Author Archives: Will Kirksey

Spaghetti In Utah

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I realize that I just can’t type or speak in a way that just allows me to answer questions without giving a story. I have recently moved out here to Utah from New York in search of different pastures. Salt Lake City is known for Mormons and its underground caves that people excavate through.  I knew I wanted and needed space away from the Big Apple. So, here I am out here with nothing and nobody. I have a taste for some Italian food and I’m not sure where to go or whom to ask. I’d decided to look up restaurants that could accommodate my insatiable appetite for Italian food, especially spaghetti. Don’t get me wrong, I can get pizza, lasagna, or fettuccine but spaghetti reminds me of home. Just like anything else, every place doesn’t always prepare the food to your immediate liking. Since I don’t have a point of reference to go by here in Utah, I am not going off on instinct to just get it from any old place. I certainly had to do some research.

First, I wanted to know what type of taste of spaghetti I was looking for. My experience with some restaurants is that the fancier the place, the blander the taste gets. I don’t firmly believe that just because there is that is a great rating from the critics it is “stomach law” to eat from there.  I didn’t want an upscale experience either where you were selling ambiance. So, I realized that I am still a New Yorker with attitude, and I believe I have my own personal categories of how I’m going to find my spaghetti. So, after some browsing and looking at what was available from Veneto (romantic), Stoneground Kitchen, Café Trio Downtown and my favorite of the names was Italian Graffiti. That last one almost had me for just the name of the place alone. However, none of them worked because they felt too themed for me. One place is pitching romance. Another is the ambiance. Two of them are a little too pricey for what I’m looking for. I had finally settled on a place where I was able to itemize what was important for me as a patron to want to eat there. I settled on the Old Spaghetti Factory at 189 Trolley Square, Salt Lake City, UT 84102. Here are my categories as to why I chose The Old Spaghetti Factory over the other potential restaurants.

Name Recognition

I have dined at this place before when I lived in Studio City, California for a couple of years. So, the familiarity sold me alone as to why I can eat there. I discovered that they have 40 locations in 13 states along with two locations in Japan, Kobe, and Nagoya. So, they have an international reputation for good service and food.

History

I have always been interested in places that have a history for them. If I remember correctly, the fascination with restaurant history first came into play when I saw Spike Lee’s movie, “Do the Right Thing.’ A good portion of the movie was filmed at the historic pizza place Sal’s Pizzeria. On the walls of the shop were black and white pictures of famous Italian figures. That’s not to say that those were there but it certainly was built on the souls of those figures. The Old Spaghetti Factory first opened its doors back on January 10th, 1969, by Guss and Sally Dussin. Their message has always been that of family and welcoming people into their restaurant. That’s certainly a New York thing where we spread love to all. Not every place claims that honestly even when they say it.

 Hours of Operation

I can certainly appreciate them respecting a patron’s time off when they can eat. They don’t follow the normal times when you are allowed to eat lunch and or dinner. At 11:30 am when they open, they are already serving lunch until 4:00 pm. I always had an unorthodox eating schedule so finding a place where a late lunch is welcomed thrilled me to no end.  Not really a BIG deal to some, but the convenience certainly helps.

Reward Programs

There is nothing more appreciative than the give back than just the take. The Old Spaghetti Family have programs that give back to the community for their loyalty to being customers. They have a kids’ program called Pages For Pasta Reading program where Schools or Non-Profit Organizations can earn free kids’ meals. They also have the LEO program (Let’s Eat Out) where the Old Spaghetti Factory will donate 15% back to your organization on all pre-tax purchases. Additionally, you have the option of doing it digitally or dining in. Plus, they have reward programs of course for free meals and other memorabilia.

Every marketing checklist isn’t always about the dollars and cents in the corporate setting. Sometimes, it’s really about what is most important to you individually. Those are probably second-tier important to many corporations, but it still has value once it comes down to the conmsumer

The Marketing Function and How We Get You

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The Marketing Function and How We Get You

 

Will Kirksey

When I think about marketing, and what or whom I associate it with, one person comes to mind, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World, Mike Tyson. I remember him well. What do you remember? Is it the knockout power? The ferocious animalistic way he stalked his opponents and instilled fear in them. Let’s not certainly forget all those devastating knockouts he gave those other fighters. Those attributes make him one of the all-time greats. I would agree with you that those factors once you are in the ring with him.  But that’s easy to identify. There are two important factors to consider when you talk about marketing a Mike Tyson fight.  The work of marketing him was long before he got that fight. The first factor is selling you his overall personality. I mean his tagline was the “Baddest Man on the Planet.” His handlers sold you on previous footage of him fighting, his menacing looks, his socially unacceptable behavior, his trouble with the law, etc. Trust me, it’s all documented if you want to know more. The second factor is that the people who were targeted to market either have never seen a Tyson fight or are curious to see who he was.  It doesn’t matter that he is a champion when there are other things to focus on. There is no need to target these fans because they already know what to expect.  You may not pay for a ticket if you know the fight may end early.  But that’s marketing.

What is Marketing? There are so many corporate and technical definitions of Marketing that you will start to feel they are marketing you to believe what it is. In my opinion of choice words, Marketing is designed to entice your curiosity to feed your belief. Imagine going on a first date with a woman, and she is not that interested in you but wants to have a good time. She will put on her finest make-up and her tightest blouse and shortest skirt. The whole night she is flirting with you, and you notice her blouse looks like it’s going to bust open. But it doesn’t. You also notice her skirt starts rising and she keeps pulling it down and you start getting excited. So, now the meal Is over, and she says she is ready to go home. So, you grab the check and happily pay for it. You take her home and you get as far as the front door, and she kisses you on the cheek and says, “Good night.’ That is a well-orchestrated marketed date. You have been sold on a perception or an assumption that you wanted something bad enough that you would be willing to pay for it without knowing if you would like it or if it’s even available. This trick may not work on a guy who has gone through this type of plan if he didn’t know her label (tease).

Marketing caters to everything but your intelligence. So, all your impulse senses along with anything that heightens your desires make you a true target. One of marketing’s strongest attributes is to create a “label” for a certain person, product, place, or thing. You are a type, You are considered more like to be what we think based on research, impression, attitude, gender, race, income, etc. Once again, since music is my bag from a record company standpoint and working mostly in hip hop, we already had the jump on the potential type of consumer that would likely buy this type of music. We already would compare it with artists that are similar and see how they are selling. We have an idea of target markets (cities) where this type of sound would do well. For example, we would look at

New York

New Jersey

*New England Area (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine) This is a major market due to the proximities of colleges in the areas

Philadelphia

Once again, do your research to find out other cities that are usually considered when it comes to our target markets.  There are at least 20 initial cities we look to launch first to get the buzz started. Within those markets, we launch advertisements (tv and radio ads, local publications, and make sure records are on prime-time playlists through audience demand via contests, appearances, etc. The marketing mission is visibility and familiarity. Interest is the child of those two factors.  So the more, it’s in your face, the more that we have planted a seed that you think you may want, even if you don’t. Marketing is a subtle magic trick that’s sold to you way before you see the result. It starts with the announcement of the magic trick. Followed by, getting you involved by asking you to look and pay close attention or picking a card, or asking for a volunteer. The whole time you are being misdirected and guided to where the magician wants you to look. Since the trick has been done so many times before to like-minded folks, the likely hood of you being amazed is in his favor.

In Conclusion, Marketing is a very dependable tool for skeptics and people who are extremely and could be anything from toys to drugs, “don’t do or stay away from campaigns.” So when people say they don’t know, that may not always be entirely true because at some point something familiar will be exposed and folks will act accordingly to that vulnerability.

Ethics And Social Responsibility

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Ethics and Social Responsibility: What we Totally Missed

 

In my humble opinion, I believe that the foundation of any successful business, enterprise, or conglomerate is the practice of what the product is about and stands for than the product itself. That philosophy to me can mean something as large as a new car or house down to the local bodega or the neighborhood drug dealer. The product will always speak for itself in volumes of how the return is. According to one definition of ethics, it is stated that “moral principles govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.” Now that I find it to be extremely interesting. There’s a crossroads in that way of thinking. It’s a cross between the right thing and the right thing to do. The meaning is flimsy to a degree. The ideology is situational not always fully practiced through in every encounter. There are so many quotes and sayings in movies and literature that support this. One quote that comes to mind is from the movie Scarface, “All I Have In This World is My Balls And My Word, And I Don’t Break ‘Em For No One.’

That last statement could not be truer than whom I used to work for some time ago. I have spent more than twenty years working in the music business at various music labels throughout the ’90s and mid-2000s. There are quite a few of them from Columbia Records, Def Jam, MCA, Select Records, The Label Records, and Interscope. There are at least three of those companies that are no longer in existence. Entertainment is in a category of its own. “We”, “It” or “They” or however you want to identify the industry, doesn’t have a moral or ethical practice. There are so many verbal understandings and handshake deals that happen. Sexual harassment is even part of the “Ethical” fabric that goes on, voluntary and involuntary which inferences there is no Corporate Social Responsibility. What does Corporate Social Response mean? In a nutshell, it is a “contribution of societal goals of a philanthropic, activist or charitable nature.” This then brings me to the question, can a label truly have a soul that it is willing to expose those traits of non-ethical behavior like Rape, Domestic Violence, Drug Trafficking, murder, etc. that is ever present in the music and videos. For example, according to Hip Hop Universe, in the year 2020 worldwide, 200 rappers died and in 2021, 250 rappers died. Most of those deaths were either violent or drug related.  Most record labels and their distributors fail to support anti-violence messages other than parental warnings on the packages and offer clean versions. Nowadays, record companies, take out insurance policies on rappers where they have an early return on revenue in the event of death. Labels have a history of investing in prison pipelines and other areas where the black need is great or highly exposed. Some labels do make “charitable” contributions to the community for change like UMG’s Task Force For Meaningful Change which provides financial aid for Housing, legal aid, education, addressing racism, etc. Mostly, labels and performance rights organizations like ASCAP or BMI, offer internships and entry-level gigs for them to be on the right track and learn. The same for the Grammy organization and such alike. The major issue is that they are misdirecting and not helping.

This brings us to the final piece of how these practices stayed followed and practiced by the workers, and employees.  The understanding and application are done through Employee Relations. Employee Relations is the “field of creating, managing, and maintaining a positive connection, between management and the workforce. It emphasizes a mixture of individual, team level, and collective, company-wide policies and practices to address employee’s problems and improve overall morale.” Now what in the heck is that supposed to be meaning, That is we have a professor who is the “Pots and Pans (it’s a compliment)”. It is making sure its greatest resource, the employees, are properly looked after and happy. Some examples of Employee Relations, making sure that you are part of the 401k plan, options of healthcare to choose from, Retirement plan, etc. These benefits almost assuredly will be the incentive to make sure that the message of the company is constantly out there. They certainly are got going to go against the grain to get a message out there that something needs to be addressed. However, there is a different take of perspective on Domestic Violence and Trafficking than street violence.  It could be that it’s more universal to everyone and is more along the same line of philosophy. It could be there are more people to consider or an array of different things. In conclusion, there is a precedent in entertainment that CASH rules. IMAGE rules. Perception rules. Those things and other stuff will ensure that Entertainment and how is viewed can be bought, sold, and traded.

Will Kirksey

My name is William Kirksey but I prefer Will Kirksey. I'm a 52 years old music Industry journeyman that have worked at many record companies that have closed down for years (Select Records, MCA Records, The Label Records). There are a couple that still do exist being Columbia Records, Interscope, and Def Jam. I have a background in Radio Promotions and Marketing. So I've been around for a while with stories to tell. I have re-enrolled back in school after about twenty years or so, I had attended Medgar Evers and some courses with University Of Phoenix. I'm still pursuing a Communications degree. What are my hobbies? Lots. Put it this way, I do anything from the normal and tamed to the wild and crazy. What else should you know about me? That's it for now but will share soon.

My BMCC email is: WILLIAM.KIRKSEY14@STU.BMCC.CUNY.EDU