Where is Mulberry Street?
There are streets named Mulberry all over the place. In fact, there’s probably a “Mulberry Street” in just about every county in the U.S. But they have very little to do with us. We’re actually headquartered in Ocean Park, Washington and Pismo Beach, California, on streets that are not named Mulberry, and replicated in offices around the country.
People ask me often what’s the significance of the name. So here it is…
I am a big fan of the written word. I am also a fan of books that make children want to read and of the people who write them. Take Theodor Geisel, who would later become the famed Dr. Seuss. After finishing his education at Dartmouth and Oxford he launched his career, remarkably, in advertising. But after publishing his first children’s book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” in 1937, his life and children’s literature were forever changed.
The story is about Marco, a young boy whose father has instructed him to pay attention to interesting things on the way to and from school. Taking his dad’s advice, Marco’s imagination reveals increasingly exotic sights until he is bursting with excitement as he rushes to report to his dad everything he has “seen” on his way home. (If you have never read it, I suggest that you arrange a three-way call with your mum and your first-grade teacher and figure out what went wrong.)
For me, this concept translates to the marketing imagination, to the entrepreneurial spirit, and the fact that there are no real limitations, either in life or in the pursuit of success. We are only bound by limitations that are self-imposed.
Another influence was the Mulberry Street Gang of New York City, circa 1900, consisting of three “media revolutionaries” named Jacob Riis, Nikola Tesla, and Joseph Keppler, who independently and collectively freed the city of the scourge of corrupt businessmen and politicians. Not only did they improve life and the business climate in their own neighborhood, they defended democracy and opened new doors for freedom of expression and justice.
But mostly I named the company Mulberry Street because of the book, and because life – and work – are best when you realize that you can make things turn out any way you want them to. And I hope you do.
Ruth Danielson
president and founder
Mulberry Street . . .
It’s a company about a story: Your story.
