying I don’t even bother anymore — I just go with the small businesses. They get it.
Not long after I got some e-mails from the publicist saying I was right and how frustrating the process had become.
Now here’s the other side of that story. Mona, who represents a couple of half-brothers who have launched a new snack/pancake mix empire from Newport Beach, recently won 30 minutes of an unqualified endorsement from an influential chef on KLAA-AM (830) for them. How? Easy. She called Andrew Harris, the producer of Mario Martinoli’s show, and told him that he ought to invite Dan Byers, the co-founder of Daddy Cakes, on the program. Then she sent him samples of the Daddy Cakes mix and Mario fell in love. Not long after Byers was on the show. (KLAA is also an independent, small business, by the way, that doesn’t need 5o programmers approving a concept before the producers can do anything).
Before the show, Mona asked Martinoli if he’d like to sample of the snacks Byers made with his Daddy Cakes mix and Martinoli said, “Nope. I’m already sold.”
Boy, was he. He went on to extoll the virtues of the mix over and over again throughout the show. I’d say it sounded like an advertisement or infomercial, but that would be grossly unfair to Martinoli who has worked hard to earn his reputation and, as he says, doesn’t usually use phrases like “the best” often. But there he was calling Daddy Cakes “the best pancake mix I have ever had.”
By the way, it’s been a few weeks and I still haven’t heard if the corporate headquarters has approved the interview “request” for that store.
If you ask me, corporatism is dead. It died mid-September of last year when Lehman Bros. collapsed. If you can’t move fast and adapt to the quick-changing business landscape — as most small businesses can — you’re going to die… fast. You can’t brand yourself properly if you can’t adapt. The days of coasting on your reputation are over.
Your last paragraph should be sky-written over the hotel where the next shareholder’s meeting of (name of large company here) is held. Latest victim: Starbucks. Innovative, trail blazing. Then they went public and over-cloned themselves. Their answer to the problem: oatmeal.
Seriously – an email interview? Talk about dead.
Pull your head out of your computer and do face-to-face interviews like radio and television stations do across the country on a daily basis. Advertising in these two mediums have increased while newspapers struggle. Perhaps then Daddy Cakes would give you an interview if you personalized it by not hiding it in an email.
I know this is just a local rag but being since you are an editor I feel it necessary to comment. It’s terribly naive to attribute the Lehman Bros. collapse to that company’s rigidity and inability to change with the environment. They failed because in fact they adapted all too well to a strange new environment, regulatory in particular. Lehman was heavily involved in the use of collateralized debt instruments and insurance on those – the nefarious CDOs and CDS’s – which exposed the bank to a heavy downside from the subprime mortgage market. More traditional banks were not as affected by the bill coming due for the CDS’s. So in a very real sense it would have paid to NOT change with the times back when regulation was being gutted and banks were raking in billions from the new products based on securitized mortgage packages. Also, regarding your use of the term “corporatism” you’re kind of revealing a comfort level with cliches that should alarm your inner word police. What you probably intend to conjure in the mind of the reader is the notion that corporations are conservative, resist change etc. Not really news. This is more or less true of all large human organizations. Companies that understand this best invest huge sums in R&D and have an ethos that encourages challenge from below. You don’t have to look far for a counterexample: newspapers. Slow to acknowledge the Web, slower to even get on it, impossibly slow to figure out how to make money from it. Conservative politically (in the sense of supporting the status quo be it left or right.) Meanwhile, the occasional entrepreneur who has no boss to kiss up to or any preconceptions about his or her trade, is unfettered, a Hegelian free spirit if you will. I would introduce you to Craig Newmark, but you probably are well acquainted with him and his list. Nothing personal. Just my opinion.
Hmm, interesting….Can’t take a little constructive criticism….Another sign of the minor leagues…
Sorry,
didn’t see that my note was reinstated.