A lot has changed since September 2008 when I started building my business. Back then I didn’t have my product fully figured out, and my vague launch plans were generic and “traditional”. I’ve spent the last few days thinking through my launch strategy, and it looks much different from my original approach.

Eco-fashion/eco-design blogs and twitter accounts have popped up left and right, so my publicity push will likely begin there. And although my products will primarily be sold online, my offline business development efforts will be focused on distribution in “green” and eco-friendly boutiques in SF, NYC, and Portland. And of course, I’ll experiment with a few traditional avenues like search marketing. I feel like my outreach plan is measurable and managable. Now I just need to figure out the boring logistics :). If anyone has any other ideas for (cost-effective) marketing or distribution, feel free to let me know. All suggestions are welcome.

Some good news: after last week I thought my manufacturer had abandoned me and scammed me out of a down payment, but it looks like he’s back from the dead now and says that the briefcases are on track to be finished this month, and the tote bags should be completed early Dec. I’m really hoping this production timing doesn’t slide: it’s already cutting it pretty close. If for some reason my manufacturer screws up and I can’t make the holiday season, please consider buying a loved one a bag to celebrate February’s Black History Month.

To compound my real-life trademark worries, today I received a suspicious international letter from “TM-COLLECTION, P.O. Box 201, HU-9701 Szombathely” postmarked “Trieda Classe” (not even first class!). The letter stated that for a one-time, low cost of just $1650, I could be listed in a publication called the “TM-Collection 2010″. Of all of the trademark junk mail and scam artists that have sent me mail over the past few months, I was surprisingly impressed by how nice this fake letter layout looked. They even cut-and-pasted my color logo from the USPTO site to legitimize the offer. It’s like those direct mail postcards that use your name in the copy to personalize the mailing. They try to make you feel special.

I googled the company name and saw that many people had received the same letter, and sadly, some people had fallen victim to this company’s illegal activity. I hope they didn’t also fall victim to the Nigerian bank scam.

I hope that other entrepreneurs who receive this letter will google the company name like I did and see that this is all a lame scam not worth anyone’s time. And perhaps other entrepreneurs and blog readers will respond the way I did, by opening up a new gmail account and emailing the bogus company info@tm-collection.com with the subject line “Here’s the payment”, and sending them lots of pictures of lolcats.

On a happier note, I drafted another version of my press release, and I think it’s coming along nicely. As I was writing this press release I actually felt a sense of accomplishment, and for the first time ever, the product launch felt very real.

Let’s hope the momentum continues!  

I’d drafted a launch press release a few months ago, but when I re-read it today I decided it was garbage and tried to start over. But then writer’s block set in again. By lunchtime I had only written (and re-written) just 2 sentences. I also emailed my copywriter friend and asked her for some help. I realized that my writing paralysis wasn’t going away so I decided to change gears and work on my next wave of bag designs.

I’m currently working on a laptop messenger bag that I think will be a great addition to my line of products. If you check out my website in December and you find that the totebag or briefcase ain’t your cup of tea, then you might wait for the Spring 2010 messenger bag. But then again, given my bad luck with manufacturers, that might be Spring 2011!

OK, it’s dinner time. See ya!

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, my production has been delayed again. Argh. Apparently over the last week-and-a-half my production was put on hold while my manufacturer addressed the needs of another (bigger) client. It’s difficult for me to see my projects being delayed, because I’m used to working for large, established companies that had a lot of money and weight to throw around. I’ve never been the poor, small client who was neglected for a larger one.  It sounds like this is fairly common in the manufacturing industry, and that’s why start-up designers have such a hard time getting their products launched. I’ve learned a lot from this first production wave. I hope that the next round is much smoother.

My web designer and I decided to postpone booking the photographer until the first week of December. By then we will have all of the products finished, and the photographer’s schedule would be much lighter. We’ll have all of the website built out, and all we’d need to do is drop in the photography. The only good news about this delay is that my laptop sleeves and purse organizer might be going into production around the same time, so it might be possible to get photos of those too.

Ending the day early so I can get ready to see Steve Martin at Benaroya Hall tonight. A good way to end a blah day.

I spent most of the morning researching domestic postage rates, trying to decide whether I should offer either customized or flat-rate shipping and handling. It looks like most of my competitors do flat-rate, so I’m currently leaning toward this option because it seems much simpler for a start-up. Maybe once I get more shipping experience I can change my shipping cost model.

Did you see my sister on Oprah? She was featured for the shoe intervention segment, and the stylist from Elle Magazine helped her find shoes to fit her wide feet. She said to the stylist, “My sister calls them Fred Flintstone feet,” and then they played a sound effect of Fred Flintstone running . In her 2.5-second close up shot you can see the very subtle Plaid Doctrine bird logo on her shirt. It’s tiny, but it’s there!

I have a conference call scheduled with my manufacturer tomorrow morning, and I’m kind of nervous because he’s been awfully quiet the last week. I’m praying that there aren’t any delays.

Hasta manana!

My eyes are glazed over from writing the shipping/returns/exchanges/warranty sections of the website. I basically compared over 15 luggage and bag manufacturer websites and tried to see which of their policies seemed reasonable. I think this might be the worst part of website development. But luckily I’m finished now! Once I get the website copy cleaned up I’ll send everything over to my expensive lawyer so she can review it for any questionable statements or claims. There goes another few hundred dollars to set aside!

I received some layout revisions from the web designer, and everything’s lookin’ pretty good. The new changes make the website look even more friendly, simple and straightforward. I love that! I can’t wait until we start the photoshoot so we can see the full visual effect of the website.

I haven’t heard back from my bag manufacturer or my samplemaker today, and that makes me a little nervous because my manufacturing turnaround timing is really critical now. I’ll check in with them first thing Monday morning. I hope they don’t flake out like all of the other horrible manufacturers I’ve tried to work with to date.  I’m hoping they were just too caught up with Halloween festivities and forgot to call.

OK, time to wind down and start the weekend. Happy halloween!

I have writer’s block. And it’s pretty bad. I need to write copy for my website and I can’t seem to write anything that sounds good. I thought that having a marketing background would help me get through this, but unfortunately it seems it’s actually a barrier to creativity. I think that all the years at Microsoft being surrounded by people who use overused marketing jargon has hindered my copywriting abilities. Now I feel guilty for getting mad at my copywriters for not delivering copy on-time. It’s a tough job!

Another huge problem is trying to write about ”eco-” stuff without sounding too preachy or snobby. It seems that many companies sling around lingo like “eco-conscious”, “eco-friendly”, “eco-minded” and “green,” and I want to make sure I’m not overstating my claims.  I remember all of my many infuriating battles with Microsoft’s legal department, as they tried to water down all marketing claims to minimize the company’s risk. It looks like I learned something from that experience.

During this fact-collecting stage I found out that my fabrics are made of over 50% post-consumer recycled polyester fiber. That’s pretty cool.

I’ll be writing (and re-writing) copy tomorrow too. What a fun way to end the week.  Hasta manana!

My web designer sent me some comps of my revised website layout. Overall I thought he did a very good job. The design relies heavily on the product photography, but we decided this would be the website direction once we secured the experienced fashion photographer.  

My web designer also added one additional layout that I hadn’t seen before: a splash page design.

As a veteran marketing and advertising professional, one of the things I hated most about website development was arguing with the creative folks about flash splash pages. The majority of creative teams that I’ve had to work with on landing page environments were not web people, they were art directors who had mainly worked on print and TV, and were assigned my projects because they needed to cut their teeth on “digital marketing.” And for some reason it wasn’t just the creative teams who didn’t understand online marketing, it was the web developers, too. I remember when I worked at FCB Seattle a few years ago, we sold a web creative idea to a client (a flag flapping in the wind) that the web developer couldn’t re-create because he couldn’t figure out how to make the flag wave. But nothing compares to the crazy web shenanigans that went on at Microsoft–there are too many stories to recount here, I’ll save those for another time.

The splash page mockup that the web designer forwarded to me was ok, as far as teaser splash pages go, but I didn’t think it was appropriate for my website. From an SEO perspective it seems like a waste, and it was one step further away from the purchase process. Also, my brand is not established yet, and the splash page didn’t seem to do anything to build my brand. When I called my web designer to go over the website layout changes, I was relieved that my web designer preempted our conversation by saying, “You might have noticed that I threw in a splash page design just to add another option for you, but I’m personally not a huge fan of splash pages.”  Whew! Glad to see he and I see eye to eye.

See you tomorrow!

I’ve decided to dedicate this week to working on my website. I’ve been skimming the “Starting an Online Business” for Dummies book again, and it looks like I’d already earmarked the sections that were worth reviewing. I’m not too much of a dummy I guess. There is still a lot that I need to learn about the back-end of the website, namely the credit card payment and processing. Based on a few referrals, it looks like I might be going with Authorize.net (which seems to be the industry standard) and Merchant Warehouse for my credit card processing. If you have any other recommendations, let me know. Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing a second round draft of the website design, and if I love the layout we’ll move into the development phase. 

I went to Best Buy this weekend to check out laptop sizes. There are a lot more netbooks than there were 6 months ago, and the laptop sizes aren’t as uniform as they used to be (i.e. 13″ or 15″ screens). This trend works out pretty well for me because my laptop sleeves can be expanded. I asked my samplemaker to start with making sleeves that fit a standard-sized netbook, and also one to fit the 13″ Macbook. I hope they turn out well.

It’s quittin’ time! See you tomorrow.

Sorry I was MIA yesterday, I was feeling under the weather and I slept for most of the day. I’m feeling much better today. 

I received a bill from my lawyer this week, and since I didn’t remember enlisting her help this month I called her to ask her what it was for. She let me know that when she received the notice of publication from the USPTO, it was her legal responsibility to make sure it appeared in the publication. As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the trademark gazette was over 1200 pages long, so it took her a while to download it. And guess who got charged for her time? Yep. ME! I advised my lawyer that in the future she should notify me BEFORE any services are rendered, and she was ok with that. Now I know why everyone makes fun of lawyers– law schools should teach customer service! I asked her what other fees I should be aware of in the near future, and it looks like there are only a couple of fees to pay in the next 6 months, assuming nothing goes wrong with the trademark application: 1) changing my status from “intent to use” to “in use”, and 2) the final registration submission. Good to know.

Well, I’m going to call it an early day. Have a great weekend!