Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the December 12, 2001 edition of
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Spreading the Word: PR & Marketing
Almost any entrepreneur starts with high hopes and
expectations,
but Juliet Shavit may have higher hopes than most. The college student
who talked herself into a good intern’s job at the New Yorker magazine
has moved from last year’s home office to a three-room 750-foot space
on Roszel Road. She has one full-time and one-part time employee and
has tripled in size.
"Your expectations are set high when you report to somebody like
Tina Brown," says Shavit, naming the eminent and controversial
British-born former editor of the celebrated magazine. "I started
off with the best, and that gave me confidence to work with anyone.
And there is my personal pride. Even if I have to charge a little
less to win an account, I want my work to be the best it can possibly
be."
Shavit’s account of her internship has a bit of Horatio (or
Henrietta?)
Alger in it. The New Yorker limited its internships to summer jobs,
mostly for Ivy Leaguers, but Shavit called to ask for one when she
was a New York University undergraduate. She called and called. After
six months they offered her a chance to work in the public relations
department, which deals with both editorial and business departments.
"It was a gold mine of knowledge and literature. I learned more
at the New Yorker than I would ever have learned in school."
She struck up a relationship with the poetry editor, who later agreed
to be an advisor on her thesis on Sylvia Plath. Her projects included.
for instance, researching the recurrence of dogs in New Yorker
cartoons.
"I was getting credits for it, and I by taking an extra course
every year, plus the work/study, I had enough credits to graduate
a year early. And when they did an event at NYU, they let me do the
publicity for it. I had such a good time and made such wonderful
contacts."
"Just the atmosphere was memorable," says Shavit.
"Everyone
took so much pride in what they were doing, even if they were the
messengers bringing galleys from one office to the next. Most of the
assistants had master’s degrees. One person in the editorial
department
— his sole purpose was to greet people, he monitored the halls
and sat there, wearing suspenders and smoking a cigar, and he knew
every author."
Her former boss, now a vice president at Conde Nast, took Shavit under
her wing. When — like many newcomers to the real world workplace
— Shavit objected to standing at the copy machine, her boss told
her not to be afraid of doing menial tasks. "There is always going
to be grunt work. You have to take all of it and enjoy all of it,"
said the boss.
"She gave me responsibility and wanted me to learn. As a result
I decided I wanted to do public relations," says Shavit.
Her first love, nevertheless, was poetry, and her poem has been
published
in an anthology that pays tribute to World War II, "Bittersweet
Legacy."
Why she likes PR: "I have the power to influence and to really
make a difference. If I am not going to be a writer myself, I love
being associated with the media. I love the smell of fresh ink, and
seeing black ink on a page, and knowing that I am somehow responsible
for placing a story or encouraging a story, actually making a
difference
about the way people think. In PR, you really can see the rewards,
whereas in some jobs you can’t see the final product."
The magic moment when the "glamour" of PR hit: The first time
she wrote a press release that went out on New Yorker stationery.
Shavit graduated from NYU in 1996 and also earned her
master’s degree there. She worked in marketing for Technion University
and Rad Data Communications, both in Israel. She was responsible for
high technology accounts in the Manhattan office of Fitzgerald
Communications,
and she opened this business to do public relations and marketing
for high tech companies last year.
"People are going to see more of my business model," says
Shavit. "I outsource the graphics. I focus on the words and more
than ever the strategy. When marketing and PR don’t work together
you have serious issues."
Among her favorite examples are the companies that spent money on
different providers for PR and marketing — to their detriment.
It is a poor investment of marketing money, she says, "to have
a quote from the CEO and an advertisement with a different message
in the same magazine. It is going to confuse, even irritate, a
reader."
One company, for instance, positioned itself one way on an analyst
tour and then — responding to polls and changes in the business
climate — positioned itself differently with investors. "They
think they should say what investors want to hear, but they should
have consistent messaging."
SmartMark’s services include messaging (working with a client to
identify
key messages and mission statement), announcements (distributing press
releases over a wire service), trade show outreach (finding a suitable
trade show and setting up analyst meetings at the show), and speaking
opportunities (booking a company executive into an appropriate
speaking
engagement). She also coaches executives on what to say during an
interview or how to make a presentation. Providing marketing
materials,
devising and producing ad campaigns, and developing presentations
are other services Shavit’s firm offers — "anything that you
can hold in your hand and say this is the message of the company."
Among her clients are Valaran, an IT company at the Carnegie Center,
a software company for the utilities industry, and one that does IT
outsourcing.
"Many technology companies have technology people in marketing
positions, but there is simply a difference between the tech people
work and the way marketing people work. They assume they can make
the transfer very easily. But you need sales at the end of the
day,"
says Shavit.
Damage control is a skill she learned at the New Yorker, because Tina
Brown was a lightning rod for controversy. "It was a wild
ride,"
remembers Shavit. "She crucified the Easter bunny and she had
a black man kissing a white woman during the Crown Heights
controversy."
She also learned to like time-consuming research. For a 25th
anniversary
issue, she was sent to the library to find what famous writers —
winners of Pulitzer, Nobel, and American Book Award prizes — were
New Yorker writers. "I could have buried myself all day, going
through old filing cabinets that no one had looked at for 40 years
. I was in New York," says Shavit, "and I was not about to
let New York pass me by."
C-206, Box 3038, Princeton 08543. Juliet Shavit, president.
609-406-1145;
fax, 609-406-9118. Www.smartmarkcommunications.com
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Crosstown Moves
Street,
Suite 208, Box 2425, Trenton 08607-2425. Michael Mazur, publicist.
609-695-1800; fax, 609-695-8860. Home page: www.mazurpr.com
Michael Mazur moved his public relations firm from East Windsor to
South Broad Street, Trenton, in the building with the Conduit
nightclub.
Mazur offers media exposure for music, entertainment, business,
events,
festivals, and culinary/food clients.
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Expansions
201, Princeton 08540. Andrew Maunder, CEO. 609-716-7200; fax,
609-716-8463.
Home page: www.valaran.com
The company has expanded by moving from 214 Carnegie Center to
Building
212. A provider of application integration software for the global
telecommunications market, it recently lunched its V-aerial product
suite.
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Leaving Town
08903.
732-418-5617; fax, 732-247-1734.
The French chemical company will soon close its specialty chemical
manufacturing plant in New Brunswick. The 31 workers at the plant
produce perfume ingredients (coumarin and salicylaldehyde), and this
operation will move to Saint Fonx, France. Workers will get severance
payments and job-hunting services. Rhodia’s 800 employees on Prospect
Plains Road in Cranbury and Black Horse Lane in North Brunswick will
not be affected by this closing.
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Name Changes
220, Princeton 08540. Michael Kazakoff, vice president. 609-452-2800;
fax, 609-452-9374. Home page: www.cmpprinceton.com
Miller Freeman, a producer of international trade fairs and
conferences,
now goes under the title of CMP, according to spokesperson Stormy
McNair.
The Princeton office started out producing Seatrade, a cruise and
shipping show in Miami. Now it has 15 people working on producing
three shows. It is a division of United News and Media.
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Deaths
architect
for CUH2A on Roszel Road. A service will be Saturday, December 15,
at noon at James J. Dougherty Funeral Home, 2200 Trenton Road,
Levittown.
writer and publicist who worked at Nassau Broadcasting, wrote a
walking
tour of Princeton, and co-authored "Princeton Trivia" and
"Princeton Streets." A service will be Thursday, December
13, at 3 p.m. at the Princeton University Chapel.
Corrections or additions?
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— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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