In San Francisco, expectations of visitors run high, as they should. The city is spectacular, expensive, and wrought with tourist-traps all the same.  I have to know where to recommend clients and guests shop, dine, relax and have a glorious time while they are visiting. We host conferences here for public relations agencies from around the world (IPREX network, www.iprex.com), I attend professional conferences here, and I travel to other cities to speak, learn and attend to client business.

I also know the impact of peer-to-peer recommendation and word of mouth marketing for a business’ reputation and growth potential. It’s only natural for me to practice what I preach.  Whether by reflex or perennial practice, I can’t help but take note when I encounter an exceptional customer experience. That is why I’ve compiled this not-so-short list of a few of my favorite things to do, see, shop and be in San Francisco:

Best wine and spirits retailers

• Cask – 17 Third St., San Francisco
• Draeger’s Market – 222 E. 4^th, San Mateo – Also in Menlo Park, Danville and Los Altos
• Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant – Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, San Francisco
• Jug Shop – 1590 Pacific Ave. (off Polk), San Francisco
• K&L Wine Merchants – 855 Harrison St., San Francisco – Also in Redwood City
• PlumpJack Wine & Spirits – 3201 Fillmore St., San Francisco
• Weimax – 1178 Broadway, Burlingame
• Whisky Shop – 360 Sutter St., San Francisco
• Wingtip – 550 Montgomery St., San Francisco – (wine & spirits in the back)
• There is always Bevmo, highly commercial, but excellent selection (stores throughout Bay Area)

Best men’s retail stores in S.F. Bay Area

With some further qualifications — you won’t find highly swanky or ultra modern shops mentioned here, although all listed below are upscale. You won’t find for “youth only” clothing that wouldn’t fit you anyway. What you will find are upscale labels, tailored, off the rack, tasteful men’s clothing for guys from 35 to 75+. You’ll find help that knows their business and knows how to fit their customers in straight forward, stylish threads, whether casual or for more dressed occasions. Some of them are more casual than others, and some offer bespoke. If you know a store in other parts of San Francisco or the Bay Area, let me know, and I will be happy to review for inclusion here.

• Couture, 395 Sutter St., S.F.
• Gene Hiller, 729 Bridgeway, Sausalito
• John Varvatos, 152 Geary St., S.F.
• Sarrtori, 740 Laurel St., San Carlos
• Ted Baker, 80 Grant Ave., S.F.
• The Hound, 140 Sutter St., S.F.
• Wingtip, 550 Montgomery St., S.F.

*Also, in San Francisco, three top-shelf department store men’s departments – Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom (both downtown Westfield Center), and Sak’s Fifth Avenue Men’s at 220 Post St., San Francisco.

Best sights, activities and views while in San Francisco and the immediate Bay Area

By the water

• Ocean Beach the Cliff House restaurant, Sutro Baths just below and view point just above
• Ferries on the Bay
• The Embarcadero – walk the waterfront for miles or hike between the distractions on the way
• Ferry Plaza – one of the great Embarcadero distractions; shopping and dining, ferries and views
• Treasure Island – look back for a spectacular view of the downtown skyline
• Crissy Field and Marina Green
• Great Highway, hike the path alongside and just above the ocean
• Fort Funston and Lake Merced
• Crystal Springs Reservoir

Hills

• Twin Peaks – high point in San Francisco
• Mount Davidson — also right in the city
• Land’s End – you’re at the edge; stunning
• Bernal Heights Park
• Mount Sutro
• Marin Headlands (the views, Point bonita Lighthouse, Marine Mammal Center)
• Mount Tamalpais – drive, bike or hike all the way up
• Berkeley Hills and Tilden Park
• Mount Diablo – one of the highest points in the entire region; hard to fathom you are a short drive from downtown (not at height of commute time)

Cool Towns

• Tiburon
• Sausalito,
• Berkeley
• Burlingame
• Palo Alto

Attractions

• Fort Point and Fort Baker and the Golden Gate Bridge linking them
• Jack London Square, Oakland
• City Lights Bookstore and the Beat Museum (both in North Beach)
• Angel Island (S.F.’s Ellis island for Asian immigrants)
• Union Square – shopping, people watching and home to Fineman PR
• Golden Gate Park – hiking, biking, museums
• Alcatraz – worth it I promise
• S.F. Jazz Center
• Beach Blanket Babylon
• Presidio – former military post, now national park
• Filbert Street Steps
• Stern Grove summer concerts
• AT&T Park (home of the S.F. Giants)
• St. George Spirits Distillery (Alameda)
• Emeryville Public Market
• S.F. Civic Center (Opera, Ballet, Symphony, City Hall, Asian Art Museum)
• And not to be forgotten, the mainstays: Coit Tower, Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery, cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, and crooked Lombard Street

Museums

• Legion of Honor
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
• De Young

San Francisco neighborhoods

• North Beach – Columbus Avenue, Italian flavored, vestiges of old bohemians, restaurants and bars
• Castro – LGBT-centered, edgy
• Marina – Think singles, Chestnut Street, Marina Green, Bay views from Fort Mason to Fort Point
• Noe Valley – gentrified, families, 24^th Street shopping
• Chinatown – touristy but authentic
• The Mission – still Latino but more and more the younger folk in hip restaurants and bars
• Telegraph Hill
• Nob Hill
• Russian Hill
• Fillmore – lots of shops
• Haight-Ashbury – where it’s still the ‘sixties
• Richmond – down Clement, think fog
• Sunset – down Irving, think fog
• Union Street – near and related to the Marina
• Hayes Valley – a “scene,” near San Francisco’s Civic Center
• Potrero Hill – Think Bullitt car chase, street scenes up and down, up and down, up and down
• Pacific Heights – Billionaire Row
• Bernal Heights – Cortland Avenue shopping village thoroughfare

Watering Holes with views

• Top of the Mark (Nob Hill)
• Top of the Marriott Marquis The View Lounge (downtown)
• Waterbar – along the Embarcadero, almost underneath the Bay Bridge; also good fish and seafood
• Pier 23
• Starlight Room (atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel
• Cityscape Bar & Restaurant (Hilton)
• Cliff House (on the ocean)
• Slanted Door – in Ferry Plaza; also known as one of the best restaurants in the U.S. (Vietnamese/Pacific rim)
• Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 – several
• The Ramp
• El Techo (rooftop bar in the Mission)
• Mission Rock Resort
• Ferry Building
• Beach Chalet (near Cliff House, sometimes called Park Chalet)
• Green’s – wonderful vegetarian restaurant in Fort Mason along the Bay
• The Waterfront Restaurant
• Coqueta – a personal favorite
• La Mar Cebicheria – Peruvian; beautiful space along the Embarcadero, on the Bay with terrific food
• McCormick & Kuleto’s – in Ghirardelli Square
• Scoma’s Sausalito
• Sam’s Tiburon
• Skates – on the Berkeley side of the Bay
• Claremont Hotel – spectacular views from the Oakland hills
• Cavallo Point – at foot of Golden Gate Bridge on Sausalito side

Extended Stay/Exploring Nearby

• Wine Country (Napa and/or Sonoma)
• Russian River
• Carmel/Monterey
• Half Moon Bay
• Santa Cruz
• Point Reyes
• Stinson Beach
• Muir Woods
• Bodega Bay
• Muir Beach
• Ano Nueva State Park (elephant seals)
• Gold Country
• Big Sur
• Lake Tahoe
• Yosemite

The post That’s What He Said: My Guide to Do, See, Shop and Be in San Francisco appeared first on Fineman PR.

For agencies, CMOs and in-house communication teams, January also means revising timelines and 2013 campaigns, identifying key target audiences, tweaking integrated marketing strategies, pooling human and digital resources for the big launch, and establishing benchmarks for success.

January also kicks off a new year of trend watching as trade show season brings forth thrilling new products launches. Take this week’s CES in Las Vegas as a prime example:

Remember the scene from Minority Report (2002) when a hologram salesperson from the Gap scans Tom Cruise’s stolen eyeballs, then proceeds to ask about his recent purchase?

11 years ago this movie was nothing more than science fiction fantasy, but this clip is a creepy reminder that the future is, in fact, now.

Taking cues from immersive consumer research, manufacturers are revealing exciting new interfaces, smart TVs, eye-tracking devices, mobile and wireless automated control,  gaming and social media integration, 3D printing and other home manufacturing products to drive the ‘consumer as producer’ trend even further in 2013.

No matter what category you’re in, keeping an eye on the trends that emerge from cross-disciplinary industries is a trick of the PR trade for calibrating exciting, newsworthy initiatives and understanding the standards that drive buzz and claim rank amongst top-tier media.  And I’m not just talking tech here, this is true across all consumer product goods and services. Whether from CES, SXSW, BIOMED, Fashion Week or The Fancy Food Show; when industries collide and cross-pollinate, innovative concepts are born for breakthrough campaigns.

Here at Fineman PR, we’ve been fine-tuning our pitch-perfect process by keeping our fingers on the pulse of emerging consumer trends in 2013 to help us predict fresh angles and stay ahead of the curve. Trendwatching.com recently revealed its top 10 consumer trends for 2013, and below are  five which held some strong PR implications. You can read the full list on Trendwatching.com:

1.   PRESUMERS and CUSTOWNERS

2013 will see a rise of Presumers and Custowners. Presumers love to get involved with, push, fund, and promote products and services before they are realized. Custowners are consumers who move from passively consuming a product towards funding/investing (if not owning a stake) in the brands they buy.  Blame it on Kickstarter and guilty-pleasure TV shows like Shark Tank – business-savvy consumers are investing financially and emotionally into brands. The new U.S. Jobs Act will also help realize this by now allowing non-accredited U.S. investors to buy micro-equity in start-ups. 

What it means for PR:   The innovation story always garners attention and established brands will be tasked with tracking momentum from competitive projects. Crowdsourcing platforms can be PR opportunities in and of themselves as more reporters and bloggers track submitted concepts and project funding status. The proliferation of start-ups and investors personally attached to pet projects will result in loyalists and self-promoters who will start claiming associations on social media profiles, and this can be an opportunity for identifying influencers early on for activating partnerships. Brands can take bold initiatives and ask more from this participating audience which can result in a better social media voice and engaging content.

2.   MOBILE MOMENTS

The next 12 months will see an explosion in Mobile Moments: products, services and experiences that will enable mobile-loving consumers to embrace (seamless) lifestyle multi-if-not-hyper-tasking. A survey of U.S. adult smartphone owners found that 63 percent of female respondents and 73 percent of male respondents don’t go an hour without checking their phone (Harris Interactive, June 2012).

What it means for PR:   When the QR code first burst on the scene a few years ago, skepticism and questions of ROI and integration for campaigns were abound. Now they are on many new CPGs (consumer packaged goods) and are relatively commonplace in major metropolitan markets. Wireless technologies and location services will be able to pull more customer information and lifestyle data on the go. As marketing seeks to draw information from consumers, it’s the job of PR to provide new brand narratives for customer participation.  Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest are giving consumers more good reasons to like or share stunning displays, visual stories and mood-setting imagery for communicating brand values in a snapshot.  If the question arises for quick and easy mobile access to content, the answer should always be “yes.” If content isn’t yet mobile friendly, 2013 is the year to make it happen.

3.   ECO-CURIOSITIES

Dubbed “New Life Inside” products by Trendwatching, an eco-mini-trend for 2013 is the phenomenon of products and services that quite literally contain new life inside. Rather than being discarded or even recycled, these products can be planted and grown, with all the eco-status and eco-stories that come with that.

What it means for PR:  Consumers are paying attention to socially responsible initiatives and ‘eco’ still excites. Trendwatching makes a good point here – that symbolic, even playful statements of brand values will resonate with consumers, especially if they are seen as expressions of larger intent to take more meaningful action.

4.   APPSCRIPTIONS:

With more than 13,000 health apps in the Apple App store, it’s not a case of finding an app but finding the BEST one and – given that this is a health issue – one that is accurate and safe. In 2013, expect consumers to turn to the medical profession and medical institutions to certify and curate these products, with doctors also ‘prescribing’ them, much as they prescribe medicines, as part of a course of treatment.

What it means for PR:  Information overload and resources for categorizing, curating and sifting content will remain a top trend story not just for healthcare, but across all other industries. Healthcare is most impacted in this arena and opportunities for streamlining electronic medical records and updating the International Classification for Diseases are important issues facing the industry in 2013.  Products or services which offer a solution, including credible third-party certifications and populating peer-reviews will need to take center-stage for SEO initiatives and for keeping reputation in check.

5.   MADE IN THE USA:

In 2013, manufacturing is coming home.  Four out of five U.S. shoppers (76 percent) notice “Made in the USA” claims and labels and are more likely to purchase products labeled as such ( Perception Research, July 2012).

What it means for PR:  Product origin stories remain stronger than ever – especially locally-sourced, hyper-local, niche online/offline communities and self-sustaining/sustainable principals. Sponsorship can go beyond visible brand associations and up to the next level of participation. Breakthrough stories can include corporate operations which are beneficial to “the greater good” but counter to growing profit-margins. Of course transparency, honesty and content remains king.

So what are your resolutions and plans looking down the barrel of 2013? We hope to see you in the future…

The post A New Year: PR Resolutions, 2013 Consumer Trends and What Minority Report Tried to Tell Us appeared first on Fineman PR.