By JEFF BOUNDS, Dallas Business Journal
Published on February 11, 2005
© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Linked with permission of Dallas Business Journal; www.bizjournals.com
In the Metroplex, Jocelyn White is known as many things.
Former television weather forecaster. Arts and entertainment reporter. Radio newscaster. Magazine journalist.
But over the past few years, White has, behind the scenes, become something else: A brand builder.
White created a TV production company, Jocelyn White Productions, which does a 30-minute syndicated show she hosts called “Designing Texas.” In addition to giving viewers peeks into homes of rich and famous denizens of the Lone Star State, the show runs features on projects by famous designers and identifies cool and unique items for the home. It also includes segments on how the technically uninclined can do everything from reframing art to growing orchids.
Now in its fifth season, “Designing Texas” airs on five stations statewide, including WFAA-TV (Channel 
in Dallas, according to the company’s Web site.
And, borrowing a page from Martha Stewart’s pre-scandal career, White is using the Designing Texas brand to launch a series of related ventures.
Her company has created two new productions. One, “Designing America,” essentially follows the “Designing Texas” formula but is geared toward a national audience. It airs on Mark Cuban’s high-definition TV network, HDNet.
In another venture, Designing Texas Dream Homes, White’s company puts a Web cam on-site at a local residential development, allowing visitors to her Web site to follow construction of a snazzy house. Updates on the home’s progress are included in the “Designing Texas” show.
Behind the scenes, White’s company offers a service called Designing Texas “Advertiser” Benefits, which develops commercials and corporate videos for landscaping companies, craftsmen and other home-related service businesses that may not do much TV advertising. Those spots can run on “Designing Texas.”
Most recently, White launched the Designing Texas Catalog. Available online and in print, it features home decor and gifts that, in White’s view, are unique and whose makers have interesting stories. White’s company gets a slice of all sales.
Next up: “Bride TV,” a show on planning Texas weddings set to air on KDAF-TV (Channel 33) in April.
“What we try to do at the production company is to find niche markets without shows being done, or done well,” on appropriate topics, White says. Her goal is to roll out one new show a year.
Looking for help
So far, the approach seems to be working. White’s company had more than $1 million in revenue last year and expects to hit $3 million to $5 million this year. White is in talks to bring in someone with a strong business background to run the production company so she can focus on the creative part, which is her forté.
Greg Bustin, president of the Dallas management consultancy Bustin & Co., says White’s strategy mirrors that of many packaged-goods manufacturers, which add new shapes or flavors to products that they’ve branded strongly.
“The question you ask yourself is, will people accept that as a premise? And clearly they do, because she’s been a success with her other ventures,” he says.
One issue, he adds, is figuring out how far this approach can go before White’s brand starts to become diluted. “The other question is, how many of these can (she) sustain?”
Though those are tricky matters, he notes that before encountering legal problems, Martha Stewart built an empire using a strategy similar to White’s.
Said Bustin: “It’s a fascinating business model.”
Copyright 2008 by Greg Bustin & Co., unless otherwise specified. All Rights Reserved.
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