Diamond Deals

In the entertainment world fashion has become more than a trend, it has become a lifestyle. Every one wants to know what each celebrity is wearing, who is the designer, and where it can be bought. It does not stop with clothes, accessories and jewelry have given celebrities new, unique ways to brand themselves and create an image. In October, 2011, an up and coming jewelry line, Henry Designs, bust into the entertainment scene when Zac Efron was spotted wearing one of Henry’s signature Sting Bracelets. Henry Designs was again featured in the January issue of Elle Magazine.

Henry Designs is a family based company that was started in 1976 by Henry Perelstein. As of this year, Henry appointed his long time employee and son, Sean Perelstein, as CEO of the company. Sean travels all around the country meeting with jewelry stores and buyers striking deals for them to sell his line. Since Henry Design’s publicity outbreak with Zac Efron and Elle Magazine, Sean has been working harder than ever to help build his company name and brand. He recently took the time to talk with me about what goes into a negotiation between him and each jewelry story.

When trying to make a deal with and jewelry store or buyer, the first thing Sean discuss’ is the company itself, what they stand for, and the quality of the jewelry they make. He then transitions into explaining what sets his line of jewelry apart from all the rest. “This is very important to me and my company” Sean stated, “I try to differentiate Henry Designs from all other brands that are being sold in the store and show the owner what makes us so unique”. As leverage, Sean shares sales rates of other stores who carry and sell his brand. Not only does this prove that his jewelry is selling, it proves that his jewelry is desired and sought after. By showing the success his company has with other stores he is able to appear credible and honest.

When Sean’s line is being sold at a store, both the store and Sean receive a percentage of the sale. When asked if stores ever try to take advantage of Sean or play dirty tricks to receive more money from his sales, Sean stated there are always people out there who try to take advantage. Many stores will approach Sean with a “We are doing you a favor by selling your line” attitude. To counter this, Sean approaches every potential deal with the same mind set and attitude, “I want you, but I don’t need you”.  In the circumstance where a store is asking for a larger percentage off the top, Sean will negotiate with the store to increase their order size.  This is a tactic he uses to reach mutual benefit for both parties. He gives the jewelry store the percentage they are asking for and in return he is able to sell more of his jewelry. Sean stated, “When a store is willing to increase their order size, and I am willing to give them more of a percentage, both of us go home happy”. If there is ever a deal that Sean feels is not fair, he will not cave in. “I have never made a deal I am not happy with” Sean said, “I must protect the integrity and exclusiveness of my brand. That is more important than any deal I make”.

Sean Perelstein’s goal is to make Henry Designs the next major name in all of the jewelry world. “This is a dream my father started back in 1976 and I intend to work until my father’s dream becomes a reality”. He continues to set up appointments and negotiate with stores all around the country and has begun setting up deals over seas. Sean ended our interview with a final quote from the famous lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, “I’ll make it to the moon if I have to crawl”.

Hashtag Marketing

A new marketing phenomenon has taken over. Thanks to Twitter, Hashtag Marketing is becoming the new norm for companies to advertise.

According to Ask A Mad Man's Matthew Adam Dugow, Twitter users created Hashtags as a way to categorize their individual tweets. This allows other users to measure the amount of engagement a specific Hashtag receives. Once a Hashtag has received enough engagement, it becomes a trend, and from there it goes viral.

Companies are now putting high emphasis on Hashtags in their advertising. As Dugow stated, this now allows a company to measure their Hashtag's engagement with the public. According to David Berkowitz, many companies have been running into problems with their Hashtag's being hijacked. McDonald's created a Hashtag campaign that was taken right out from under them as well as Research In Motion's #BeBold.

Once a Hashtag has made enough noise, it becomes susceptible to being "Brand Jacked." Berkowitz discusses how to go about Hashtag Marketing in a way that avoids disaster.

First, a company must figure out why they are using a Hashtag. Are they trying to create more awareness of a product or service, or are they trying to create a centralized discussion? Knowing what you would like to get from using a Hashtag can avoid a lot of problems down the road. Once you've decided to create a Hashtag, it is important to assess the risk. Hashtags are put out in the public and can be stolen. Knowing these risks can avoid panic in the case of Brand Jacking.

When determining your Hashtag, make sure that it is cohesive with your goals. Using your brand name in a Hashtag can turn people away because they may not want to put your brand name in their message. Research In Motion's #BeBold allows for a much wider use, yet will all still be categorized as one. It is also important to be true to your brand as you create your Hashtag. Berkowitz uses the example that a fast food burger chain that has a salad on the menu should not lead their campaign with #BeHealthy. One should also avoid "piggybacking" on popular and funny Hashtags such as #ThingsWomenWant or #WorstMondayEver. One must remember that people are still able to say mean and crude things in their tweets with your Hashtags. This now connects your Hashtag to negative messages.

Once you've created your Hashtag, monitor it religiously. This is even more so the case if you have created a Hashtag that has never been used. It is important to see what type of activity and engagement the Hashtag has created to see if it has potential to be successful.

Finally, have a crisis plan. If your Hashtag campaign goes poorly or gets Brand Jacked, have a team ready for crisis control. Berkowitz stresses the importance of each team member knowing their role and what to do in a bad situation. Once your team has been established and roles have been assigned, you must spring into action. Follow through with your crisis plan to avoid further damage.

Egyptian Soccer Match Turns Ugly

        In the seaside city of Port Said, Egypt a soccer game turned ugly and over seventy people were left dead. The match was between two Egyptian club teams; Al-Masry, the home team, and Al-Ahly, a Cairo based team. 

When Al-Masry beat Al-Ahly 3-1 in a massive upset, the crowd began to turn violent. Rival fans began throwing bottles and rocks at players. According to CNN many Al-Ahly fans were unable to exit the bleachers during the fighting because police refused to open the exit gates. 

Ever since Former President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of power in a popular uprising, security and police have been futile. Fans reported that police stood by and watched while others were being beaten and stabbed to death. Other deaths occurred from fans falling off bleachers and being caught under massive piles of people. 

This is single handedly the worst soccer riot to date. Hours after the fighting, Cairo protestors began chanting, "Down with the military rule...Tomorrow we come, we take the military down." While the fighting started because of soccer, it became very clear that these riots were for political reasons. 

During Egypt's revolution, many organized soccer groups became political voices for change. The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak used soccer matches to boost his popularity while in office and became closely tied to the organized soccer groups. 

If one thing is clear, it is that the Egyptian military needs to reestablish its dominance before more riots break out. CNN's James Montague stated, "There's been a security vacuum, so we don't know whether it's that or whether there's a Mubarak element to it. We just don't know at the moment." 

This unfortunate event is still very fresh and as more news becomes clear, updated information will be made available. 

How Great Leaders Inspire Action - Simon Sinek

In a video on Ted.com in May of 2010, Simon Sinek addresses how great leaders inspire action. He begins his speech by asking three separate questions. First; why is apple so innovative when they’re just a computer company with all of the same access to talent, agencies, consultants, and media as everyone else? Second; Why did Martin Luther King lead the civil rights movement when we was not the only man who suffered from discrimination? And thirdly, why were the Wright brothers able to achieve man-powered flight when others were way more qualified with more resources? According to Sinek, these answers are simple and come in a system.

            Sinek refers to this as the “Golden Circle.” The outer most ring is “What?”, the next ring in is “How?” and the center point of the circle is “Why?”. This is the order in which most people and companies think; What? How? Why? They want to know what they are doing, how they are doing it, and lastly why they are doing it. According to Sinek the great leaders of the world think the exact opposite. Their thought process is; why am I doing this? How am I going to do this? What am I going to do to do this? They start from the center of the “Golden Circle” and work their way out. The “Why” expresses what that person or company stands for.

            Sinek gives a great example using Apple. If their focus was on the “What” their marketing message may sound something like, “We make great computers, they’re beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. Want to buy one?” Instead, Apple is a leading innovator because they believe in something. Their marketing message is, “Everything we do we believe in challenging the status-quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? The biggest difference between the two is the second message conveys what they believe in. Sinek explains that people do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

            The goal in being successful is doing business with those who believe what you believe. If you hire some one and they take it because of the money, you will only get so much from them. If you hire some one because they believe in what you believe in, you can start to make progress. A man by the name of Samuel Peirpont Langley was given fifty thousand dollars to build the first man-powered flying machine. He went to Harvard and worked for the Smithsonian and was more than qualified for the job. He was given a highly sophisticated team and had every one rooting for him. Meanwhile two brothers from Ohio were also trying to build the first man-powered flying machine. Orville and Wilbur Wright did not have any funding, nor appropriate schooling but they both shared the same belief and dream driving them to succeed. When they did succeed, Samuel Peripont Langley quit. Instead of seeing their design and trying to improve upon it, he flat out quit. He was not the first, he didn’t get rich, and he didn’t get famous so it quit. Langley was doing it for the “what” and not the “why.”

            To answer his third question, Sinek discuss’ Dr. Martin Luther King and why he lead a civil rights movement when he was not the only man suffering. The reason is because MLK told people what he believed in and not what he wanted to change. The people who believed in what he believed in made his cause their own. People are driven by what they believe in. No one went to see MLK’s famous “I Have A Dream” Speech because of MLK, they went to see him because of what they believed in themselves. Sinek has a very clever line, “He gave the I have a dream speech, not the I have a plan speech.”

            In my opinion Simon Sinek delivered a very inspiration and eye-opening talk. He addresses the importance of why we do things and the reasoning behind out actions. To start a company it is not about what the company is going to do but why the company is going to do it. It is something I do not think enough people think about when trying to become successful. If a company is making a product to get rich but does not know why they are making that product, they will never succeed. 

SESAC and Spotify Join Forces

SESAC, the smallest of the three performance rights organizations, has recently joined forces with Spotify. SESAC was established in 1930 as an organization created to serve both the creators of music and music users through music licensing and timely, efficient royalty collection and distribution. They are based out of Nashville, but have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, and London. UK based Spotify is a music streaming service that offers a wide selection of music from many major and independent record labels. Some of these labels include Sony, Warner Music Group, Universal, etc.

SESAC has agreed to let Spotify stream songs from their repertory of songwriters and publishers in the United States. SESAC’s repertory includes genres such as Adult Contemporary, Urban, Jazz, Rock, Americana, Contemporary Christian, Latin, Country, Gospel, Dance, Classical, and New Age. This will increase the variety of music Spotify already has to offer. It has also become the performing rights organization of choice among many of Hollywood’s most popular film and television composers.

I feel this was a very smart decision by both parties. As a music streaming website, Spotify must pride themselves on the large music collection they have to offer. By joining with SESAC, they are not increasing that collection. This directly increases their market audience. There are so many genres of music, it is hard to find a music-streaming site that offers music for every one’s individual taste. As SESAC becomes a more popular organization, it is important that they grow and spread their name. I feel both SESAC and Spotify will be happy with their collaboration. 

Is Tiger Back?

It has been over two years since Tiger Woods has been called a winner in the golf world. Seven hundred and forty nine days and twenty-six tournaments later, things have changed for the better.

The Chevron World Challenge took place this past weekend in Thousand Oaks, California. The tournament is hosted by Tiger Woods and is held at the Sherwood Country Club. It is a charity fundraiser tournament where all of the funds raised go to different charities Tiger is associated with.

With two holes left Tiger found himself one stroke behind previous tournament winner Zach Johnson. We had seen Tiger in a similar position about a year ago against Graeme McDowell who ended up winning after Tiger lost a four-shot lead. This time around we watched a very calm and collective Woods shot back-to-back birdies to win the tournament.

As the winner, Woods won $1.2 million, which he donated to his foundation. When Woods spoke about his victory he did not mention if this win felt different. In fact he stated, "They all feel good. They're not easy. People don't realize how hard it is to win golf tournaments... I don't think I've taken it for granted. And I know because of how hard it is."

His victory moved him from No. 52 to No. 21 in the world ranking, a ranking where he used to sit on the top at No. 1. Woods has not been ranked in the top 10 since his personal life got out of control. He was found cheating on his wife, crashed his Escalade, and even checked himself into a sex-rehab where he sought after therapy. Since that time Tiger has changed his swinging coach, his caddie, and endured injuries, which prevented him from entering in two tournaments.

The question now is will Woods continue on this upward path? Was this win a fluke? Is the old Tiger Back? For now we will just have to wait to see. He does not appear in another tournament until the end of January in Abu Dhabi.  

Let There Be BASKETBALL!

We now have more than just Christmas to look forward to this year on December 25^th. After a 148-day lockout, the NBA has finally reached a tentative agreement that means we will be watching basketball on Christmas day. No contracts have been signed but a handshake deal is enough to have everyone feeling very optimistic. Hallelujah!

The league has already had to cut ten games this season because of the lock out. The new revised schedule will have a 66 game season, which may seem short, but is better than no season at all. Networks such as ABC/ESPN, TNT/Turner, and any regional sports networks that hold television rights are finally able to let out sighs of relief. Without a season, the ad revenue hit these networks would have taken would be gargantuan.

To make the deal final a few things are needed. The NBA will need 15 of its 29 owners to vote for the deal. The union needs a “simple majority” of the more than 430 members. NBA commissioner, David Stern, stated once the deal is made it will take about 30 days before the season can begin. This has been a bit of a driving force behind getting the deal done for it’s hopeful start date of December 25^th.  

The season will open with three amazing matchups. The Boston Celtics will be playing against the New York Knicks in New York. This will be followed up by an NBA finals rematch between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas. For dessert, MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls will take on Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in LA.

If this deal does not go through, more than just the sports world will be affected. There are thirty teams in the league that each employs hundreds of people. In an economy where jobs are so scarce, the NBA lockout could have been another huge slap in the face for thousands.