1. Competitive Response: Want to bad mouth your competition?
2. Is email marketing spam?
3. Case Study: Updated collateral gives Open Port sales team materials they need to sell next generation technology
4. Recipe: Penn & Teller's bleeding heart

We're Hsuan-min Chou and Blythe Howard-Chou, founders of Jumping Bean Communications. Do you know someone who can use our marketing writing services? Forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague, or point them to www.jumpbean.com.

1. Competitive Response: Want to bad mouth your competition?

Take a look at some pieces.

2. Is email marketing spam?

Last month we talked about how email marketing was an important piece in your integrated marketing program. But is email marketing spam? B2B Magazine reports that, "Almost half of business users now define spam as 'any e-mail from a company they do business with but that is sent too frequently.'"

How can you change your customers' minds that you're NOT spamming them?

Obviously, sending fewer emails can help. And adding "opt-out" policies is a good plan.

Are there any others? If you have found ways to limit the amount of emails you send to your customers without negatively impacting your marketing plan, send me a note. I'll post your replies in the next "bean news".

Lost that recipe for hummos? If you still crave it and other recipes, visit our recipes archive.

3. Case Study: Updated collateral gives Open Port sales team materials they need to sell next generation technology

Open Port Technology was launching version 2.0 of its flagship product, IP LaunchPad. Because IP LaunchPad underwent significant design changes and was targeting a new, nascent market, Open Port needed to redo all of its collateral—from brochures and datasheets to the Web site and multimedia.

Jumping Bean helped Open Port launch the IP LaunchPad platform to telecommunications carriers around the world.

Read the case study.

4. Recipe: Penn & Teller's bleeding heart

Just in time for Halloween, Jumping Bean brings you Penn & Teller's Bleeding Heart! Mwaah ha ha ha!

(It is rather long, but VERY descriptive and detailed)

The title says it all. It's the perfect coup de grace for your intimate dinner at home. As your guests sip their coffee, you unveil a glistening pink gelatin heart on a pedestal cake stand. Then you whip out a carving knife and stab it. Dark, gooey blood issues majestically from the wound. You cut dainty slices off the lobes of the heart and flip them onto dessert plates. Just hold each portion of heart under the oozing gash until it is nicely sauced with gore, add a dollop of whipped cream, and serve.

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of water
four 3-oz. boxes or two 6-oz boxes of peach (pink; think of lung tissue)
or strawberry (redder; think of livers and hearts) gelatin dessert mix.
4 envelopes unflavored gelatin
one 12-ounce can unsweetened evaporated milk

1/2 cup grenadine syrup
1 cup light corn syrup
one small bottle (0.3 fl. oz.) red food coloring
3 drops blue food coloring
one 1-gallon food-storage bag (the plain kind without the zip closure)
6 1/2 cup heart-shaped gelatin mold or cake pan

PREPARATION

Boil the water. Put the packaged gelatin dessert and unflavored gelatin in a bowl and pour the boiling water over it, stirring constantly. Cool to room temperature (very important or the next step may present problems). Stir in the condensed milk. Note how it already is acquiring the color of freshly skinned flesh.

Pour the mixture into the gelatin mold. Cover the bottom of the mold (this will be the top when you serve it) with a layer about half an inch think. Refrigerate until it gels firmly.

Meanwhile, prepare a nice bladder of blood. Stir together the corn syrup, grenadine, and food colorings. For the bladder, take the gallon-size food-storage bag and turn it inside out. Pour the blood mixture into one corner of the bag and twist it closed so that no air bubble is caught between the sauce and the twist. Tie a knot in the twisted plastic. Adjust the position of the knot so that when the bag lies on the counter, it's about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high, and tighten the knot. With a pair of scissors, snip off the frilly extra plastic outside the knot.

When the gelatin on the bottom of the mold is stiff and firm, position the bladder of blood in the mold, with the point of the bag just inside the point of the heart. Make sure there is at least 3/4" of space between all sides of the bag and the walls of the mold (this will ensure that your guests don't see clues ahead of time). Pour in the remaining gelatin until the mold is as full as you can handle. Don't worry if you see a little of the blood-bladder grazing the surface of the gelatin, as longs as it doesn't project too much; the side you are looking at now will be the bottom when you serve it.

Refrigerate until gelled firmly to the texture of fine, lean organ meat. It takes about 4 hours.

To unmold, put about 2 1/2 inches of hot, but not boiling water in your sink. Set your mold in the water so that the water comes just below the edge of the mold for 15 to 20 seconds; the time depends on the thickness of the mold pan. Remove the mold from the water, and run the blade of a knife around the edge of the gelatin. Invert your serving platter, ideally a white pedestal cake plate, on top and hold it firmly in place. Then use both hands to turn over the mold and the plate. Remove the mold; you may need to tap or shake the mold slightly to free the gelatin.

FULL RECIPE>>

Penn & Teller's How to Play With Your Food© 1992 by Buggs & Rudy Discount Corp.
http://www.britta.com/HW/HWr.html#heart

Even better, there's a recipe for Dried Scabs! http://www.britta.com/HW/HWr.html#scabs

Mwahh ha ha ha!

Expand your culinary world by trying one of our recipes.

What other recipes would you like to see? Send your favorite to recipes@jumpbean.com, and you just might find it in the next edition of "bean news!"

All icons used in this issue of "bean news" are free to download. Providers are: I-MIL Corp, Apple Corp.

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