Martha Stewart has a simple goal for her company: omnipresence.
She wants to be everywhere. It’s not ego but rather practicality that drives her towards this ideal, as today, many magazines and TV shows are looking to create their own branded products for sale at retail…just as she’s done for years.
“Of course, it helps to have a ‘Martha” or a ‘Rachel’ or an ‘Oprah’ at the helm,” she said with a smile at DMA09 during a keynote address on Monday.
Omnipresence creates a good platform both for advertisers and the company itself to sell its own merchandise, Stewart said.
For example, take glitter. Stewart sells 150 different kinds of the stuff. Tutorials on craft projects are featured on Stewart’s daily TV show, as well as her Sirius Satellite Radio channel. Consumers then might go to her Web site for full instructions, and then either buy products (like glitter) to create the projects at retail or online.
How much glitter has multiplatform promotion helped Stewart sell? A whopping three million bottles, which translates to 75 tons.
A DMA member herself, Stewart expressed enthusiasm for many modes of direct marketing, noting in the past year her company has sent 300 million e-mails and 25 million direct mail pieces.
She’s no slouch when it comes to new media either. Stewart currently has nearly 1.6 million Twitter followers. She uses the microblogging platform for things such as letting people know when she’ll be on her Sirius Radio program, and to share 140 character recipes. (“They all work, nothing is left out,” she assured listeners.)
She’s very high about its potential as part of her multichannel empire. “Twitter is the Walmart of the Internet—it reaches everyone.”
Stewart’s first book “Entertaining” was published in 1982 and has sold over one million copies to date.
Today, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia publishes four magazines, as well as numerous books, TV and radio programming and several Web sites, reaching 37 million people each month. The company has marketing partnerships with Macy’s, Michael’s, Walmart, Target and 1-800-Flowers. Home Depot will begin selling a Martha Stewart line in January.
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