Kibbe on Marketing: Do it for Laurie, do it for New Hampshire

This week’s blog was supposed to be a punchy, informative column on shopping local for your holiday gifts – and it still is – but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about Laurie Ferguson.

For the one or two people in New Hampshire that didn’t have the privledge of meeting Laurie, you missed talking to one of the Granite State’s biggest cheerleaders. She was the founder and longtime executive director of New Hampshire Made, the state’s marketing, branding and “locally made” advocacy agency. If there’s a product made in New Hampshire, chances are Laurie had something to do with bringing it to the marketplace.

I first met Laurie when I was “the world’s oldest-living newsroom intern.”  I would call on her very often, sometimes weekly, to get her take on what was happening with New Hampshire’s small businesses for the articles I was writing. And on more than just a few occasions, she’d give me some much-needed career advice.

Laurie had had a thriving career on Madison Avenue – yes, THE Madison Avenue. She was also good enough at skiing that she could have gone pro. Certainly life and family made her take some course corrections, as it does with all of us, but it is no small thing to say she gave up both of those paths to work on this one-time experiment in branding and marketing New Hampshire-made goods and services. Vermont maple syrup sold in New Hampshire? Really?!

Her frequent emails on behalf of NH Made to my newsroom computer always were read, so I wondered why they suddenly stopped last spring. I knew she had, years earlier, fought a courageous battle against cancer. Working in silos as we often do, it didn’t register for a few weeks that I hadn’t heard from her lately. It never registered that the disease had re-entered her life. It came as a crushing blow when I found out last April that she had passed away after her second tour of duty as it were. I sat in my cubicle and cried.

At the helm of NH Made since its inception in 1998 until her death in April 2011, Laurie helped breathe life into literally thousands of small businesses. As we enter our first holiday shopping season without her, I know Laurie wouldn’t have wanted any tears. She would have wanted us to SHOP NEW HAMPSHIRE!

At good place to start your shopping is at www.nhmade.com. There you’ll find a directory of thousands of locally made products and services. By shopping locally, you will be supporting local businesses AND JOBS, not to mention avoiding the crowds at the mall and giving something uniquely New Hampshire made. Want to avoid traffic altogether? Virtually all NH Made vendors have websites, can process orders through the Internet, and can ship across the country.

So shop locally this season. Laurie would have wanted it that way.

Here’s a few of my favorite New Hampshire products by NH Made members (Yes, I really do buy these products frequently, and no, they didn’t pay me):

    * Bellows House Bakery  – Your search for the most decadent chocolate brownies on earth has just ended.
    * LaBelle Winery   – Forget everything you thought you knew about fruit wine. The grape wines are some of the best the state has to offer as well.
    * Farnum Hill Ciders  – Imagine a vivacious Riesling-like libation to serve with all your holiday gatherings (and no hint of apple flavor, I swear).
    * A&E Coffee Roastery  – Coffee the way it should taste.
    * North Country Smokehouse   – The perfect ham for the holiday table, but you just might want to keep it for yourself.
    *  Boggy Meadow Farm  – The creamiest Swiss cheese you’ll ever have – and I hate Swiss cheese.
    *  Just Naturals  – All-natural products for bath, body, home, baby and pet. The store alone is so bright and fresh, you can’t help lingering.
    * League of NH Craftsmen Stores  – Don’t forget to buy your annual keepsake ornament, not to mention everything else on your gift list.

Here’s a few more of my favor local shops:

    * Be Day Spa & Image Studio   – Where I go to learn to breathe again. Pick up some gift certificates for the Pumpkin Spice Facial or Cranberry Butter Cream Pedicure.
    * Bonne Vie Salon & Spa  – I’ll cut back on electricity or heating oil before I’ll cut back on my highlights. They are that good.
    * Bedford Fields Garden Center  – For garderners, winter is planning season. They also have a wonderful array of pet items. Don’t miss the Holiday Shop.

Cindy Kibbe, an editor for a New England business publication for nearly a decade, can be reached at cindykibbe@comcast.net.