February 21. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

If we are to exist we will need lots of marketing smarts to go up against the other players in the B-B market. Because our war chest is nowhere near as large as theirs.

I said war chest, Journey.

Journey, I do grow so weary of arguing with my staff. Held a Bloom Team meeting today. Two hours. Two hours!! Waaaay too long. I can't permit that much time to be sucked away from direct sales--not even for marketing planning which I know will support more sales.

My fault. I permitted the meeting to veer too far off-focus. The Bloom Team's purpose is to allow ideas to blossom, to encourage free-thinking and discussion. The notions tha percolate during a session aren't necessarily right or wrong; the idea is to spur on debate and try to dream up some attainable actions we can implement to enhance our marketing.

Instead, we got into an overblown knock-down-drag-out fight over our slogan.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. This isn't worse than the “should we sell paint” debate from last November—at least we are arguing about something aligned with our brand's focus.

OK, Journey, I created the current slogan the first week I hung out our shingle:

“ Crystal Designs: Your Bridge betwixt Dream and Reality.”

It's served us well, and I've no plans to change it. That's why Judy Dodgson's hint at the decorative bridge in her garden feeling like her bridge between home and office is just a perfect battle cry as we finally take on this new B-B market.

The obvious new slogan for the new market is:

“ Crystal Designs: Your Bridge between Home and Office.”

It's perfect. It can't be improved upon. It's the best slogan I could possibly have invented for my company as we grope our way into the new market. It automatically shows what we are about; it instantly identifies me as a person who knows both home and office. It's ideal.

Of course, staff hates it.

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