The Barking Dog Interview – Finally Released!

I had the opportunity to sit down with Joey Crawford, owner of The Barking Dog, a new coffee shop in downtown Beaumont. Here are a few excerpts from our Q&A session.

K: What separates The Barking Dog from other coffee shops?

J: Well, the fair trade thing for starters. We are conveniently located in downtown Beaumont. Also, we try to create a more independent atmosphere as opposed to a corporate feel. We wanted [the coffee shop] to be downtown and we wanted it to look eclectic.

K: What is your target market?

J: Depends on the time of day. We have business workers in the morning and college students in the evenings and on weekends.

K: What did you do before the shop?

J: I sold everything, including medical equipment, internet service, and cell phones. Now I’m selling coffee. I also deal with rental property.

K: How would describe fair trade and the process?

J: I first got interest in it when I found out coffee is the second largest money grossing industry per year, only second to oil. And so many people working in the coffee industry in South America and other parts of the world work for such small amounts of money. They are slaves to that industry. If that's all they know, they don't make enough money to educate themselves or their children to adapt to an industry other than coffee.

The idea behind fair trade is to guarantee them [the local farmers] a higher amount per pound of coffee-- and it doesn't sound like much when you're talking $0.25 more per pound, but for families living on $3,000 or $4,000 per year, that adds up quite a bit. Fair trade not only gives them more money, but educates them on how to invest it into their education and better farming techniques, especially for organic farming.

[Fair Trade] is also a social conscience and economic empowerment thing. The world is more open now than it used to be. Borders are more accessible. America has the potential to, just by our buying habits, change things all across the world. If enough people support fair trade and make that part of their buying habits, then it helps raise the life standards of people all around the world.

The fair trade process for coffee shops in America is kind of a co-op thing through the roasters. Katz Coffee in Houston supplies the coffee for The Barking Dog. All the literature I put forth is paid for by the roasters' contributions to the fair trade program.

K: What can we do to help out?

J: You can buy cotton shirts and shoes, fair trade. I mean there's someone making our shoes for ten cents an hour. Sometimes we get mad that we had to spend $90 instead of $80 on shoes when we can actually afford that, and they are just shoes. That's the only way to put it. It's not like old time slavery, but still in a way, it's economic slavery.

There was a guy who comes in here and he was doing a speech at Lamar [University] about fair trade and he asked me if he could borrow some things. I gave him a few pamphlets and a DVD to show during his speech. During his speech a girl in his class started crying. It bothered him since he didn't know why she was crying. He discovered that the girl was from Venezuela and her dad was actually a coffee farmer. That's the way she was able to go to college here in the U.S.-- because of the fair trade money that was provided to her family.

K: Do you have anything you want to add?

J: Fair trade is empowering people to use the resources they currently have to create a better life economically and educationally, because they are going to farm coffee beans whether they are getting $1.20 per pound or $0.50 per pound for it.

Tyrell Park's Restoration in Beaumont, Texas

K: I had a chance to tour the reconstructed Tyrell Park in Beaumont, Texas, almost three years after Hurricane Rita took its toll on the beautiful park. While most of the gigantic trees did not make it through the high winds, main structures stayed in place. The park had its grand re-opening on Sunday, May 17, 2008 and unveiled the new additions to the land. Pictures inside!

The roses were back in bloom after the much sought after Rose Garden.

The waterfall is amazing and the pond is more attractive than the original swamp before the hurricane.

There is a second waterfall inside the Botanical Gardens. Though this may not be new I thought I would share it with people who may have never been inside the greenhouse before like myself.

Though my picture came out poorly, I wanted to show the new reception area people can now use for weddings and receptions.

Congratulations to the City of Beaumont and all those that helped with the restoration of this beautiful place.

A: *How does this relate to marketing? It is a place where we take solitude and are able to recharge our creative batteries. It also relates to marketing for the city of Beaumont, TX, hometown of the Marketeers, and for that, we are sincerely proud.

Consistency

In marketing, consistency is everything. All the money you spend placing ads, sending letters or coupons, website development, graphic design, printing marketing packets, business cards, or any other form of marketing is put directly in the wastebasket if your materials lack consistency. And yes, I used the word “wastebasket” which I don’t know if I’ve ever used in actual speech.

Back to the point—marketing relies on consistency of everything involved. This could mean consistency of the color scheme you use in your printed materials, the fonts you use on letters, envelopes, invoices, catalogs, the graphics on your website. Everything is game. For the most part, savvy business owners and marketing directors realize that consistency is an integral factor in the marketing process. However, what details are escaping your grasp?

For starters, the number one difference I notice in marketing materials starts with the most common form of communication (at least for me). Email. Yes, even in your email, you have to carry over the idea of consistency. The place to start is the company email signature. Notice, I didn’t mention “your” email signature. Think of the email signature as a company-wide standard. Create a company signature with the same logo (if you choose to use it in your company signature), same font, same information, same order. Just as if it were a business card, change the individual details, but keep the same formatting. The same applies to font size and type for the body of the email.

Another place to create consistency is through individual employee voicemail messages. Write up a script and have everyone follow that script. It seems extreme, but some people are better than others at recording their away messages. The ones that aren’t the most eloquent when leaving their recording will appreciate the script and the ones that like to be, shall we say, creative, when leaving their message, will know what to expect up front. You know the type, amateur comedians practicing their snide rapport for unsuspecting phone victims. Keep them in check with a professional (or fun—depending on your industry) voicemail message.

To find inconsistency lurking in the hidden corners of your marketing, be constantly aware and keep your eyes open.

Any comments on consistency in atypical places are welcomed!

Mourning the Loss of a Houston Legend

If you're from Houston or lived here for any amount of time, you're probably familiar with the annual Art Car Parade that happens every May. People put on crazy costumes, get behind the wheel of their zany modified cars and head out to Allen Parkway for a few hours of spectacular viewing. Last weekend was the Art Car Parade, and it was just as spectacular as past years (see the pictures below), however it ended with an unspeakable ironic tragedy.

Tom Jones, curator of the Art Car Museum, was killed Saturday night after being pinned by a parked car that was hit by a drunk driver. He was closing up the museum after a long day of parades and events. Here are several articles with the complete story.

Thanks to Karin Shaver for the pictures!

Art Car Museum Website
Houston Chronicle Article
Jalopnik Blog Tribute
KPRC Write up

On a happier note, The Marketeers, LLC want to collaborate with another company or individual to create an art car for next year. If you have any ideas or an old car you'd like to donate to the cause, please let us know!

Whoops-Forgot to post yesterday, Companies that "Get it" installment #4

Friday’s company:

Bella Lucce



Lela Barker, a fellow alumnus of Collierville High School and the Speech and Debate team there, started a beauty product line that has grown into a global sensation. The products are ALL natural, due to the fact that Lela’s sister was once diagnosed with breast cancer. Through research, Lela found that most of the beauty products found in her bathroom included an ingredient that increased the risk of breast cancer. Knowing there was a better way, and looking for a way to support herself and her daughters after a divorce, Lela began Bella Lucce.

Lela’s approach to the product incorporates all of the elements of my “it” list. Creating a quality product at an affordable price, treating employees with ultimate respect and gratitude (as you’ll be able to tell when you read her blog), giving back to the community through various charitable contributions (once again, you can read about those on her blog), and being extremely creative. After all, she uses chocolate as a body scrub!

Other aspects I admire are her frequent updates to the blog, the entertainment and education factor of the posts, and the personalization through pictures and first hand experiences she writes about.

Companies that "Get it" Installment #3

Wednesday’s company:

Barking Dog Coffee House

The Barking Dog is a vintage feel coffee shop new to the downtown Beaumont, TX area that promotes something new (for the Beaumont area). They only engage in fair trade coffee and strive for all other products to be organic.

According to wikipedia.org, fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to alleviating global poverty and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and flowers.

The Barking Dog remains the front runner in this area in relation to fair trade, organic, hipness and being brave enough to establish a business in the budding downtown. Currently, to my knowledge, no other coffee shop in Beaumont, independently owned or not, is bringing this issue to the forefront.

Wonderfully hand decorated, an eclectic feel permeates this cozy downtown space with chandeliers and vintage furniture. This coffee shop with the unusual pub sounding name and laid back appeal is helping to turn the light bulb on, in most Southeast Texans heads.

Companies That "Get it" Installment #2

Tuesday’s company:


Method

“What the style element does is it creates mass market relevance for a green product. And I'm not just talking about Method right now, although that is very much our strategy. We're not the first company to think cleaners should be green, but we are doing them in a way that makes them accessible both from a price-point standpoint and from a design/aesthetic standpoint to everyone else who isn't this sort of tree-hugging granola -- forgive the expression ... Why would you do all this green stuff and then just hang out with other greenies? That's one of the biggest reasons why the traditional environmental movement has not succeeded. It's not democratic. One of the big goals with Method, and why design and sustainability are inextricably linked in our brand, is that if you don't have the design element, you're only going to appeal to people who are already green, so you're not actually going to create any real environmental change ... To us, "sustainability" and "green" are just aspects of the quality of our product -- they are not a marketing positioning ... I mean everything should be that way. Just build it into the quality of the product and let the experience of the product be the real hero.”

--Method Co-Founder Adam Lowry, in an interview with Grist.

They meet all the criteria of the list I put up yesterday, make products that work properly (and don’t look completely hideous while on your kitchen counter), and the quote above pretty much sums up why I chose them for this list. Also, they’re independently owned and are in no hurry (from what I have read) to sell out to a large corporation. Plus, it's always an inspiration to me to see younger people running successful businesses.

See you tomorrow.

Anyone have any companies they admire? Feel free to comment and tell us why.

Companies that "Get it"

As a preface to this blog, do not do what we have done. DO NOT go as long as we have between blog posts if you have a company blog. We screwed up and have been too busy to post over the last couple of weeks and we apologize. That being said, we take you back to your regularly scheduled programming.

What exactly is “it”? An endless string of nouns can replace that one simple little word. Yet, for a business, large or small, what does it mean?
As a business owner and operator, my version of “it” is the total package of:
1. Recognizing AND acting on social responsibilities.
2. Treating employees with respect and the freedom to help their company thrive.
3. Providing a reliably good product 100% of the time and taking responsibility for any products (or services) distributed that didn’t meet the customers’ standards.
4. Make a profit.
5. Use creativity as a driving force.

Here’s the beginning of our week long tribute to companies we admire, starting with #1.

Monday’s company


Sweet Leaf Tea:
First of all, they started off in Beaumont, TX (my home town), brewing tea from pillow cases, which is a great story. They’ve graduated to Austin and recently secured $18 million in investments from a private equity firm for some expansion projects. Most of their marketing budget goes to grass roots marketing (sampling the tea at community events and music festivals) rather than taking the traditional route down the path of tv, radio, and print ads. This approach has been successful because the tea is actually good, so rather than telling their target how they have an awesome product, they're “takin it to the streets” to EMERGE them in the deliciousness that is Sweet Leaf Tea. Another thing- they actually brew the tea and use pure cane sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup, tea flavoring and tea concentrate.

Some charities they’ve been involved in include: Big Brothers and Sisters of Central Texas, AIDS Services, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Caritas and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. They've also recently donated $20,000 worth of products to The Early Show's (on CBS) Facing Hunger: Feeding America food drive. Their donation was equal to or more than a lot of HUGE, publicly traded food/beverage companies' donations. That's something to be commended.