TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Hawaii's favorite working moms who sing for a living -- as Na Leo Pilimehana -- are dipping their figurative toes into retail marketing. Na Leo expands its business
Beyond selling CDs at record stores or on the Web, this effort will debut on a small scale at Wahiawa's Dole Plantation Gift Shop in early July.
It's part of a branding effort that may eventually go international. Behind the branding is a new company, Na Leo Hawaii Products LLC, with partners Shelton Choy, (husband of group member Nalani Choy) and branding and marketing executive Mark Button.
The Na Leo kiosk will offer a CD called "Pineapple Princess," containing previously recorded Na Leo songs, but customized for visitors, as well as logo T-shirts, hats and bags.
The visitor-oriented merchandise won't immediately be available on the group's Web site, www.naleo.net, as are its many award winning CDs.
The site, which received some 90,000 hits from all over the world in 90 days, provides the group a wealth of clues on marketing to local, national and international fans through its guest book and e-mail.
Nalani Choy said one former visitor who had purchased a Na Leo CD, wrote upon returning home that listening to "I Miss You My Hawaii," puts them mentally "on that sailboat off Lanai" where they first heard the song.
"What we found," she said, "was that people from around the world, as tourists, found our music and loved it, but they usually found it at random."
She said that encouraged the group to direct some of its focus on that market.
Choy's husband handles day-to-day operations of Na Leo Hawaii Products while Button oversees the branding and marketing.
He was behind the popularity of Koosh products in the early '90s and said at its peak, there were roughly 40 Koosh-branded products sold in 50 countries around the world.
"I feel that same opportunity exists within the Na Leo brand," he said.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com