Big Goals, Little Capital: Entrepreneurial PR
After hearing about Cameron Village’s Travel the Village event three weeks ago, I have been reading more and more about start-up companies and their innovative publicity strategies. The event took place on July 21 and featured local artists and designers—folks whose works were hanging up or enclosed in glass cases in Cameron Village shops.
With my start-up business PR research, I was particularly interested in one of the event’s focal brands, Lumina Clothing Company. Started in 2009 by three friends at N.C. State who were frustrated with the local tie scene, the group decided to make their own polka-dotted and striped ties and bow ties, among vibrant-colored solids and other patterns.
I found Lumina’s publicity history to include a well-rounded website, work with other local entrepreneurs, utilization of @facebook, and attendance of local events like Travel the Village. From a consumer perspective I was impressed and intrigued merely by the information provided on their website. Is there more to love than hearing about three college kids’ success, and why they named their company after “the” Wrightsville Beach hangout back in 1905?
From a PR perspective, I was impressed but also left with questions. Social media and the Internet are creating all kinds of new opportunities these days. Even three college-aged entrepreneurs working with a restricted budget and limited time have found a way to make businesses out of their market frustrations. But ultimately, I wondered, from a mass communications stand-point, what makes these companies marketable and sustainable?
That’s when I heard about Raleigh Denim. Featured on UNC-TV just last week this small start-up has shown how local can change to national audiences within a few months. Raleigh Denim was started by Sarah and Victor Lytvinenko with the goal of re-stimulating North Carolina’s garment industry in a period of little growth and cut-backs in almost every market sector. They set out with major expectations. They wanted to use local materials, from within a 200 mile radius. They wanted local thread, local employees and local machinery. And finally, with a brand tag reading “Handcrafted By Non Automated Jeansmiths” Raleigh Denim was born.
The couple decided in order to make Raleigh Denim the premium, yet local, brand they desired, they would have to reach out to the metropolises of America—New York, Los Angeles for example—not the Old North State. With a little sleep, a lot of driving and strong motivation, they launched their denim line at Barney’s Coop in New York City.
It’s all about innovation and identifying accurate audiences, I guess. I wonder now though, if you go big, can you go home?? And if you stay small how hard is it to go big? Will Lumina be able to easily start reaching national audiences or should they have thought about that at the onset of launching the brand? And will Raleigh Denim ever really draw that local Raleigh crowd they set out to benefit?










