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Youth Group Creates 'Street Marketing' Cooperative in Red Hook

 A member of Kaluk dresses as a pea pod for a marketing campaign for the Red Hook Farmers Market.
A member of Kaluk dresses as a pea pod for a marketing campaign for the Red Hook Farmers Market.
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Kaluk

RED HOOK — Young entrepreneurs are taking charge of their careers with a grassroots marketing cooperative they own and run.

Kaluk officially launched last week but its team of 18- to 25-year-olds has been developing and growing the business, which they run as a cooperative, since earlier this year.

The members, most of whom are from Red Hook, have been working with nonprofits, local businesses, politicians and other worker cooperatives on guerilla or street marketing campaigns, said Reginald Flowers, the cooperative’s mentor who also serves as its customer service rep.

“Street marketing is when you’re going out into the public and engaging potential customers,” Flowers said.

“It’s basically using an unconventional means to do something that’s conventional.”

That means Kaluk members aren’t looking to passively hand out fliers or print newspapers ads.

The group prides itself on finding eye-catching ways to “grab people’s attention and engage … imaginations,” including a street play they plan to stage for an upcoming campaign or dressing up like a pea pod to promote a local farmers market, Flowers said.

Kaluk was founded by a group of graduates from South Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school in Red Hook, with support from Good Shepherd Services and the Center for Family Life.

The cooperative also seeks to ensure its employees are treated right.

“One advantage in operative as a cooperative is that we cut out the cost of middle management,” according to Kaluk’s website.

“Clients can expect to pay $25 per hour for every person engaged in the delivery of their service of choice. This allows Kaluk members a fair income while covering operating cost.”

Aida Pedroza, 21, a SBCH graduate, is one of the founders of the group. Pedroza sees Kaluk as a way to empower youth to take their careers into their own hands.

“Nobody really likes those 9 to 5 jobs,” she said. “It’s given them a chance to do something else.”

And in operating the cooperative themselves, the team makes its own decisions about content rather than having to run ideas by upper management.

“The workers know what works best. But you always have the higher-level corporate people telling you what works,” she said.

While Kaluk is still in its infancy, the dream, Flowers said, would be for its 11 workers to serve as full-time employees with enough financial support.

The cooperative’s services have primarily spread through word-of-mouth. Earlier this year, Councilman Carlos Menchaca hired the group to engage locals during the participatory budgeting process.

While Kaluk’s clientele has mostly focused on Red Hook businesses because of pre-existing relationships, members are looking to work with others outside the neighborhood and in other boroughs, Flowers said.

“It’s a service and it’s a service that depending on the needs of the client can vary widely,” he said.

Pedroza never thought she’d end up in marketing but now sees a long-term career in the field.

“I even changed my major in college,” she said.