Mindpower’s home is a quirky but airtight commercial building in Atlanta’s historic Grant Park neighborhood. During any “dime tour” of our digs, visitors are reminded that our structure was home to the neighborhood’s A&P franchise in the 1920s and 1930s. That’s to say: The same place where Mrs. McGillicutty picked up the day’s provisions back in ’29 is where our boffo creative has taken place since 1994. Kind of cool!
As we advance marketing excellence in the 21st century, all around us we view intriguing connections to our building’s distant past. We walk on original butcher floors. We’re surrounded by exposed brick masonry that dates back to flapper days and Prohibition gin. But perhaps the most intriguing connection is found on our building’s brick exterior. High up on the façade is a rectangular mosaic that reads: C. L. Chosewood.”
Build it, Mr. Chosewood: We will come!
Grant Park Grandee
The name stands for “Charles Lee Chosewood” the building’s original developer. Maybe we’ve always been destined for big ideas. Why? Because the man who built our building was the ultimate “big idea” man, one who changed the face of Grant Park and Atlanta, as well.
Police officer. City council member. Amusement park owner. Intown real estate baron. In early-20th century Atlanta, the name Charles Chosewood was synonymous with Grant Park. In the mid-1880s, the adolescent Chosewood came to Atlanta with his mother and siblings who moved from Newton County. His grandfather and two of his great uncles were killed during Civil War battles while serving in the Confederate army.
Chosewood married in 1890. He and his wife, Dora, had four children. The Chosewood home at 700 Confederate Avenue – at the corner of Confederate and Waldo – became an epicenter for southside social and civic hobnobbing. If something was going on, it likely involved the Chosewoods.
Early on in his career, Chosewood served as a police officer with the Atlanta Police Department. He then progressed to the detective ranks. Turn-of-the-century gumshoe had its appeal but it was no match for the political bug. In 1906, Chosewood ran and was elected to the Atlanta City Council. Naturally, he represented his home Grant Park turf (along with some neighboring environs). He served in the post up to 1938 and his 32-year-long span of service still makes him the longest-serving councilmember in city history.
Walls, Parks & Ferris Wheels
With name recognition and connections a-plenty, Chosewood was able to transition into the business world with seamless aplomb. One successful endeavor of his was an amusement park that was on a large plot of land near his family home. The Grant Park attraction featured rides, a Ferris wheel, a lake (for paddle boats) and enough concessions to transform Chosewood into a noteworthy bigwig, one who acquired an extensive array of real estate holdings.
At one point he owned 130 residential properties in and around Grant Park. He became a developer and played a role in building Atlanta’s Flatiron Building in the city’s downtown Five Points business district. Other Chosewood projects were the boundary wall around Oakland Cemetery and the warden’s house at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. In the 1920s, he built several commercial structures, including a building at 337 Georgia Avenue that was spacious enough for a much-needed neighborhood A&P grocery store. (Some 90 years later the structure would prove über-suitable for a creative shop that’s determined to make its own mark on history.)
Historic Oakland Cemetery: CLC’s eternal stomping grounds.
In the 1920s, Chosewood championed the development of a new city park in his district, at the corner of Grant and Nolan streets. To honor his tireless service, the city council inaugurated the park as “Chosewood Park.” The neighborhood that developed around the park also carried his name (and does so to present time).
Chosewood died in 1954 at age 81. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery. No doubt he rests more easily since the city’s oldest graveyard is conveniently located in Grant Park, Chosewood’s beloved social, political, and entrepreneurial stomping grounds
Around our neighborhood, the name Chosewood doesn’t have quite the cache it once did. So we’re glad to work in a building that honors his memory – and that even bears his name. Don’t believe it? Well, see for yourself. Come to our door, look up, and then read: “C. L. Chosewood.”
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Posted by Jack Stenger on July 30, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Filed under: Ramblings
Okay, Digital Digerati. We’re in the Digital Era, so it just stands to reason that digital advertising platforms have seen exponential growth. Ten years ago, terms like “mobile marketing,” “social media” and “search engine marketing” would have brought mostly quizzical looks. Today digital ad buys are an integral part of any campaign media plan. (And don’t you know it: Mindpower does digital campaigns for our clients all of our livelong days …)
Below is a table from Marketing News, a (fine) publication from American Marketing Association. In 2010, digital marketing will represent 13 percent of all advertising spends. And that impressive figure is expected to climb higher than 20 percent in the span of just four years. The fact that “search marketing” is the largest percentage goes a long way toward explaining why Google is the all-controlling digital Voldemort that it is. (Company 2010 first quarter reported revenues were nearly $6.8 billion).
The Marketing News predictions below came from Forrester Research, a market research firm. Given the amount of new digital devices that continue to come online – Can you say “iPad”? – we’d be surprised if the digital percentage doesn’t go even higher.
| $ millions |
2010 |
2012 |
2014 |
| Mobile marketing |
$561 |
$950 |
$1,274 |
| Social media |
$935 |
$1,649 |
$3,113 |
| E-mail marketing |
$1,355 |
$1,676 |
$2,081 |
| Display advertising |
$8,395 |
$11,732 |
$16,900 |
| Search marketing |
$17,765 |
$24,299 |
$31,588 |
| Total |
$29,012 |
$40,306 |
$54,956 |
| % of all ad spends |
13 % |
17 % |
21 % |
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Posted by Jack Stenger on April 20, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Filed under: Brain Candy for Wealth
Tags: Digital marketing, social media
The Call for Papers is open for the 2010 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. If you’ve attended in the past, you know what a fabulous conference this is. Over the years, we’ve participated as both attendees and presenters and have gotten a lot out of both experiences. This year, the conference will be held in always-sunny San Diego, so that’s extra incentive to attend!
If you have a session idea, please share it. For information on proposal submisisons, go to: call for proposals. This is the first year the Symposium is accepting video submissions (how cool is that?), so give it a whirl if you can. Nothing fancy, just you talking for 2 to 3 minutes about your session idea. The Call for Papers closes on April 9th, so please get your submission in soon.
I’m pleased to announce that I’m a member of the conference steering committee, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
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Posted by Jenny Brower on March 24, 2010 at 10:52 am
Filed under: Conferences, Events & Presentations
It absolutely drives me insane when people utilize the word utilize when the teeny-tiny itty-bitty word use is just fine.
I stumbled across this post when I googled “don’t use big words when little words are fine”:
Apparently this little gem was handwritten in an old Bible.
DON’T USE BIG WORDS
In promulgating your esoteric cogitation’s or articulating your superficial and sentimentalities and amicable philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous panderosity.
Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a compact comprehensibiliness coalescent consistency and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement and asinine affectations. Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiation’s have intelligibility and veracious vivacity without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast.
Sedulously avoid all polysyllable profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vivacity, ventriloquial verbosity and magniloquent rapidity. Shun double entendres, previnient jacosity and pestifereous profanity, observant or apparent.
In other words, talk plainly, briefly, naturally, sensibly,truthfully, purely, keep from slang, don’t put on airs, say what you mean, mean what you say and DON’T USE BIG WORDS.
Remember, The great artist is the simplifier.
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Posted by Donna Bowling on March 4, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Filed under: Ramblings
Tags: big words, marketing, writing
Last Saturday (the day before Valentine’s Day), I decided to run out and buy a book for my valentine. We live close to two bookstores – the ubiquitous Barnes & Noble and the locally-owned Bound to be Read Books . As much as I knew B&N would have the book I’d was trying to find, I was compelled to first visit Bound to be Read Books, even though the book is new and they’re a mostly used bookstore. Aside from the obvious reason (they’re independently owned), why do you think I decided to visit Bound to be Read first? It’s because they always make their customers feel special and each visit is unique.
Here’s a list of what they did last Saturday to create a positive customer experience:
1) They were serving complimentary hot cocoa (my favorite) on a snowy Atlanta day.
2) They were offering $5 off any used book with a new book purchase. (I got “The Death of Artemio Cruz” by Carlos Fuentes for 95 cents.)
3) They were playing a fill-in-the-blank game on their chalk board – asking each buying customer to guess a letter of the book of the day.
4) They gave me a list of upcoming events and encouraged me to attend.
5) They said “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Simple, cost-effective ways to keep customers coming back. Not only did they have the book I was looking for (“Just Kids” by Patti Smith), but they made the entire shopping experience delightful from beginning to end.
Their approach can be used by just about any organization. Give your customers an experience that sets you apart from your competitors and is true to your brand. You can’t always offer the most services or programs, the best amenities or the most sophisticated technology. But you can offer an experience that is authentic, memorable and joy-filled.
So, next time you’re in East Atlanta Village, stop by Bound to be Read Books and show them some love!
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Posted by Jenny Brower on February 17, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Filed under: Branding, Ramblings
Tags: Barnes & Noble, Bookstores, Bound to Be Read Books
For all Americans, a hospital Emergency Room is an important access point for critically – pun intended – important health care. ERs are vital for community health maintenance. And given the sheer volume of visits, any hospital’s ER is an important source of patient volume and possible admissions.
But what, exactly, are ER staffers attending to? In a healthcare-related fact sheet, HealthLeaders magazine listed the top ER diagnosis. The abridged list below – reformatted here as a “Top 10 List” – is a fascinating snapshot of what ails Americans – and what prompts them to seek immediate care. The stats below, from 2006, rank ER diagnoses that led to same-day discharges.
| Rank |
Diagnosis |
Total number of discharges |
| 1 |
Sprains and strains |
6,375,245 |
| 2 |
Superficial injury, contusion |
6,107, 869 |
| 3 |
Upper respiratory infections |
5,285,382 |
| 4 |
abdominal pain |
4,381,653 |
| 5 |
Open wounds of extremities |
3,697,836 |
| 6 |
Intervertebral disc disorders, and other back problems |
3,236,278 |
| 7 |
Nonspecific chest pain |
3,018,660 |
| 8 |
Headache (including migrane) |
2,825,233 |
| 9 |
Open wounds of head, neck, and trunk |
2,692,292 |
| 10 |
Skin and subcutaneous tissue infections |
2,610,735 |
The next five are “other injuries,” urinary tract infections, otitis media (inflammation of the middle ear), upper limb fracture and connective tissue disease. The list points to the important role ERs have for both the medically distressed and for hospitals in need of revenues. To us, the ailments also bring to mind the signature line from “Hill Street Blues,” our favorite 80s-era police TV drama: “Hey, let’s be careful out there!”
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Posted by Jack Stenger on February 16, 2010 at 10:15 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Ramblings
Starbucks has received accolades and criticisms aplenty for its “My Starbucks Idea” program. My vote? I’m a fan. I’m not even a super-consumer. I’m barely a coffee drinker by most standards. But I appreciate when an organization opens itself up to its public. Starbucks has more Facebook fans than Coca-Cola. That’s quite a feat considering Coke’s history as the world’s greatest brand (yes, we’re Atlantans)!
Keeping tabs on “My Starbucks Idea” is fun. Starbucks knows they can’t make everybody happy – but that’s not the point. The point is active engagement. This concept shows that the Starbucks brand management team understands both the role of the influencer and the power of social media. They know that if you’re going to invest time, energy, and financial resources into social media, you shouldn’t treat it as another box to check off on your marketing or PR “to do” list.
We all know social media is the hot topic right now. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to developing – and then carrying forward – a social media plan. But it doesn’t have to be so daunting. And that’s what makes “My Starbucks Idea” so great. It’s simple. And it shows they care about what their customers and partners think.
So, how are you using social media to converse with your constituents? Have you identified key influencers in your market (or in the direction you want to move)? Have you successfully engaged them? Is social media an afterthought for your organization or has it been fully embraced?
Starbucks understands that the more individuals they inspire to be brand champions, the more their longevity as a market leader is secured. And their approach to social media fully supports this. If you’re looking for inspiration for your social media strategy (and how it can feed your overall growth strategy), check out what they’re doing. And if you have other examples to share, we’d love to hear them!
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Posted by Jenny Brower on December 14, 2009 at 11:42 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Health, Brain Candy for Wealth, Brain Candy for Wisdom
Tags: Coca-Cola, Facebook, Starbucks
This is a TOTAL time-waster that’s TOTALLY worth the waste.
1. Pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate. (More than one; fewer than 10.)
2. Multiply that number by 2.
3. Add 5.
4. Multiply that number by 50. (We don’t mind if you use a calculator)
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759. If you haven’t, add 1758.
6. Subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You have a three digit number, don’t you?
The first digit is your original number, or how many times you want chocolate each week.
The next two numbers are your age.
Dang. Pretty cool, huh?
BTW: Apparently 2009 is the only year this will work. If you know “why,” do tell. We’ve work to do, chocolate to eat and not enough time to figure it out.
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Posted by Donna Bowling on November 5, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Filed under: Ramblings, Uncategorized
Excepting those living in caves and, perhaps, the cryogenically frozen, everyone knows the following Web 2.0 facts:
● Social networking is changing the face of the Internet.
● No site has done more to bring about this change than Facebook.
Smart banks are embracing Facebook as another channel not just for branding, but also in order to transform mere customers into rabid brand advocates.
A recent article in ABA Bank Marketing (“Showing Your Face on Facebook,” September 2009) magazine spelled out how any financial institution can put a best face forward on Facebook.
For banks, a “business page” is the most common way to make a social media debut. Every day more than 8 million Facebook users become business page fans. (A small beverage concern here in our hometown – Coca-Cola – has more than 3.3 million “fans.”)
As with all branding strategies, it’s important to have a strategy:
● Establish content/messaging issues before you start.
● Determine who page administrators will be, and from there commit to freshening your page often, if not daily. (Only Wonder Bread gets stale more quickly than Facebook fan page content.)
Here’s the best part. All of these “become-a-fan” decisions are transmitted across any user’s network. If a new fan is a recent college graduate with more than 1,000 friends – which can be common – your bank achieves some major digital word of mouth.
And CFOs have little to quibble about. After all, this is a low (no?)-cost way to reach a targeted (if not younger) demographic.
What are you waiting for? Create your business page! (And while you’re at it, become a Mindpower fan! We’ve always got something fun to say to our friends …)
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Posted by Jack Stenger on October 28, 2009 at 10:27 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Wealth, Branding
Tags: bank marketing, Facebook, social networking
This Philadelphia Inquirer headline caught my eye this week: “Putting a price on Wharton’s prestige.” The story concerns a man who sued the University of Pennsylvania. Why? His graduate program, a joint effort of Penn’s engineering school and its Wharton School, gave him a management degree from the engineering school and a “certificate of completion” from Wharton. He wanted – and thought he was earning – the degree from Wharton, one of the top business schools in the country. He cried foul, and last week, a federal court awarded him nearly half a million dollars.
According to the article, Frank Reynolds, the business exec at the center of this, “said simply attending classes at the Wharton School had quickly proved its worth.” So, he got the education he wanted, but not the brand name he thought would come with it.
It seems to be, for him, a case of the packaging not being as good as what it contains. This happens all the time – heck, helping institutions better communicate who they are (so that their outside matches their inside) is what we do here at Mindpower.
We talk quite a bit, with our clients and among ourselves, about a brand being a promise. You have to be clear about what you’re promising, and then deliver it. And that promise, that brand has a value. In our consumer-driven society, some brands are “better” than others – the name on the label matters.
Was Reynolds right to sue because the name on his label wasn’t Wharton?
Does the name on the diploma matter more than the sum of the experiences you had earning it – the things you learned, the people you learned with and from?
What do you think? Is this a case of label-consciousness taken to the extreme, or just wanting to receive what you think you’re paying for?
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Posted by Kelly Rusk on October 19, 2009 at 8:35 am
Filed under: Brain Candy for Wisdom, Branding
Tags: Penn, Wharton
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