Where’s Home?
Home is where the aroma of Mama’s chocolate tea dances up your nostrils waking you from slumber like an alarm. Home is where the taste of Rum punches you softly. Home is a candle lit on the entrance table that lights up the house with a scent of tropical paradise. The smell of jerk escaping the jerk pan…pimento, scallion, pepper is home. Home is Jamaica.
Christmas is the time when families return home. Things Jamaican is the home that the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) has built for authentic Jamaican brands. It’s a space where local creators, artisans, and small businesses come together under one roof. The retail store chain is one of the largest retailers and promoters of authentic, high-quality Jamaican products, supporting hundreds of local artisans and producers islandwide. From handcrafted souvenirs to premium food items, ‘TJ’s’ diverse range spans across Food, Fashion, Gift & Craft, Aromatherapy, and more.
The Entrepreneur Weekly takes you home to the Things Jamaican store presenting 5 reasons for shoppers to come home:
1. The place where Jamaican brands are born
2. Home of over 500 authentic Jamaican brands
3. Showcasing the best of Jamaican creativity in food, aromatherapy, fashion, gift and craft and more…
4. Premier one stop shop destination for all things authentically Jamaican
5. There’s no place like Things Jamaican
Janine Fletcher-Taylor, Manager of the Marketing Services Unit at the JBDC says this year’s Christmas campaign – 5 Reasons to Come ‘Home’ this Christmas is a representation of the store’s tagline ‘Home of Authentic Jamaican Brands’. “So, coming home to TJ [Things Jamaican] for us, is the favourite place to be.”
Fletcher-Taylor continued, “And it’s when families gather, families come home to a central place and so on. And Things Jamaican being the home of authentic Jamaican brands, (of over 500 brands), we are also saying, when you come home for Christmas and when you are having your meal, your parties and your feasts, exchanging of gifts, and you’re dressing up to go out and all of that – come home to ‘TJ’ means partake of the products and the brands that we represent to do these festivities and make it about Jamaican brands this year. So basically, come home to ‘TJ’ is about coming home to Jamaican brands.”
Brands like: Liberton for all your seasoning and sauces, Paris Ruby, Karley’s Dawta for your traditional Christmas Cake mixes and Mama Ruby’s with a pre-made Christmas Cake in a box. And for Rum Punch lovers? Things Jamaican says, get Spiritz.
Nothing says Jamaica like a keepsake that carries the soul of the island. Candles that spread the serenity around the house from Beautiful Vivid Elements or K-Mena’s. For hair and skincare, Aloe Blends packages the best of Jamaica’s natural resources in their line of hand-made beauty and self-care products such as hair growth oils, hair and body butters and body scrubs.
Christmas for Jamaicans is where the best crockery and home décor comes out. What says home like craft curated by the best artisans in Jamaica – one-of-a-kind pieces from Robert Campbell, Cecile Gelb and Kabreco’s?
Wearing Jamaica is always in style around the globe. Rock Jamaica with handmade accessories from Pink Cinnamon and Broomie.
The 5 Reasons to Come ‘Home’ this Christmas campaign was created before Hurricane Melissa struck the island. But after the devastation, the message connects even stronger. One of the simplest ways to help is to buy home brands. When consumers choose a local brand that delivers quality, they’re keeping a business afloat, keeping families earning, and helping the wider economy to recover.
In a post-hurricane message, Harold Davis, Acting CEO of the JBDC tells Jamaican Micro, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) that they possess the resilience to continue to deliver, “You {Jamaican entrepreneurs] are among the most innovative and creative people in the world. You have the imagination to create new products, the ingenuity to find new solutions and the determination to turn every step back into a setup for growth. So, while Hurricane Melissa has tested us, it has not broken us.”
An agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment & Commerce, the JBDC is mandated to develop Jamaican MSMEs. The agency is inviting shoppers locally and worldwide to come home by standing behind the Jamaican people who create products they love to eat, wear and gift by visiting a Things Jamaican outlet at Devon House, Norman Manley International Airport, the Corporate Store at 14 Camp Road, or online at www.thingsjamaicanshopping.com.
