My Day With Rachel Ray...

OVERNIGHT SUCCESS DOES NOT OFTEN HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

By Roger Rosenbaum

Marketing is the process of presenting a product or service to appeal to potential customers. Some product developers seek mass appeal, while others are happy with reaching a niche audience.

More than appeal, there must be real value in what you bring to the table. Value comes in many forms—cost savings, entertainment, information and making life faster, easier and better for those you hope to serve.

Building a long-term connection with customers is not a flash-in-the-pan proposition. Getting customers to know, like and trust your product or service often does not happen overnight.

Going from bright idea to blockbuster product or service takes talent and persistence mixed with plenty of patience. One perfect example can be seen all around us. No matter how hard you try, it is next to impossible to spend a day without seeing or hearing celebrity chef Rachel Ray.

The spunky chef has her own magazine, national TV show and a one-hour celebrity-flavored profile on E! True Hollywood Story. Not to mention her photo, which is plastered all over grocery stores and advertising for Dunkin’ Donuts.

As with most success stories, there are lean times. Perhaps this is when she did research on how to eat on $40 a day. The E! True Hollywood Story reveals that she was making $50 a segment cooking on local TV. Much of that money, according to E!, went to buying food to prepare on the air.

Vision, determination and seemingly boundless energy brought Ray from serving customers at a diner in Lake George, New York to entertaining millions of fans who tune into her show, read her magazine and by a multitude of products with her image on them. Ray’s rise to national stardom did not happen overnight.

This much I can confirm: After a long night of shooting a news story in Lake George, I pulled into a Warren County diner on a Labor Day weekend in the mid-1980’s. The diner staff must have seen the TV station logos on my car as I remember hearing a little buzz between the waitresses as to who was going to serve me.

I had not eaten in 12 hours when a waitress approached my table. My mind was set on ordering a ham and cheese omelet, but the waitress would not stop peppering me with questions about the television station and how to get on TV.

My immediate goal was getting food in my belly. Rachel’s goal was getting the scoop on how to break into television. She told me her plan of hosting a cooking show and wanted to know what steps she should take. It seemed like a far-fetched idea. At the time, I was scraping together a living shooting hard news stories. Most were of the spicy variety (fires and scandals) which are a staple of the local television news coverage. The idea that the station would pay for cooking segments seemed at the time to be half-baked. Ironically, the station where I worked had launched the career of another chef…Mr. Food.

Ray seemed unfazed by the reality of local broadcasting or its focus on the disaster de jour. Undaunted, the questions continued every time she approached my table. I gave her the names of key television station staff members on the chance she might turn unbridled ambition into something audiences cannot get enough of. She did tell me that she had a friend who knew someone in management at the station. She networked and made the right connections.

From the overnight shift at an upstate diner to national daytime television Ray continues to bring a lot to the table. Companies seek her out to promote their brands, products and television viewers want her recipes.

Sometimes products do not live up to their promise or to expectations. Rachel Ray is a rare example of what happens when dreams, tenacity and smart marketing are allowed to develop over time.

Roger Rosenbaum is the president of Rosenbaum Media Group LLC, a digital marketing communications company located in the Hudson Valley. RMG specializes in public relations, digital marketing and development of Web 2.0 content. He can be reached at: 845-943-5366 or info@rosenbaummedia.com.