Monthly Archives: January 2016

Advertising, Branding and Marketing

Norwich CT is struggling. Struggling to continue as a city. Struggling just to survive. We, the residents and tax payers are part of that struggle and we are dependent on our paid, elected and volunteer leaders to lead the way with that struggle.

In addition to creating and maintaining the place that we all want to live in, our leaders are charged with letting others know that Norwich CT is alive and well and open for business.

That is where I think Norwich is woefully inadequate. Not that the leaders don’t try, but they are allowing a fear of making a wrong move stop them from making any move at all.  I also do not think that anyone (paid, elected or volunteer) has stood up and said, “I don’t know the difference between the terms advertising, marketing and branding as they can be used for a municipality.”

Not having an understanding of terms can be seen as unprofessional or ignorance and nobody wants to be seen as that. While in fact, asking questions and defining terms is a position of strength. Ever notice that in a legal contract the terms are usually defined.  Defining terms assures that everyone is speaking the same language and has the same understanding and expectations of the results.

According to the American Marketing Association marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.

Marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer and includes identification of the product, determination of the price, selection of distribution channels to reach the customer’s place and the development and promotional strategy.

Advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to a product, service, or need through paid announcements commonly in media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet or billboard or more formally the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.

Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets by establishing a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Has anyone seen Norwich CT do any sort of marketing?

Has anyone seen Norwich CT do any sort of advertising?

Does Norwich CT have a brand?

If you answered “No.” to even one of the three questions than whatever is being done is not effective. If the residents don’t know what the City of Norwich CT stands for we, the residents cannot expect others to. So let’s start demanding more from our elected, paid and volunteer leaders as well as more from ourselves by writing positive articles, hosting positive discussions and  making our City of Norwich CT a better place to be today and tomorrow.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Census Schedules

Are you working on your family genealogy? Finally looking at the Federal Census? When you get done marveling at all the information it contains look at it again. You may be looking at only one of the many schedules that are available.

Genealogists usually begin with the population schedule. That is the schedule that lists the individuals, race, age, birthplaces, residence, medical information, jobs, etc. But in 1880 a supplemental schedule was added called the Dependent, Defective and Delinquent classes. This schedule listed by name blind, children, deaf, homeless, idiots, indigent, insane, mutes, and prisoners.

From 1850 to 1880 the Social Statistics schedule listed all cemetery facilities within city boundaries, including maps with the cemeteries marked with name, address and general description, procedures for interment, cemeteries no longer functioning and the reason for their closure.

Also listed were trade societies, lodges, clubs and other groups including their addresses, major branches, names of the executive officers, membership statistics, meeting and financial worth. Churches information included a brief history, statements of doctrine and policy and even a statistical summary of membership by county.  

Other information on the social statistics schedules include the aggregate value of property, a breakdown of taxes paid, a list of schools, colleges, and academies with their numbers of teachers and students, a list of libraries and their number of books, a list of newspaper and periodicals published within a community, the number of paupers supported by the community, the number of criminals convicted within the previous year, and the number of convicts in jail.

The industry or manufacturing schedule, available for 1820-1880 censuses give more specifics about manufacturing, mining, fishing, mercantile, commercial and trading businesses. The schedule lists the names of the individual, company, or corporation, a description of the type of business, the amount of capital invested, the quantity and value of the resources used, the quantity of yearly production, numbers of people hired, etc. In 1870  distinctions were made between child and adult labor and in 1880 the companies were classified into categories.

The threshold to be listed on the industry schedule was $500 worth of materials. So many farmers were listed on both the industrial and agricultural schedules because they had a profitable sideline. For example a farmer could grow wheat or corn and own his own mill to process his grain and that of his neighbors.

Agricultural schedules recorded the statistics for farms, plantations and market gardens and included names of the owners, operators, tenants, sharecroppers, agents, managers, total land acreage, value of the farm, machinery, livestock, staples produced, even the value of animals slaughtered.

Just because you find one reference for the person you are looking for does not mean you have found them all. Keep looking!

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Marmalade Tea Updates

Update to my March 14, 2014 blog about a friend using marmalade to sweeten her tea.  Over the past year and a few months I have collected a number of new tea recipes that can be used to make the most refreshing caffeine free hot and cold teas.  I also visit the tea area everywhere I go and make notes and purchase boxes of some of the more interesting combinations I find.

Then the fun begins as I play with how to make it myself and also how to improve it.

Iced tea for me has to be a bit stronger than my hot tea so I suggest increasing the amounts of flavorings you use to get just the right of strength you are looking for; but the basics for hot and cold remain the same.

If you don’t want solids floating in your tea or at the bottom of your cup, use a mesh tea basket or a disposable paper coffee filter for anything that is a solid. Jams, preserves, marmalades, fresh herbs, or spice solids can be in with the tea leaves you use. I use disposable coffee filters more than I should and have learned to make a little bag with the filter, twist the top and tie a piece of string tightly to it so when the bag sinks to the bottom of the pot, I can still lift it out easy peasy.

The most important thing is to let it steep. The longer it steeps the stronger it becomes. Heating fruit juice in place of water or even cut with water can also make some amazing rich flavors. Check out the unusual fruit juices in the imported or foreign foods sections of your favorite stores. I am really partial to peach and nectarine juice.  For iced tea I have been using a half cup of preserves in a quart of water.   

Anyway, here are a few more combinations – The choice of with caffeine or decaffeinated tea, green, black or white, teabags or loose is up to you. It is all good.

Apple Spice Tea – Apple juice or apple cider with cinnamon stick stirrers and cloves

Apricot Almond Tea – Apricot nectar with almond extract or apricot jam with almond extract

Caramel Apple Tea – Caramel and apple juice or apple jelly (and I like to mix in lemon rind )

Caramel Tea– Caramel sauce dissolved in a water don’t hesitate to add a dash of chocolate.

Cherry Vanilla Tea—Mix cherry preserves or cherry juice, with a dash of vanilla.

Ginger Peach Tea – Add peach preserves, or peach nectar to ginger tea (sometimes I add mint too)

Ginger Tea—Add fresh ginger, crystallized ginger or ginger jelly.

Lemonade Tea—Warm the lemonade and tea and I add honey.

Mint Tea – Use fresh mint leaves or mint jelly..

Pomegranate Tea–Pomegranate juice cut with water. .

Raspberry tea made with raspberry preserves (with or without seeds)

 Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Tale of a Harland Clock

When you live in Norwich CT you are told many legends of how the rest of the world revolves around your home city. When you visit places in the rest of the world, you realize that it does.

In Washington DC there are a number of places that by their function and purpose must represent the beauty, power, strength and vision past, present and future of the residents of the United States. One of the places where diplomats and the world’s most powerful leaders and elite meet and greet one another is the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department.

There standing tall, not quite 92 inches tall, as a part of their permanent collection, in quiet dignity against a neutral wall stands an old friend.  A Thomas Harland eight-day weight driven clock, (wound once a week) made in 1776 in Norwich, CT.

Remarkably it still plays six tunes, four times a day (3, 6,9, and 12 o’clock) that were popular in the day Lass of Patty’s Mill, Shady Bowers, Minuet by Handle, Lovely Nymph, Ms. Hales Minuet, and Psalm Tune. The mechanism resembles that of a music box in which the hammers are activated by pins protruding from a rotating barrel. The tunes are selected by setting the pointer in the dial arch.  The tunes play on ten bells struck by hammers which are tripped by four pins at irregular intervals on the face of the strike train great wheel.

The maintained provenance says that it was according to tradition made by the apprentice of Thomas Harland (1735-1807), Benjamin Hanks (1755-1824), for his father, Uriah Hanks (1736-1809) of Mansfield, Connecticut, left to Uriah’s youngest son, Rodney Hanks (1782-1846) of Mansfield, left to his first son, Frederick Freeman Hanks (b.1805), left to his son Edward Page Hanks of Jersey City, New Jersey, left to his grandson, Mr. Frederick L. Hanks and the donor of the clock to the US Department of State.

Legends and tales are a wonderful thing but I find they are even better when I can uncover even more information that makes the tale a truth. Be proud of the past and even prouder to be a part of the future.

Grateful thanks to the Office of Fine Arts, Diplomatic Reception Rooms staff for their  interest and patience as I learned the story.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Inventors Coit and McNamara

Superbowl Sunday is February 7th and there will be lots of gatherings at family, friends and bars. But it’s what is going on behind the bar that interests me. Once traditional beer in America meant only British-style ales brewed with top fermenting yeasts, ranging  from light pale ales to chocolate-colored stouts and porters.  In the 1840’s American brewers began making German-style lager beers that require a longer maturation period, a bottom fermenting yeast and were more temperature sensitive.

 

German immigration was soaring and so was the consumption of the lager beer .  Norwich , CT was brimming with men and women with inventive ideas seeking to make their mark on the world and lucky for us the United States Patent Office was keeping track of some of them for us.

 

John McNamara and  John Coit had a better idea with their  US Patent 000326017 Beer Drawing Apparatus  dated September 8, 1885.  I wonder how long it took them to make it. How many kegs it took to test the apparatus and to make certain it worked “just right?”

I haven’t been able to discover if a fortune was made on this patent or for how long it was the rage before another newer, better model took its place but Norwich was certainly a place for people with hopes, dreams and ideas and on special occasions I think we should all offer a toast to the men and women who were not afraid to put their ideas forward. Thank you John Coit and John McNamara!

If you have a new or better idea Norwich is still the place to make it happen. Norwich is still the place to create a dream and to see it through. The first step the saying says is the hardest and it is yours to take. Begin your journey today.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Happy Birthday Mr. Olcott

Every year I try and run this blog tribute to William Tyler Olcott in great hope that there will be a young reader who will choose to follow his lead and follow their own star.

Norwich has long had a connection to space, the moon and Norwich has long had a connection to space, the moon and yes even the stars. Be nice! The reason is not just because we have a lot of space cadets in this city.

William Tyler Olcott was born January 11, 1873 and chose to live in Norwich, CT as a lawyer and amateur astronomer. His home was Glebe House, at 62 Church Street. The building is a two-and-a-half story dwelling, plain except for an elaborate wide cornice with very heavy dentils. A wooden observatory, was added by Olcott, with a revolving hexagonal tower was perched behind the roof.  The observatory was removed by the Otis Library when they used the house as a children’s library.

In 1909, after attending a lecture by Edward Pickering, Olcott developed an interest in observing variable stars. In 1911, he and professor Pickering founded the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Olcott also published several books to popularize the field of amateur astronomy. Including one for children so they could share in the dreams of the universe.

NASA named a crater on the moon in his honor for his dedication to space observation. I don’t pretend to understand the information on the craters location but for those of you that do from a Moon information site I borrow the following for you.

Olcott is a relatively fresh crater on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the south-southeast of the craters Seyfert and Polzunov, and to the north of Kostinskiy.

This crater lacks any significant appearance of erosion from subsequent impacts, and its features are relatively well-defined. The rim edge is generally circular, with a slight outward bulge to the northeast and a larger bulge to the south. It has an outer rampart and some terraces and slumped edges along the inner wall. Several low ridges lie near the interior mid-point, with the western pair near the center and the eastern peaks offset towards the eastern rim.

The satellite craters Olcott M and Olcott L form an overlapping pair along the southern outer rampart of Olcott, with the smaller member of the pair Olcott L overlapping Olcott M. The satellite crater Olcott E is partly overlain by the eastern rim of Olcott.

William Tyler Olcott died July 6, 1936.

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January History Mentions

January 1, 1893 was certainly a night to remember in Norwich, CT according to the Los Angeles Herald front page.  The LA Herald reported that while a cock fight was in progress in a third floor room of the Miantonomoh Hotel a squad of police surrounded the house and demanded admittance to the room.  Then ensued a panic and fight on the part of  100 men all trying to escape.

Without a moment’s hesitation the whole company plunged through a door at the rear of the room and amid sounds of crashing panes of glass and splintered sashes, dived headlong, three stories, to the ground.

Some fell on the tops of carriages and three or four on the backs of frightened horses. Most of the men escaped serious injury and fled down the country roads and across the snowy fields, but some lay helpless on the ground. One, Edward Walsh, struck a projecting ledge and his skull was crushed in from the temple to the lower jawbone. He died instantly. Another man had an arm broken and four others are nursing broken legs. The police arrested seven men, including the cripples, but most of them were released on bonds.

A small article in the Marshall County Republican of January 7, 1875 retold a Norwich Bulletin article about Norwich resident  Rear Admiral Joseph Lanman who was the commodore of the Pacific Squadron early in the Civil war and later led part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and a naval division during the bombardment and capture of Fort Fisher, a stronghold that protected the sea entrance to Wilmington, North Carolina thus closing the last major Confederate port on the Atlantic coast.  

But in Norwich he was better known for never having smoked a cigar or made use of tobacco in any form during his long life and active service. He also was remembered for his claims to having never voted in his life or attended a political meeting of any sort.

Learn more about Admiral Lanman at http://connecticuthistory.org/connecticuts-naval-contributions-to-the-civil-war/#sthash.slzFEqnD.dpuf

On Saturday, January 9th, 2015 at 11 AM in the Community Room of the Otis Library will be an Open Space Community Forum. Its going to be a discussion of what the City of Norwich needs to do better and how individual citizens can help, do and encourage.

Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172

Smile!

 Jeff Guo wrote an article in a recent Washington Post about the History of Smiling in Photographs. Guo wrote about a University of California, Berkeley and Brown study to be delivered in December 2015 that analyzed senior yearbook photos from 1905 to 2013.

Guo said the researchers  measured the size of the smiles and how the mouths went from flat to the  open and toothy grin we are all familiar with.  The researchers said it was due to a change in society. That society was responsible and expected portraits to be serious.  I ran to look at the yearbook of my father and a few others that have found their way to my home over the years. 

My survey says the smiles did grow wider and they were much less forced as I progressed closer to the yearbook of my great niece.  Then I started to remember what it was like when the photos were taken or at least what it was like when my school photo was taken.

There was the stress of photo day. Wearing the right outfit. Having my hair combed just the right way. Then the classroom stress as the teacher and the student waited for the announcement and the time Miss Elzin would be ready for our class.

I did not and still do not have an easy face to photograph and so Miss Elzin would frown at me, order me to fluff my hair and tell me to fold my hands and look forward. I had an over lapping and chipped  front tooth so smiling for me was not encouraged. Years later braces and a filling gave me a very nice smile but I still hate having my photo taken.

Anyway, I hope that the study takes into consideration how long it took to set up the camera and the flash back in the day. It was film that had to be changed in the dark and had to be removed from the camera in the dark as well. The blinding flash bulb had to be changed after each flash. There was a lot of waiting involved.  Today, with a digital camera it takes a mere second to snap a photo or three.  The flash of an easy grin, smile or smirk can be preserved forever.

I think that it is not that people have a wider smile now than they once did but that we are more relaxed with our technology and it and us are more adept at capturing those perfect smiling moments. Thank you Kodak marketing for making generations aware of the importance of photographing every instant of our lives.

 Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs01?taxid=1172