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Martha Stewart Visits Promax/PDA

Jun 22, 2005  •  Post A Comment

Martha Stewart Wednesday told the Promax/BDA convention she had to spend two days “trying to convince my probation officer that this was essential business.”

She said “I shouldn’t joke about it, but it did take me quite a long time to make him understand what Promax was, so I got to learn a little bit about Promax and about what all of you do and how me speaking to you would have a beneficial effect. So please back me up on that if he calls you.”

Ms. Stewart told the conference about building the “Martha Stewart Living brand through communications, commitment and consistency,” and said the company had done proprietary research to find out how much damage the brand suffered while she was going through her legal troubles and incarceration. The research found that quality and style are still the top factors that differentiate Martha Stewart products from all others and why consumers said they buy them. But “we’re still not out of the woods,” she added.

Ms. Stewart also talked about her two upcoming TV projects.

She said the NBC show, “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” will be “quite a bit different” from the original Donald Trump version of the show.

She said she asked Martha Stewart Living employees for suggestions of what to say when contestants were eliminated instead of Mr. Trump’s famous “You’re fired.” She said she got some “doozies,” plus the predictable “You’re not a good thing,” or “You’re a bad thing.” Those won’t be used, and Ms. Stewart said she wanted to keep the actual phrase she will use as a surprise.

She also said a new Manhattan studio is being built for her syndicated daytime show “Martha” that can hold an audience she said will be “very participatory.”

She said she expects to have a dog day, in which the audience will bring their pets to the studio, and a lemon day, featuring the lemon trees she adopted from Jon Bon Jovi. The singer might be persuaded to appear on her show, she said.

Ms. Stewart also has a deal to do a channel on Sirius Satellite Radio called “Living on the Air.”

She said the radio show brings her back to her roots because, “We were the last family on the block to get a television.”