Category: Public Relations

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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Intern Tips

Dana PhelpsBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Public Relations, , 1 Comment on Intern Tips

Thanks to Bridget, Rachel and Michelle, Clairemont’s TLC summer interns — it was a pleasure spending the summer with you! While we continue to interview fall interns (email j@clairemontcommunications if you are interested in applying), we wanted to share some parting words of advice from our summer intern group.

 

Bridget: Stay informed. When it comes to being an intern – and public relations in general – you should be in the know. It is necessary to keep up-to-date with clients, public companies, relevant news and recent trends. Being aware also keeps your mind occupied with fresh concepts, as well as facts that you can put on a side burner for later use. I believe that one general rule of being an intern is that you can never have too much information.

 

Rachel: As an intern, it is important to be a sponge. Learn from the professionals and other interns around you in order to get the most of your internship opportunity. The interns at Clairemont each come from different backgrounds, so we all have something different to offer one another in terms of knowledge and experience. On-the-job training is the best learning experience. Learn something new with each assignment and to never be afraid to ask questions.

 

Michelle: The action of finding important information via Internet research is an interesting task. How can I manage my time effectively while researching? How can I optimize my search to get results in an efficient and productive manner? The key is to maximize the search, and here are some helpful hints:

 

1. It is all in the words. Think carefully about what is being searched and write words that will most effectively narrow in on results. What is most important or unique about what is being researched? Focus on these aspects.

 

2. To search for an exact phrase, use quotes around the phrase.

 

3. Place a “+” before a word to guarantee the word will be on the page.

 

4. Place a “-” before a word to guarantee the word will not be on the page.

 

5. If a helpful website lacks a search bar, google “site:somesite.com” and the desired word.

 

6. Instead of forming a question, change the question into the form of an answer.

 

Were you a summer intern? What did you learn?

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Social Media in Recruiting and Hiring

Dana PhelpsBlog, Owning a Business, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , 1 Comment on Social Media in Recruiting and Hiring

In need of communications professionals with an understanding of social media, we posted our job descriptions on our blog and then tweeted and Facebooked it out to our contacts. To help spread the word, our contacts did the same.

 

When Clairemont launched, it was our goal to find the perfect blend of traditional communications and social media for our clients. We proudly do just that for our clients, with a high majority of the day-to-day work falling on the social side. That’s why I was impressed when one candidate creatively demonstrated that 1) she understood the importance of social media to Clairemont clients and 2) that she had a working knowledge of how to use it by sending me a thank you note in the form of a blog post. (It was the “Thanks, Dana” sign that did it form me!)

 

She then took the blog entry and posted it to my Facebook page. To continue using social media as part of the hiring process, I asked my Facebook friends (many of whom are other communications professionals) to like the post if they thought I should hire her. Twenty-five likes and 19 comments later, Continue reading “Social Media in Recruiting and Hiring”

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Josie's First Day: Let's Make it Special

Dana PhelpsBlog, Public Relations, The Clairemont Team6 Comments on Josie's First Day: Let's Make it Special


Today is a very special day. Today when Josephine Butler walks through the door at Clairemont Communications, it will be different from the other times she’s walked through that door. That’s because this time she is no longer a hopeful job candidate. This time, she is Clairemont’s new account coordinator.

 

Do you remember your first day of your current job? How about your first job? Or your favorite job? Was it special? Did your new boss do something that put you at ease, made you feel welcome or was just super nice?

 

If so, I want to hear from you! Help me make this the BEST first day for Josie. And while you are here, feel free to congratulate Josie, share new job words of wisdom or tell us your favorite first day story.

 

In an upcoming post, I’ll share more about Josie and how she stood out above the other candidates to secure the job!

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L is for Learning Part 3

Dana PhelpsBlog, Public Relations, , 1 Comment on L is for Learning Part 3

Today’s L for learning is last but not least. If you’ve been lollygagging this week, take a look back at our earlier posts to learn more about Clairemont’s TLC Intern Program.

 

Our finaL favorite tip from the Entrepreneur Start-Up Guide comes from Bridget who writes:

 

Whenever possible, tie your business to a current event or trend.

 

This seemingly simple pointer is something that has proven to be extremely important from what I have seen in my first few weeks as a public relations intern. In viewing various company blogs and websites for research, I have discovered that the most successful organizations are those that find ways to link their businesses to some type of recent news or event.

 

Electronic media is so pervasive that it takes something special to capture the public’s attention. By connecting to something current, a business can captivate the attention of consumers and as Entrepreneur states, “gain publicity by association.”

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