Few things are as inextricably tied to Hawaiʻi’s culture as a fragrant and colorful lei. They’re stacked high on the shoulders of graduates, slipped over the necks of wide-eyed visitors, or draped on community leaders at official events.  

Lei making has a rich and vibrant history across the Islands. Yet over recent decades, the bulk of the lei-making industry has moved offshore, to foreign lands where growers and lei-makers string flowers into strands and sell them back cheaply to us here in Hawai’i. 

Now, the Lei Poinaʻole Project hopes to turn that around. The project created by the nonprofit BEHawaiʻi aims to revitalize and strengthen the local lei industry through community engagement and advocacy. The main mission of the group is to uplift local flower growers and lei makers to preserve the traditions of lei in Hawaiʻi. 

Launched three years ago, the program has engaged propagators on each of the main islands in hopes of building pilot projects into a statewide network of flower growers, lei-makers and vendors that can flourish as it did in the past.  

“You think about Hawaiʻi, you think about a lei,” says Brook Lee, secretary of BEHawaiʻi, who helped focus the nonprofit’s attention on the needs of struggling lei flower growers and lei makers.  

So far, the Lei Poinaʻole Project has connected with 26 existing growers, 22 new growers and 7 propagators. The goal is not just to support the big farmers, but small and medium-sized growers so that a cottage industry can thrive once again.

Sylvia Hussey

“The objective of the project at the end is to have the Lei Poinaʻole Coalition,” adds BEHawai‘i Executive Director Sylvia Hussey. “The lei project is a mechanism in which to form the coalition” that will carry on even after initial startup efforts cease. 

Lee remembers the idea for the Project stemmed from a conversation she had with a lei store owner who told her in 2020 that the lei industry was in decline and needed help. That conversation stuck with her, and when BEHawaiʻi began considering projects to fund, the memory resurfaced. The idea to support a statewide lei network blossomed. 

Lee explains: “There are a lot of people in the community who just didn’t have a touchpoint or a place, or the space, to be able to think about the idea of stewarding this thing, because it’s farm to table, which is important, but that has been the whole sort of agricultural space here in Hawaiʻi for a very long time. And it’s necessary, but we’re just trying to follow in their footsteps and expand the conversation around.” 

In 2022, the group was awarded a three-year grant from the Federal Administration for Native Americans. The grant supported eight existing and 16 new farmers across the state. While the group knew the grant couldn’t solve the problem in just a few years, it helped them start the conversations needed to build the coalition.  

Lee says they aim to help growers who have been quietly maintaining but are at a breaking point and need support. Besides foreign competitors, farmers are facing agricultural diseases and beetle infestations that are devastating long-established farms. When they contacted the USDA for help, she says, some farmers said their concerns were dismissed and they were told to simply burn the trees. 

“We’re hoping to be able to set people up, because we can’t fund it forever, but we wanted to just sort of try to piece it into a way that they can know that they’re certain CTHAR will help,” Lee says, referring to the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. 

CTHAR has been holding workshops to teach people how to plant certain flowers. Experts take the participants on a walking tour of their properties to assess what their problems may be or what they should focus on.  

After the assessments, some farms are encouraged to propagate flowers in locations that have suitable growing conditions.  

Meanwhile, the Lei Poinaʻole Project has been expanding connections between lei-making families and farmers. They’ve had to overcome obstacles, too, including some growers who were hesitant about sharing details about their sites and growing practices.   

“One of the first things we explain about the project is that the project takes none of the production. We just want to help them, if it’s more plants, if it is knowledge, pest control,” Hussey says. Their focus, she says, is: “How can we help them keep all of their production and how they want to distribute that, whether it’s commercially or [through] family.” 

The Project representatives also ask growers how the group can support them through policy changes or by assisting with general practices. Everyone in Hawaiʻi farms differently, Lee says, and each person will favor certain flowers that are culturally based and close to peoples’ ohana or have a special connection to wherever they’re living. 

“A lot of times they don’t like it when people come in and try to tell them how to do something that they are doing for a very long time, there’s some cultural sensitivity around it, right?” Lee says. “Because, of course, they should know how to do it. They’ve been doing it for generations. Yeah, that’s their kuleana. And no one’s here to tell you that your kuleana is wrong or bad. You’ve been doing it. You’ve got the proof. The boots are on the ground.” 

While respecting current practices, Hussey says the farmers in the program also share their knowledge with the next generation and in the process gain a scientific grounding in how best to grow their flowers.

Insight from a New Grower  

The propagation site on Hawaiʻi Island may be furthest along among the pilot projects. It is coordinated by David Fuertes, executive director of the nonprofit Kahua Paʻa Mua. On a five-acre property in the North Kohala community of Kapaʻau, Fuertes has cuttings of a diverse range of flowering plants that, once they sprout roots, are distributed to five families to plant on their own land. 

Flower varieties in the mix include crown flower, pikake, puakenikeni, ʻākulikuli, ʻōlena as well as more common plumeria and orchids. 

Under a makeshift greenhouse, a watering system emits a spray of water for 20 seconds every hour, keeping the plants moist. The team meets regularly to discuss best practices for dipping the cutting stems into homemade root hormone mixtures that enhance root growth. They take measurements and share data so they can replicate the results that are most favorable. 

The first batch of cuttings have been transplanted, and flowers should be ready within a matter of months. 

“The families will supply local lei makers, and they can make their own lei as well,” said Fuertes. “It’s a community-based economic development program. After the initial group of growers are established, we can expand to the next generation of families.” 

Fuertes has a special connection to lei making. His late sister, Nancy Fuertes Ueno, was an award-winning lei maker on Kauaʻi. 

On the one-year anniversary of her death in September last year, Fuertes inaugurated the Aunty Nancy Lei Aloha Garden on his land in her memory in hopes of preserving the art of lei-making. 

At the launch ceremony, Fuertes told a gathering of about 100 people that while the vast majority of lei makers’ flowers come to Hawaiʻi from foreign countries, he hopes this program will help rekindle an interest in lei-making in the Islands. 

“Here in Kohala, we want to make the change. If we can get everybody to grow flowers and get farmers switching or intercropping with flower lei, we can bring the price down for lei,” he said.  

In his blessing to dedicate the site, Kahu Kealoha Sugiyama explained the social and spiritual role of lei. 

“When you pick a flower, it’s a memory between you and the receiver,” Sugiyama explained. “It starts out with one memory, one flower, and you keep adding and adding until the lei is completed. And what was just a single memory, now it becomes a story, a story between you and the lei maker. That story is precious.” 

When Hussey enlisted Fuertes to join the state-wide effort, she already knew his background — he had been her former high school teacher. 

“I was born and raised in Kohala. I’m a Kohala high school graduate, and so when we were looking for a propagation site in Kohala, there was no question who it needed to be. It would be my former ag teacher from high school who has a farm,” Hussey says. “And that’s an example of leveraging relationships to be able to find in the community those propagator sites.” 

Fuertes remembers Hussey developed an early interest in agriculture when she was one of his students.  

He said he recalls Hussey started a paʻu unit in Kohala, the ceremonial equestrian groups that ride in parades, with both the horses and female riders adorned with elaborate lei displays. 

“That was one of her first involvements with lei back in high school,” Fuertes says. 

History of Lei in Hawaiʻi 

Lei making traces back to the early Polynesian settlers in Hawaiʻi, and besides the decorative appeal, lei also served as a tribute to the gods and in some cases signified social rank in society.  

Early lei included nuts, shells and bones as well as a variety of plants and flowers. The maile lei, an open string lei woven with fragrant leaves from vines that grow in cool mountain forests, is considered among the most cherished types of lei. 

Demand for maile lei has soared in conjunction with official events and celebrations. And with the arrival of tourists, and the preference for fragrant plumeria and other brightly colored flowers, lei making became a cottage industry across the islands. 

“So what we have heard from conversations from lei sellers is that the supply is getting harder and harder to get and everybody knows, just by experience, maile as an example right there, very rarely can you get a maile of Big Island, maile of Kauaʻi, fresh maile. It’s being replaced by ti leaf,” Hussey says. 

Different lei carry different meanings with the color, flower and occasion. The maile lei was once revered by aliʻi and is given as a sign of love, respect or a blessing. 

“One of the differentiators is that it is not the demand side of lei,” she says. “There will always be a demand. It’s on the growing side and the mitigating [efforts] helping more growers there, and anybody, not just commercial growers, but family growers, school growers, backyard growers, more lei flower growers.” 

Matching Price with Value 

Another goal of the project is to change consumers’ understanding of how much labor goes into lei. More than just its price, lei hold the spirit of the farmers and those who sewed it together.   

“We know that monetizing or valuing lei is not just in a price point,” Hussey says. “We all know family members at a wedding, even graduation or Mother’s Day, that someone has given you a lei, that they have grown, they have sewn themselves, is worth so much more than when you purchase.   

“And that also influences the price point. People complain, ʻOh, the pikake is $15 a strand. My gosh, if you knew how much effort it was to grow that pikake and how valuable, you wouldn’t complain. You would value and mahalo the lei seller and the lei grower for that value.”  

The Lei Poinaʻole Project is seeking help to quantify the financial importance of lei in Hawaiʻi, starting with a baseline estimate of current local production. 

Every island has its own relationship to lei making and sewing. Oʻahu has lei stands at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and many lei shops on Maunakea Street in Chinatown.  

One shop in Chinatown is the family-owned Lin’s Lei Shop.  

Manager Tony Ngyuen says that it is difficult to measure how much work goes into a lei since everything is handmade. Some flowers have a special way to be plucked and processed, and can be sewn in different ways. The cost of the lei reflects the input of farmers as well.   

The most popular lei are usually the white fragrant flowers like pikake, puakenikeni, ginger and tuberose. Ngyuen explains that when picked, tuberose has a brownish tint on the outside, so it is cleaned to be white and peeled to be used in lei.  

Lin’s Lei Shop purchases pre-made orchid flower lei from Thailand since the labor is cheaper and they sell for less.  

“They create a product that is long-lasting and economical,” Ngyuen says. “It makes sense, and it provides a strong supply for the demand here.” 

One pre-made orchid lei in the shop’s lineup, already made in Thailand, is the famed Christina style lei. The Christina lei was designed in 1990 by Beth Lopez and created to honor the memory of her daughter Christina who died from lupus when she was 22. The design uses a needle and thread to sew together over 500 orchid centers. 

“Imagine the amount of work involved to make this,” says Ngyuen. “They just take a single petal from a single flower, and they create this,” he said.  

Some orchid lei have a negative reputation for being cheap or imported, but Hawaiʻi Island used to have its own honohono orchid that was specially farmed.  

 “We don’t want people to get a bad rep that lei orchids are bad, like orchids are part of our history and our culture as Hawaiian people,” Lee of BEHawaiʻi says. “But these are a different type of orchid that are mass produced in Thailand brought in by the pounds of loads.”  

Other than the orchid lei, Ngyuen says that all of the other lei he sells are handmade in Hawaiʻi, and in the back of their Maunakea Street store, family members can be seen making lei. They get their flowers from multiple farms and hobbyists across Hawaiʻi. 

While most lei are made in-store, sometimes they purchase pre–made lei from people who have trees in their backyards. Ngyuen pointed out a traditional lei made from hala, the fruit of the pandanus tree, that was made by a recreational lei maker. He said that it’s an older style of lei that isn’t usually sold anymore. 

Many lei shops, including Lin’s Lei Shop, sell flowers and lei to the mainland for graduations and other celebrations.  

“It seems like the lei culture is spreading,” he says. “So now, especially on the West Coast, it’s very common for people to receive lei for graduation. The whole West Coast, right from Washington to California, they all use lei, I think it’s good. Do I have a problem with them selling at Costco? No, not really.” 

“Support local if you can,” he says. “But other than that, enjoy a lei, enjoy the craftsmanship, enjoy the artistry. And yeah, support the industry.” 

That was the unorthodox prescription the keynote speaker offered to nearly 500 attendees at the Hawaii Business Leadership Conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Williams, a globally recognized expert on innovation, urged executives to move beyond their fixation on ROI — return on investment.

“Equally as important, perhaps more important these days, is return on learning,” Williams said at the conference in late July. “Every organization in America needs to accelerate their rate of learning. If you can learn at the pace of change, you have an advantage. But if your learning falls below the pace of change, you fall further and further behind. And that’s where we get into real trouble.

“So in order to accelerate the rate of learning, you need waste.”

The author of “Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business” cited a litany of companies that went bankrupt or lost their edge because they failed to keep innovating.

Williams said so-called “disruptive thinking” among employees leads to uncertain results, and not all ideas need to be implemented right away, or ever.

“But you’ve got to break the cycle of incremental thinking,” the idea that today’s successful ideas will continue to serve you well into the future.

In an interview after his speech, Williams expanded upon the idea.

“Disruptive ideas, if the advantages are clear, they’re no longer high risk,” Williams said. “They’re really risking the thinking time, and that’s a matter of priorities.

“I think of different currencies in a business. We often think of money as the main currency, but there are different currencies. I want businesses to see ideas as their most valuable currency.”

Williams challenged attendees to go back to their companies after the conference and to encourage all of their employees to start rethinking everything about their businesses.

“If you don’t have new ideas, you don’t innovate, you can’t grow,” explained Williams who is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business. “Particularly in mature economies like the U.S., they’ve got to get themselves in a position where they’ve got more ideas to spend than their competitors.

“That means as circumstances change, we’ve got more options. We can do A, B, C, D or E depending on how circumstances change, so we’ve got better optionality than our competitors.”

Williams insists no new technology needs to be invented for companies to thrive and grow.

“My message is everyone in the organization needs to have a comfortable fluency moving between the core business and introducing new business ideas,” Williams says. “That’s why I talk about discourse. It’s not the device that’s important, it’s the discourse.”

“Ideas beget ideas,” he says.

So how does a guy who tells others to endlessly innovate keep his own creative juices flowing? After all, Williams has more than 30 patents for product designs and is constantly pushing his mantra — innovate or perish.

He scoffs at the idea of waiting for some creative bolt of lightning to spring from casual imagining.

“I’m a big believer in deliberate creativity,” Williams says. “I don’t believe in shooting water pistols and getting people to take off ties and sit on bean bags. It’s exercising a muscle.”

He has recently gotten back in touch with a creative outlet he pursued when he was younger: drumming.

“I find that really helps with creativity,” Williams says, adding: “It has actually engaged different parts of the brain. … I think my aspiration is to be a jazz musician at some point. Jazz has a lot to do with creativity and improvisation.”

She volunteers with ADvise, a program that mentors young people in the fields of advertising, marketing, digital media, graphic design and public relations.

Shiroma helps with networking and climbing the career ladder, as well as marketing and other professional skills. And since the start of the pandemic, her mentoring has also addressed work-life balance and stress management.

Back in 2000, Shiroma created a youth board for Sassy/G Magazine, where she was co-owner and editor in chief. She mentored middle and high school students on the board for eight years.

“They were hungry for someone outside of their circle to guide, talk to and really believe in them,” she says.

Board members wrote for the magazine, did community service and ran fundraisers. Shiroma says she helped them grow by giving them challenging projects and guiding them.

“Mentoring Goes Both Ways”

Shiroma says mentorships are not one-sided. “Mentoring goes both ways. It’s not just you as an adult mentoring the youth. It is also the opposite.” Among the things she gains are new perspectives.

Her advice for other mentors: “Lead with authenticity and forge relationships with people, whatever age they are.”

And for Shiroma, having a growth mindset is vital.

“People think: I’ve graduated school, I’ve got a job. I don’t need to grow,” Shiroma says. Instead, she says people should never stop growing – and should always be receptive to constructive criticism.

“I’ve had great mentors that have shaped me as a person,” Shiroma says. One who kept pushing her forward, she says, was Kim Gennaula, Shiroma’s boss when both were at Aloha United Way. Gennaula is now executive director of advancement at ‘Iolani School.

Gennaula will say, “Tell me what your lifelong goals are. I want to help you get where you want to go,” Shiroma says.

Shiroma still occasionally mentors some of the people from her times with Sassy/G Magazine and other organizations.

“I still reach out to people like Kim Gennaula for advice. And people still come to me for advice.”

If your product or service is so well-loved locally that you have an opportunity to share it with new audiences, you have already achieved something that many business owners can only dream of. However, when faced with a mainland expansion, many business leaders find themselves compromising parts of their identities to appeal to a broader audience.

During Sun Noodle’s 40 years in business, it expanded from Hawai‘i to California and New Jersey, and earned the trust of customers from around the world. While it may seem daunting for local brands to appeal to main-land audiences, it also comes with an opportunity to showcase local values on a larger stage.

Here are five tips for Hawai‘i business leaders who want to adapt their local companies to a mainland audience or are struggling to succeed there:

Establish a Purpose

My father, Hidehito Uki, founded Sun Noodle with a dream of sharing authentic Japanese noodles and local products, such as saimin, with the rest of the world. That is our mission and the guiding force behind all of our decisions. Why do you do what you do? Identify your company’s purpose, vision and mission, and your role in Hawai‘i and on the mainland will become much clearer.

Invest in Culture

Your purpose and values don’t mean much if you are not operating in alignment with those values at all locations. At Sun Noodle, no matter how big our ‘ohana grows, we always promote respect, quality and the aloha spirit in everything we do.

Your company culture stems from your values and should be actively reinforced wherever possible. For example, to reward hard work and show appreciation, Sun Noodle highlights employee accomplishments in our monthly newsletters.

Share Your Roots

Being from Hawai‘i is not only a differentiator, it is also an opportunity to tell your company’s backstory and provide more context for customers. Why was this company started? Who are the founders? What are their motivations? The more your customers know about you, the more trust and loyalty you can build.

Know Your Audience

Just as Hawai‘i’s audience is unique, the mainland has different regions, dialects, trends and audiences to cater to. If you try to target everyone, you’re not targeting anyone. Treat each new region as unique and worthy of customization, whether that means starting a regional newsletter or developing a separate brand voice.

Listen to Your Employees

The people you hire in a new location will most likely have a deeper understanding of their region’s differences and nuances. Seek their opinions and feedback as an additional source of market research for local operations.

What if your company’s leaders are based on the mainland and don’t always understand the uniqueness of Hawai‘i? For some Island-based managers and employees, hitting corporate numbers while keeping products and services authentic for local customers can be an art form.

Wet’n’Wild Hawai‘i has been the state’s only water park for 23 years. Marketing Director Eddie Galdones has been with the company for 22 of those years and navigates a unique role: keeping a mostly local clientele happy while working under corporate ownership.

Family enjoying a day of fun at Wet’n’Wild Hawaiʻi. | Photo: courtesy of Wet’n’Wild Hawaiʻi

Related: Water Slide Tester | Interview with Jerry Pupillo, GM, Wet’n’Wild Hawaii

Here are his 5 Steps to make that situation work for all stakeholders.

1. Keep an open mind to a corporate takeover.
   Embracing change is a recipe for success when you communicate regularly about the unique culture you serve and, in return, can harness national industry experts.
   
2. Use data.
   The more corporate can understand your target audience, the easier it is to hit goals because they will be realistic. For example, we like to know where our customers come from. Collecting ZIP codes during each transaction and compiling data from online sales are key and don’t cost any money. From there we can research areas with potential growth while maintaining areas that drive results.
3. Be conservative when projecting numbers.
   Analyzing weekly and monthly visitation trends is key to projecting our numbers – and this can work for anyone in hospitality. Go as far back as four years when compiling historical data and factoring in weather statistics, state of the economy, travel trends and any other factors that impact your niche. This way corporate sees how you can hold your own in any market.
4. Utilize grassroots marketing.
   For businesses that don’t have deep ad budgets, the best free advertising is word of mouth. For example, during the pandemic, we made many adjustments to make people feel extra safe and taken care of. The experience was the key message people walked away with and word spread.
5. Harness digital tools.
   Well-done social media and email blasts are free and powerful tools that provide positive results, get news to clients quickly and become the mouthpiece of your brand. Consumers voice their opinions online so it’s the new “word of mouth.”

I interviewed Kevin Dahlstrom, CPB’s executive VP and chief marketing officer, about the rebranding and its timing. The interview has been lightly edited.

Q: Why rebrand such a well-known and well-regarded brand? 

The lobby of Central Pacific Bank’s main branch. | Photo: courtesy of Central Pacific Bank

CPB is one of the best-known local brands and is beloved by customers. However, the world is changing, and we needed to modernize CPB to serve customers in the new digital-first world. We often say that “we’re changing everything except what people love most about CPB.”

We’re committed to providing our exceptional service in new ways that fit the changing needs of our customers. This means a refreshed brand, re-imagined spaces like our new flagship branch and Tidepools co-working space in downtown Honolulu, and new mobile and digital banking solutions.

Q: Why not postpone the rebranding until after the pandemic? 

The pandemic dramatically accelerated many trends that were already underway, including adoption of digital banking. Fortunately, CPB had already embarked on a mission to become Hawai‘i’s digital banking leader so we were able to quickly meet our customers’ needs with features like mobile check deposit, budgeting tools, and person-to-person payments through Zelle.

COVID-19 provided the perfect opportunity to modernize CPB and reintroduce ourselves to the community. The rebrand is only the beginning – stay tuned for more exciting announcements throughout 2021.

Tidepools@CPB is a new co-working space inside CPB’s downtown Honolulu headquarters. | Photo: courtesy of Central Pacific Bank

Q: What changes did the bank make in operations and customer service to reflect the new branding? 

We have a mantra at CPB that “great brands are built from the inside out.” What that means is that our actions – and the service we provide to customers every day – define our brand more than a new logo or advertisements.

We are rethinking everything we do with a digital-first mindset. We will always provide the exceptional service that customers have come to expect in our branches, but we’ll also provide new, more convenient options through the CPB mobile app. Examples include online account opening and the ability to chat with a local customer service agent and to schedule an appointment. We’re also opening our spaces to the community, beginning with the Tidepools@CPB coworking space in our downtown Honolulu headquarters.

1. Consider Both Traditional and New Media

Dennis Christianson, a marketing master who has spent a career successfully helping to sell the goods of Hawai‘i’s large and small businesses, has an important rule: When you begin a marketing campaign, start with a blank slate.

“We go out of our way to start all of our media conversations in a fairly media-agnostic position. And we usually have to force it onto that track,” says Christianson, president and CEO of Anthology Marketing Group.

That means you must consider which media make the most sense for the audience you are trying to reach for this particular marketing campaign – not the last marketing campaign you ran.

Another thing you must recognize is that most traditional platforms – like TV, print and radio – are no longer one-dimensional. Take this magazine for instance: Hawaii Business has been a print magazine for 66 years, but in the past few years we have also staged hundreds of events, in person and virtually; become web, e-newsletter and social media power players in the Hawai‘i market; and have ventured into video and podcasts. Publisher Cheryl Oncea says each of these platforms allows advertisers and partners to reach Hawaii Business’ elite business and professional audience.

“Digital vs. traditional should never be an either/or conversation,” says Christianson.

“If you’re trying to make a big impression in the marketplace with a new idea or a product launch or your brand position, that’s when you want mass media because you can make tens of thousands of impressions every time your message runs on radio or TV or in a publication. If you’re trying to make an impression across many demographics, traditional is going to deliver more impressions. But if you’re really trying to target something very specifically to under 30, young people are often relying much more on social and digital platforms than traditional.”

Ryan Kalei Tsuji, president and CEO of RKT Media Hawaii, moves smoothly among varied platforms, often combining digital and traditional media, as he does with “Spotlight Hawaii” videos on the Star-Advertiser website.

Illustration: Kelsey Ige

“It’s a combination of both traditional media as well as this new form of digital. You kind of have to play both of the games – you’re targeting two different types of audiences that consume it differently.”

First Hawaiian Bank serves every generation so it uses different media to reach each of them, says Chris Dods, executive VP of the Digital Banking and Marketing Group for First Hawaiian Bank and a member of the bank’s senior management committee.

“Everybody has a financial profile, and we serve the entire community, looking to make our message relevant to the different segments of our community,” Dods says.

2. Yes, the Medium is Part of the Message

The reputation of the media you use is vital, says Bill Weeshoff, senior VP and division manager at First Hawaiian Bank. “Reputation and reach are intrinsically linked,” Weeshoff says.

“You do want to make sure the media you’re in has a good reputation and is aligning with you as a brand and what you’re trying to achieve.

“That’s either the programming (if TV) or editorial content (if print) you’re surrounding yourself with. It’s very relevant that your brand is appearing in a media that is appropriate and doesn’t conflict with your brand.

“The way digital and online has impacted or fragmented media, there are more opportunities to get it wrong than right,” says Weeshoff. “You can’t just say ‘I’m going to buy TV’ anymore because it means so many different things. What platforms are they watching, and how do you layer that?”

He says First Hawaiian Bank does research on consumers in general and its customers in particular on how they use banks or change between different banks. “Once we understand what we’re trying to do on a customer journey we begin to evaluate media against the journey. That’s the starting point,” he says.

“For traditional media we look at the editorial environment being provided and look at any kind of target audience that the media is able to define, i.e., readership and viewership and overall reach, and try to put the puzzle together from that perspective.”

People no longer engage with just one type of media. “They have a 360-degree engagement with various media. And a lot of media are diversifying. Even if it’s a legacy media, they are creating events and digital access and social media channels to help advertisers reach their audience, and we’re looking at all that also,” Weeshoff says.

3. Find Trustworthy Partners

Dave Erdman, Founder, CEO and President of PacRim Marketing Group, says you should choose your marketing partners wisely.

“Trust is the backbone of a strong partner and their team,” he says.

That means looking to see how a potential marketing partner operates in the community. Has this partner been a good corporate citizen and a trustworthy partner to other companies?

“Trust in the marketplace is built through a company’s owner, leadership and team members keeping promises, being accountable, and willing to serve and support community needs and programs. Involvement in community activities and nonprofit work is important in building trust.”

Says Piia M. Aarma, founder and president of Pineapple Tweed Public Relations and Marketing: “Trust and reputation are very important. Media outlets have earned the respect of their audience and any media is highly effective because of the trust they’ve earned from their audience. And local outlets are pretty well trusted because they’re a known entity and the accuracy is easily ascertained by the audience.

“The bottom line is authenticity, honesty and transparency. The public has so many different ways to get information. It’s important that the message be clear and authentic and to be heard above the noise.”

Scott Schumacher, president of PacificBasin Communications, says the people you are trying to reach will only trust your marketing if they trust the medium it is in.

“If they don’t trust the content, they won’t trust the marketing. And if they don’t value the content, they won’t value the marketing content either,” Schumacher says.

“Earning trust and building trust can be rare in this era of acrimonious relationships with the media.”

(Disclosure: Schumacher’s company, PacificBasin Communications, is parent to Hawaii Business Magazine, among other publications.)

“A product needs to be a mirror,” he continues. “When you hold up a magazine or a newspaper, does it reflect back to you, your brand image and quality?”

4. It’s All About the Audience

“For any campaign, it’s about the audience,” says Aarma of Pineapple Tweed. “Who are you trying to reach and why should the audience care? Another essential question is budget. Then the answers help decide which media to use.

“What we recommend is a blend of traditional and nontraditional. Traditional media is non-digital: print newspapers and magazines, network TV, cable, signage, trade shows and in-person influencers.

“Take, for example, the vaccination plan (for COVID-19). The key for a successful widespread vaccination is communication, especially with diverse groups of people. For instance, in some immigrant communities, the voice of a community leader may be the best way to convince them it’s the right thing to do.”

The medium you choose determines the people you reach, Schumacher says. “How many of the right ones are you reaching on Facebook?” he asks. “It’s not which ones give you more people, but which ones give you more of the right people that trust that message in that particular media.”

5. Local Partners Know this Unique Market

Hawaiʻi’s ethnic mix, our unique culture, the remoteness of the Islands and other factors have turned this into a very particular place. “We are a strange, wonderful mix of small-town familiarity and very modern global sophistication,” Anthology’s Christianson says.

“In all that, marketing to people in Hawai‘i requires a unique skill set. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done from afar, or just because you’re doing it locally makes you better. But there are sensibilities here. You really need to know your mauka from makai, and all those uniquenesses, if you’re going to market effectively.

Illustration: Kelsey Ige

“I do think there’s a reason why most companies in Hawai‘i use local resources to do most aspects of their marketing. It isn’t just convenience. There is expertise to be had here. And we have a lot of excellent marketing resources in town at all levels, like staffs at media outlets as well as good agencies, good consultants and excellent specialists in areas of digital and television.”

Schumacher shares that perspective. “Local media know their community the best. They live in and know this market and are trusted in this market. So they are the best option to reach that local audience.

“Local marketing is driven by the same power that local news is driven by: People tend to care most about the community in which they live and what’s happening in that community. That’s closest to our hearts. So the same thing holds true from a marketing perspective.

“There’s real power in local companies working together to reach and engage a local audience.”

6. Your Reputation is Also Crucial

“Giving your time and talent to our community will help to build your reputation,” says Erdman.

“When I started my company, I was time-constrained and financially constrained, but I got involved in our industry and communities, immediately joining the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, the Metro and then Sunrise Rotary Club, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, and within a few years of starting my company, became the chair for the local chapter of PATA, or the Pacific Asia Travel Association. I was on the board for the Hawaii Lupus Foundation and also my local homeowners association, all within the first five years of starting the company.

“Involvement in boards and committees helps with building a network in our community, your industry and neighborhood. We learn new skill sets and by doing the right thing, build a strong reputation individually and for our company.”

And with local reputation in hand, your marketing message will be that much more effective.

These platforms help companies diversify their hiring efforts, build employer brand, and most importantly, recruit new employees. Emy Yamauchi-Wong, manager at Altres Staffing, offers tried-and-true methods for social media recruiting.

1. Be selective about your social media platforms

More isn’t better: Not every platform is right for every business and chances are, you don’t have time to manage a half-dozen social media accounts. Start with a platform that makes the most sense for your business. Then evaluate how well you can support it before branching out.

2. Promote your employer brand with meaningful content

Unless job seekers know someone at your company, they don’t know what life is like inside your walls. That’s why having a good reputation as an employer is important. Share meaningful content that relates to company culture, perks, awards and milestones.

3. Take advantage of job posting tools

LinkedIn and Facebook have built-in job posting tools that make it easy to connect with job seekers. You can post jobs, manage applications and follow up with candidates all within these platforms. They also have paid options to target audiences based on locations, job titles, experience and more. You also get analytics about how your job post is performing.

4. Enlist employees to be brand advocates

Content shared by employee advocates performs 24 times better than content shared by company brands. Round out social media recruiting efforts by looping in existing employees – ideally those who are well-trusted and well-connected. Encourage employees to share posts and like or follow your company page. 

5. Engage with your followers

Engagement is critical on social media. Always respond to applicants who apply to your jobs, like comments from followers, comment or share business-related posts, and tag others when appropriate.

In the competition for top talent, social media provides companies a viable pipeline of future workers. Assume that everything you post to social media has an underlying recruiting message or purpose. You never know what aspect of your company will hit home with a prospective employee.

Did COVID-19 take you by surprise? You’re not alone. No matter what we do, no person—let alone business—can ever fully be prepared for the effects of something as globally impactful as a pandemic. But that doesn’t mean you can’t adapt. If you’re unsure how to get your business COVID-19 ready, here are some simple yet essential tips for staying connected to your customers while they shelter in place.

1. Before you do anything else, make sure your basics are covered.

Update the homepage of your website so that the user doesn’t need to search. Keep your homepage timely and up to date, including:

• Current menu offerings
• Changes to your restaurant’s hours
• Updated service availability
• Are you currently offering curbside pickup, online ordering or delivery? Be clear about the many ways your customer can order, and make it as easy as possible for them to take action.
• Don’t hide your call-to-action behind multiple clicks—make it as obvious as you possibly can!
• Share what precautions you’re taking to keep customers safe
• Update any online listings including YELP and Google My Business
• Update your social media bio to include your take-out / delivery options
• Email your customers with your new hours of operation, take-out options, etc.
• Create a physical banner announcing that takeout and delivery is available, along with your phone number or website

If you don’t have a website, now is the time to make one. Use an easy-to-navigate platform such as Squarespace or WIX. Also, if you don’t have a Yelp or Instagram account, it’s important to create one now so customers can easily find your information.

2. Offer items other than just food.

• People are looking to support local restaurants. Offer gift cards and merchandise as add-ons to orders. Encourage people to purchase more with a special offer, such as a free $20 gift certificate when you buy $100 worth of gift cards.
• If you are selling merchandise, encourage people to post a photo of them wearing it on social media and tag your restaurant to be entered into a contest. It gets your logo and messaging out in a visible, free way.
• Offer cocktail kits or, now that alcohol can be ordered, offer wine and beer specials.
• Double as a general store. If you can get hard-to-find essentials, such as flour or yeast, offer that to your customers.

3. Include a handwritten note in takeout orders to build or reinforce your relationship with your guests.

4. Consider using third-party delivery services, such as Bite Squad, Uber Eats or DoorDash, to help widen your reach.

5. Offer new menu items, family meal packs or special daily menus to create excitement and return guests. Play off of special days of the week (i.e. Taco Tuesday).

6. Bounceback Offers: Include bounceback coupons in takeout meals to incentivize repeat orders.

7. Be social. Post great-looking food photos on Instagram for your followers to like, share and salivate over. Overcommunicate with your audience on what’s new or changing with your business, but be positive. Use all aspects of social media including IGTV, Instagram Live, Facebook Live and more. Connect with your customers by showing them how the magic happens behind the scenes and highlighting the back-of-house employees who are working hard to facilitate takeout orders. You can also feature your customers on social media. Ask customers to post their meals on social, and repost—not only to grow your audience, but to build your personal relationships with your current customers as well.

Some relevant social media hashtags to use:

• #AlohaForHawaii
• #SaveRestaurants
• #OpenforDelivery
• #DoYourPartChallenge
• #SupportSmallBusiness

8. Create Zoom Backgrounds of your Restaurant. Have customers who are working from home? Give them Zoom image backgrounds featuring your front-of-house to download and use during their conference calls.