North Star featured in The Standard-TimesOctober 11, 2007
Local marketing firm celebrates 10 years By LINDSAY OLIVIER
NORTH KINGSTOWN – With catchy titles like captain of client connections, chief aesthetic officer, chief opportunity officer, director of buzz and director of first impressions, it’s no surprise that North Star Marketing is a fun and relaxing place to work.
And it’s that philosophy that has made the company what it is today.
“It’s amazing to me that we’ve been around for 10 years. It’s blown my mind,” said April Williams McCrory, president and visionary.
McCrory was raised in Wickford by parents who owned their own business, Roses and Lollipops, which is where Rite Aid is now.
Growing up, McCrory was set on becoming an attorney. She majored in political science in college, went to law school and took the law boards.
“But I never went back to law school. I owned an inn for seven years, then became an investment bro-ker at A.G. Edwards, where I informed women on investing their money,” she said.
Then she met Fred VanLiew, who owned his own money-management company. He was looking for a woman to help him drive in the women side of his business and McCrory was the one to help him to do it. She worked for two years with VanLiew as a marketing strategist.
“I really give the credit to Fred, he’s the one who made me fall in love with marketing,” said McCrory. “So after a few years working with him I started North Star. Over the years I had built up a network of people and really sold my business to them. I just called people and told them I’m a single mother of two, does your company need someone like me or do you know anyone else I can call.”
While relaxing with friends on Poplar Point, where McCrory grew up, the question of what to call her new company came up.
“A friend of mine mentioned Polaris, which is the North Star, and I said ‘well how about just North Star.’ I wanted a company that people would be drawn to and be used as a navigation and that’s what the North Star is in the sky,” she said.
North Star Marketing is a full-service marketing and public relations firm that specializes in helping businesses grow and expand. Its clients come to North Star from three categories.
North Star helps companies that have never focused on marketing and now needs assistance, on com-panies that thought they could do their own marketing but have realized they need help, and on com-panies that already work with a marketing firm but feel their needs aren’t being met.
“Our best customers are the ones who have some marketing knowledge. It makes our interaction better,” she said.
North Star has clients from all over South County especially from Wickford. It has worked with Wil-son’s of Wickford, is in the process of setting up a Web site for J.W. Graham and is starting to promote the new Bank Newport in the Stop & Shop plaza on Ten Rod Road.
North Star also has clients from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. So looking back in this tenth year, what has helped North Star grow?
“Not being afraid to change,” said McCrory. “Just after 9-11, I thought I was going to loose the busi-ness. It was a hard hit on the industry. That was the scariest time of my career. But that time period made myself and my employees step back and look at the company.”
Since 2002 every year has been a record-setter. The business has grown so much that at one time there was a three-month waiting list to speak to new clients.
“I have a great group of employees that listen to each other and help one another out, sometimes I can’t figure out how I got here,” she said.
One marketing strategy North Star uses is the World’s Smallest Newsletter. It started out as a company newsletter but soon its clients wanted to use the idea for their companies.
“It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a newsletter in the smallest format you can imagine: a 4-by-6, 6-by-9 or 6-by-11 inch postcard. When you understand the importance of keeping your clients informed but know no one has the time to read a four-page newsletter, then the World’s Smallest Newsletter is the marketing strategy for you,” the company’s Web site explains.
“If we’re not having fun, laughing and doing great work, then we’ve missed the boat. We have a trainer come in twice a week, we work out together, take walks together, have ice cream together. We don’t take life too seriously and at the end of the day we do great work,” said McCrory.
For more information on North Star Marketing visit www.fortheloveofmarketing.com or call 294-0133. << Back to News |
