She’s not a television star ... but long before the reality show craze featuring the real housewives of Orange County, or New York or Washington, D.C., Rancho Bernardo has had its own RB Housewife. You may have seen her license plate in any of the many RB parking lots or you’d recognize the RBhswf abbreviation in her e-mail address.

Even though I’ve known her as the RB Housewife for the last 20 years, it wasn’t until last week that I asked Jody Bradley how it was that she got that designation.

“It was in 1980, I think,” she said. “Jeff (Jody’s husband) and I met Pat and Lynn Hanshaw, who lived on Hada Drive in Westwood because Pat’s best friend had been in Jeff’s squadron, and he knew that we were all living in Rancho Bernardo.

“Through the Hanshaws, we got to know their neighbors, Ken and Kathy Ramden. One night the Ramdens had a theme party where all of the guests were supposed to come dressed as someone they wanted to be,” Jody explained.

“I came dressed ...

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Can I spend less and make more?
Neil Johnson
Rancho Penasquitos

Sure. Marketing’s holy grail is generating visibility without spending much money. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, for example, Dutch beermaker Bavaria NV sneaked 35 young women into the Netherlands/Denmark match.

Twenty-five minutes into the game, the women stripped off their red and white national colors to reveal bright orange mini dresses bearing the brewer’s name. Orange is the brewer’s marketing campaign theme color.

Hundreds of spectators sought photographs with the women, who were escorted from the stadium, briefly detained, and released. The stunt generated worldwide publicity for minimal cost.

Meanwhile, Budweiser paid millions to officially sponsor the games. They received minimal press.

Closer to home, there’s a company making its fortune putting stickers at the base of industrial garage doors. Operations p...

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Convening his committee ... Brian McLean has begun the process of planning Rancho Bernardo’s annual community Thanksgiving Luncheon celebration, the signature event of the Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation. Meeting this week at RBCF secretary Nick Anastasopoulos’ restaurant are Karen Rott, board president, Kevin Martin, public relations chair, and Bob Wells, who always has been the driving force behind making this event a success each year.

At the luncheon, John Goodrich, chairman of the foundation’s grants committee, will report on accomplishments of RB community organizations during the past year that have been funded by previous grants as well as announce the 2010 projects to be funded.

This year a special award to benefit youth between kindergarten and eighth grade will be made due to the generosity of Lee Iacocca in memory of Rancho Bernardo philanthropist, Matt McLaughlin. The two men were executives at Ford Motor Company. Applications for the Iacocca award have ...

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What’s new on the marketing horizon?
Clint Greenleaf, Escondido

Mail delivery will be cut to five days.

The postal service has threatened this for years, and their 2009 deficit ($7 billion) and projected 10-year loss ($238 billion) makes it a smart move. Plan for it now.

The USPS is caught in a downward spiral. Legally they must provide postal delivery to 150 million addresses. They employ 600,000 people, manage 218,000 vehicles and process 584 million pieces of mail daily.

This quasi-governmental agency used to have a three-year budget cycle, raising rates (and profits) in year one, breaking even year two, running deficits year three, then repeating.
Things are different today. People write few letters. Documents, invoices and payments travel online. Postal rates rise, and usage drops. Thirty-five billion fewer first-class mail pieces will be delivered annually by 2020.

This isn’t even due to the economy — rates ro...

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Hello, members of the Third Monday Journalist Society of Rancho Bernardo, and thank you for including me in your monthly meeting this week. One of the topics of the meeting was a party etiquette book by journalist Sally Quinn who says thank you notes are not necessary, but, like you, I am more old school.

The TMJS is a friendly group of four who share a journalism background and who like to talk about their profession and other interesting factoids. The members are Bill Fishman, Bob Mott, Jim Reading and Nanette Strull with guests from time to time such as myself.

This week the conversation turned to the press, or lack thereof, for the big news regarding Bob Mott... and Nanette was going to make sure that I knew the story so I could tell it in this column.
Washington State University has established the Robert A. Mott Distinguished Excellence Award in Broadcast Journalism. The first recipient will be named next year and the award is being funded through an endowed fund...

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Is it fun being self-employed?
Lauri Rogers, Ramona

Dilbert believes consultants make tons of money. But as Sportin’ Life from “Porgy and Bess” said, “It ain’t necessarily so.”

Consultants come in many flavors, including engineering, financial, legal, marketing and pistachio. They’re hired for their specific expertise, typically working a set number of hours on a particular assignment, then going away. They are oftentimes self-employed, with hourly wages higher than if they were on staff.

Consultants have only their time and expertise to sell. Like any business, they must follow certain rules in order to eat, including:

• Constantly bringing in new business. This (naturally) requires regular marketing of some sort.

• Being special. Otherwise, why would they be hired?

• Signing contracts to set the parameters for everyone’s expectations.

• Getting advance payment. A client with skin in the game automatical...

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Spirited post scripts ... As the story goes, Steve DeMatteo, in his first year as president of the RB Spirit of the Fourth organization, was double checking on things on the afternoon of the 3rd, just before the first official activity — a concert in Webb Park.

As DeMatteo arrived at the park, he noted the chairs were all in place, but, strangely, he thought, they were all turned the wrong way.

Hmmm! Well, it seems there was an unexpected (at least by Spirit of the Fourth organizers) wedding about to take place at the concert venue.

A bit of negotiating took place, as did the wedding, which started a bit earlier than planned and was completed in time for the concert guests’ arrival ... to find the chairs facing the correct direction.

Adventures abroad ... Terry and Diane Anderson recently visited their new granddaughter, Shaylee, who is the daughter of Di’s daughter, Tracy, and her husband, Jesse, a Navy chief petty officer on duty...

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I married my bride 21 years ago. Good stuff!

Along the way, her philosophy of life has rubbed off on me: “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.”

She said that to me in March when I considered buying fuzzy promotional creatures with eyes, feet and a hat glued on. I thought I’d give them away at speaking gigs. She pointed out they’d do nothing for the business.

Scratch that idea.

The wisdom of her words also hit me at the San Diego County Fair when I came face-to-face with the greatest temptation known to mankind: Chocolate-covered pickles. Sounds like something perfect for pregnant women.

You might have missed this delicacy amidst the uproar over the deep-fried butter (like a churro, only chewier) and the chocolate-covered bacon (you must be kidding me!).

We discovered it at the dessert stand, right across from the guy selling the deep-fried Twinkies, Oreos, Pop-Tarts, zucchini weenies, and frogs’ legs.
Mmmmm...I...

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Another season of professional beach volleyball has begun and the kid who grew up on the playground in Westwood is still at the top of the sport. John Hyden, who was voted by his peers as the league’s defensive player of the year in 2009, is once again at the top of tournament standings.

Hyden and his partner, Sean Scott, are continuing a rivalry with the tour’s top-ranked team of Phil Dalhauser and Todd Rogers, who have been world champions and who have been dominant in the sport in recent years. Last season, Hyden and Scott snapped a Dalhauser-Rogers 24-event win streak when they defeated them for the tournament title in Chicago.

This season, through four tournaments, Hyden and Scott are second in money won only to Dalhauser and Rogers.

Hyden, the son of Claudia Hyden and brother to Joyce and Matt, grew up in the Westwood neighborhood, and began his volleyball career at San Diego State University where he received MVP honors for all four of his collegiate seasons...

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What’s the most outrageous marketing you’ve heard of?
James McDowell, Escondido

That would be the Great Philadelphia Wedding of 1999.

A young couple wanted, but couldn’t afford, a large, lavish wedding. Taking a page from television’s book, the groom sought sponsors for their “show.” With a list of everything they could possibly need, he persuaded 24 area businesses to donate rings, flowers, food, cake, limousines, veil, perfume, invitations...the works.

In exchange, each of the contributing companies received promotional consideration. Their names were listed on an insert sent with invitations and thank you cards. They were thanked on scrolls on the dinner table, in a newspaper ad, and in a speech at the reception. They were mentioned in a newspaper article.

How else do you think I learn about this stuff?

Swapping consideration for exposure isn’t new. Game shows give away cars and refrigerators provided by manufacturers...

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