| Subject: Experienced Marketing Copywriter |
| From: "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 7/3/07, 13:24 |
| To: careers@vendisys.com |
Go Go Gadget Retailer!
Nothing sets the summer heart aflutter like that perfectly stylish, ever-so-necessary electronics accessory and that goes double if you're the one selling it. But with fashionable designers increasingly jumping into a product genre that not so long ago was dominated by geek chic, as opposed to chic chic, retailers are facing a similar increase in mind-boggling stocking decisions and that goes double for those whose fashion sense may have frozen in time in 1986. Never fret; we'll bring you up to speed on the things everyone needs.
Laptop Cases
The girl-friendly gadget community is all abuzz about the Lexie Barnes 2007 Echo line of laptop carriers not so much due to the water-resistant fabric and extra pockets perfect for power cords and old-fashioned reading material; rather, it's the neo-retro (yeah, you heard us) design scheme that has everyone excited.
Mouses
Well, it's finally happened - someone's gone and blinged out the mouse. The culprit in this case is British design firm The Crystal Chick, whose 2007 lineup includes a three-button optical laptop mini-mouse that's encrusted with swarovski crystals and available in clear, topaz, rose, and sapphire color schemes. Will wonders never cease?
http://www.thecrystalchick.co.uk
Portable Comm Cases
For those whose tastes don't quite run to the jewel-encrusted, Otterbox is set to release a decidedly utilitarian see-through Blackberry case that allows for total functionality while protecting the device from liquid, dust, crushings, and other hazards of the modern workplace. It's a must-have for today's busy klutz-on-the-go.
Gaming Cases
Billing its product line as being "For People Who Hate Wallets," Jimi seeks to serve as savior to portable game enthusiasts with its Jimi Game Shell, a shockproof, liquid-resistant polypropylene case that keeps Nintendo DS and PSP game cards safe from the elements (not to mention their owners).
From Goal Line To Bottom Line
Though the practice is by no means limited to the U.S., brand licensing is still largely associated with American culture, despite having since caught on with a vengeance in Japan, Western Europe, and elsewhere. This view of branding as a peculiarly American cultural development is reasonable - it was in the U.S. that the practice first originated, after all, and it was the U.S. commercial establishment that gradually built the concept into something of a fine art, and an extraordinarily profitable one at that.
Much of the same can be said about college athletics. Though organized sporting as a function of higher education is neither an American invention nor even a recent one, modern American culture has given the institution a degree of attention and cash not seen anywhere else in the world. And so it's hardly surprising that the practice of licensing, when combined with the public's relatively high interest in college athletics, has proven to be among retail's most reliable options for improving the bottom line, often outperforming even national athletic merchandise in terms of growth. And industry analysts see no reason why these numbers should drop anytime soon:
The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association determined in 2005 that between 1998 and 2006, college athletic licensing sector revenues saw an increase of 11.7 percent a rate of increase five times as strong as that of non-sporting entertainment licensing, and even a bit stronger than that of non-collegiate sporting merchandise revenues, which grew by 10.1 percent over the same time period.
An estimated 50,000 U.S. retail establishments now carry licensed collegiate athletic products, with those stores collectively bringing in some $2.8 billion each year from those sales.
Unlike the seasonal drop-off in sales that's generally seen in national sporting merchandise, licensed collegiate products have a tendency to sell year-round, largely due to the buying patterns of the nation's 30 million income-earning college alumni, who tend to purchase based on a static sense of school pride rather than a more ephemeral sense of support for a successful team.
From the standpoint of the individual retailer, carrying licensed collegiate merchandise makes even more strategic sense when one considers the mutually beneficial partnership that now exists between licensing firms and sellers on the one hand and licensing firms and colleges on the other. For instance, though industry heavyweight Collegiate Licensing Company identifies certain product categories as top sellers on a nationwide basis, CLC also takes pains to provide each retailer with an unusually high degree of support with regards to maximizing sales based on regional factors. This assistance comes in the form of demographic and sales trend info, collaboration on specified promotional efforts for particular territories, register-to-win promotions, sales incentive contests for employees, and direct marketing campaigns, among other things, all of which can be of particular benefit to those retailers who may otherwise lack the resources to implement such techniques with equal precision and expertise.
Bearing all that in mind, it's little wonder that retailers of all sizes have gotten into the game.
BARRETT BROWN___________________________________________
512-560-2302 barriticus@aol.com
COPYWRITER/ FEATURE COLUMNIST/ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/ BOOK AUTHOR
Published Work/ Freelance Media Experience
The Onion A/V Club
Current, ongoing copywriting for The Onion's features department.
Anglesey Interactive, Inc.
Current, ongoing copywriting of online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, etc.) in support of firm's "Riight.com" integrated search engine.
Organic Motion, Inc.
Current, ongoing copywriting of both print and online marketing collateral, general marketing consultation for noted New York tech start-up.
Sterling and Ross Publishers
Nonfiction book "Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny", political humor, authored in 2006, released in March 2007.
Avacata
Current, ongoing copywriting in 2007 for Dallas ad agency, researching and creating entertainment/dining/venue blurbs for clients' marketing collateral, including luxury resort real estate firm.
National Lampoon
Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more.
Weekly columnist for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005
Features included - - "JohnKerry.com is Web-Tastic!" "Politicos Should Heed the Perry Incident," "Hot Senate Races," "Hot House Races," "109th Congress - What They Really Wanted for Christmas," "Political New Year's Resolutions," "State of the Union 2005: Dreams and Ironies" "The Long Kiss Goodnight," "The Strange Case of Jeff Gannon," "Libby Indicted, Dems Excited," "The Best Little Decoy in Texas," "Faith of Our Fathers: A Mildly Mean-Spirited Review," "McClellan is No Fleischer," "A Response to Our Catholic Readers," "The Known Unknown," "Dr. Frist Prescribes Himself a Dose of Moderation," "Meet John Roberts," "2008 Preview," Roberts Confirmation Hearings Largely Bloodless," more.
AOL CityGuide
Web content writer from Summer 2000 to December 2003 Researched/ created content coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.
Additional magazine work
Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to children's recreational activity coverage to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publication Pizza Today, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, parenting publication Dallas Child, men's magazines Oui and Hustler, literary journal Swans, dozens more.
Additional writing projects
Have written shopping/entertainment guides for Dallas Market Center publication Destination Dallas, created marketing copy for Verizon via Dallas ad agency Sullivan-Perkins, produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners, more.
Education
1999 - 2003 University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications