Rudy Gelton of Cambridge, Massachusetts writes:
“The line of Alluring Items With Asian Influences that I am assembling consists of home decor goods, gifts and garments from the Far East to which the ladies who have provided me with marketing input have had overwhelmingly positive reactions.
“Also, all of the friends, relatives and associates to whom I have given various items as gifts have been overjoyed. But a decent percentage of these women admitted they would not necessarily have bought the items for themselves.
“You can see the website. However, I want to emphasize that at this point, it’s primarily a marketing vehicle that I’m using to gauge the appeal of various items and test prices. It’s an efficient and effective way for me to allow interested parties to view the goods and provide me with their input/feedback. So your Hounds should not, at this point, expect to see a slick ecommerce site.
“I’m wondering if your Hounds have any good ideas as to how to publicize the line or particular articles in a way that would bring the goods specifically to the attention of men in need of nice, interesting gift items to present to the ladies in their lives?”
I would suggest using the Chinese zodiac to write a series of press releases about good gifts for people born in those years.
Year of the Dog: People born in 1922, 1934, 1946, and 1958, possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people’s confidence because they know how to keep secrets. (taken from http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/dog.html)
These people would enjoy having a chinese jewelry chest with a secret compartment.
etc.
Good luck!
Once your website has all the elements of a great ecommerce site:
—Pitch editors of holiday gift guides. You can subscribe to The Gift List, a wonderful subscription service that will give you so many leads and contact information for the right editors that this alone will keep you busy for weeks. They’re at http://tinyurl.com/9es Some of these leads might be for gift guides inserted into magazines read by men.
—Pitch editors of home and lifestyle magazines. Submit a short press release and photo of the wine bottle covers to editors of wine magazines. Send press releases and photos of your kitchen products to the many food and beverage magazines.
—Pitch bloggers.
—What are the hot new clothing items for fall? You can pitch this story to fashion and lifestyle editors.
—Write direct-to-consumer press releases about these products and post them online. Make sure relevant keywords are inserted into the headline and throughout the press release.
Good luck with your publicity campaign.