7 minute read
Kooltura Marketing
from Retro 6.4
Written by Anna Bagirov | Photography by Daniel Garcia
When facing new challenges, business owner Omar Rodriguez applies the agile and powerful principles of soccer.
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When you first meet Omar Rodriguez, you would never take him for a business owner, father of two, husband, mentor, and a supporter of the arts. He looks young, far younger than his 34 years. There’s no hardness in his eyes, not one line on his face, that would hint at sleepless nights, financial struggles, or the recession-caused soul bruising that so many of us thirtysomethings have been dealt (and have kvetched about) over the last seven years. He smiles warmly and often. He is humble and remarkably positive. He speaks so lightheartedly and matter-of-factly about his life’s dramatic knocks and triumphs, that you can’t help but ask yourself, “What’s this guy’s secret?”
Perhaps it is that Rodriguez has stuck to a set of selftruths and a vision of how his life would be. “I always knew I wanted to own a business.” He emigrated with his family from Mexico in 1991 and grew up in San Jose’s Eastside, with school and soccer as his main focus. “I never saw it as a struggle, being Latino or being part of an underserved community. It wasn’t a bad neighborhood. But many kids, it seems, almost get pushed into gangs or jail. Soccer was my outlet. I was self-driven. I wanted to thrive. For me, it was simply, “What do I need to do to be successful?”
His passion for graphic design began at Lincoln High School. He majored in graphic design at West Valley, but by the time he transferred to SJSU had decided firmly that he lacked the artistic chops to continue on with it as his main area of study. “I am not a graphic designer,” he stresses. “You will never hear me calling myself that. I love design, but my specialization is marketing.” He graduated with a marketing degree in 2005, a track he felt would be a seamless meld of his love of design, while helping him achieve his lifelong goal to work for himself. Rodriguez was doing marketing for a real estate company but was let go when the economy collapsed. He was a father now and he took a job in retail to make ends meet. He does not sigh, look embarrassed, or show any hint of a bruised ego when he says this. He simply says, in the shoulder-shrugging way of someone much older and wiser, that he did what he had to do and that he made some difficult choices along the way to continue pushing towards his goal. There is never any sign of discouragement or selfpity. “It was always the possibility, the possibility of being in business for myself, while doing something that fulfilled me, that kept me going. I made sacrifices and I always kept an eye out for opportunities.”
He launched two businesses around his other passions: a website of local soccer leagues and a Mexican pop culture T-shirt company. Neither took off. However, he never hints at any feelings of failure or disappointment. He met Tamara Alvarado, the Executive Director of San Jose’s School of Arts and Culture, in whom he saw a leader, and subsequently became heavily involved with the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, where he became a member of the host committee. “I feel like I didn’t know San Jose and never felt part of any community, other than soccer, before I became a part of the arts and cultural community.” In 2009, he started a creative studio. Kooltura Marketing was born.
At first, Kooltura took any work that came its way. As Rodriguez networked with local artists and nonprofits who were doing meaningful work in the Bay Area, and was attending the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute program, the mission of Kooltura began to crystallize. This close network of creative, artistic, determined beings, all helped one another. Some would become clients.
“Have an open mind to collaboration,” Rodriguez stresses. “A lot of people are afraid of that. Often a next step is not possible without it.” His niche was becoming more and more clear. The identity of Kooltura, something he wrestles to define to this day, was beginning to emerge. He was beginning to understand the particular need for multicultural marketing in San Jose. It was coming together, and it was making sense. “It is so diverse in San Jose. Some Hispanic people, for example, are not embedded in the online community; they still need something in print. I do a lot of print,” he says. “The marketing has to speak to the people. We feel we are within the community, so we understand it. You cannot say this for a big firm based in New York or San Francisco. We had to take a stand on who we are.”
Kooltura works through the paradigm of multicultural marketing, a form of marketing that bases its strategy and methods on the people, culture, language, and history of the community it hopes to target. Kooltura has targeted San Jose’s Mayfair community and downtown San Jose. Kooltura’s marketing is not tailored to the masses. The services are tailored to a small radius, whether it be a neighborhood, a community, or even a section of the city. The studio often works with organizations or individuals with limited budgets.
Today, Kooltura is a full-service marketing and design studio. It provides branding, website management, social media, and graphic design for local artists, companies, and nonprofits such as GIANT Creative Services, Blackbird Tavern, The School of Arts and Culture at the The Mexican Heritage Plaza (where Kooltura is located), and recently Silicon Valley Beer Week’s KraftBrew Fest.
“Kooltura is not for everybody. It’s for small organizations, communities, and initiatives. We look for the people who make San Jose. An event such as KraftBrew Fest feels like it’s the beginning of something bigger, “ he says smiling. “And we are part of that.” Kooltura also provides services to local artists, a client type with the most limited resources. Rodriguez provides the entrepreneurial guidance they need, but sometimes neglect to invest time in because they are busy concentrating on their craft. “We feel we have carved out a niche. We work on a very hands-on level. It’s not for everybody.”
Today Kooltura marketing is made up of six people: himself, his wife Maria, and four independent contractors. Running the studio is hard work and financial stability is still a day-to-day concern. A business owner’s life is not a worry-free one and there are no guarantees, but Rodriguez maintains a predisposition of cheerful zen and calm acceptance to whatever may be a part of his journey.
He is even more inspirational for his outlook than for his remarkable achievements. He looks upon the risk-taking and the unexpected ups and downs as simply part of the journey that led him to where he is today. Every business he started, he points out, never felt like work, because it was something he loved. As in soccer, where goals are rare and far between, he continues straight on, readjusting his footwork, always believing in, always ready for, the next kick, wholeheartedly trusting that this time the ball will crush the net, no matter who or what tries to block it. “If you have a passion, stick with it,” he says. “Find a way to make a living out of it.”
Rodriguez points to another key ingredient in his success alongside the talented people that make up Kooltura: the city of San Jose. “San Jose has so much to offer. There’s so much opportunity for anyone with the willingness and passion to make things happen.” He adds, “If I went to San Francisco or to Oakland, I would have to become part of what is already happening. In San Jose, I am part of the creation of it. Here you build it. You make it possible. Here you create it.” And, unquestionably, Omar
Rodriguez has. The goalie never really had a chance.
koolturamarketing.com | facebook: KoolturaMarketing | twitter: @koolturadotcom
