JOHN SCOTT, STERLING INDUSTRIES

John Scott, the 43-year-old founder and CEO of Sterling Industries, knows how to create interest and draw a crowd in ways that have made Sterling one of the most recognized names in the home furnishings industry. Originally chosen "for its solid, Old World sound," Sterling is now a family name, that of his 4-year-old son. The Sterling Industries brand of home accessories has been rounded out with Platinum Bay lighting and Diamond View mirrors, and Scott says the silver-platinum-diamond precious metals wordplay is pure coincidence.

It's certainly no coincidence, however, that the Norcross, Ga.-based company is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year in a new 370,000-sq.-ft. facility. Scott, who has been known to use food, drink, scarecrows, pigs, diamonds, grab bags and money machines to lure buyers into the Sterling showrooms, says that for him, money spent on advertising is like investing in a 401(k), or putting money in a savings account.

For Scott, a Thunderbird international business school grad, 10 years of success didn't come without a lot of hard work, which is why he likes to have fun with it now. Take the Sterling tote bags, for example — the ones that have become such a market fixture they've achieved commercial success in their own right as collectibles, with bag sightings reported everywhere from Alaskan cruise ships to college campuses.

"The first bags were made of paper," Scott said. "Then it was all about coming up with something that would make the name stand out, and something they'd keep." The next year he ordered 60,000 straw bags from Vietnam and had them spray painted in a bright green color that, when wet, ran all over the place. "So we got rid of all 60,000 and have done them in fabric ever since, adding stripes, sequins and polka dots."

The newest addition to the Sterling tote bag line is a special anniversary edition, a black and white leatherette model covered in a designer pattern of small logos. It's also a bit of a throwback to Scott's early years in the fashion industry, where he landed after thwarted plans to attend medical school led him, instead, to business school.

"After graduation, I chose three companies I wanted to work for — Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne and Christian Dior, and sent each of them my resume, printed on a T-shirt." Ralph Lauren was the first to respond, so it was off to New York for Scott and his then-new wife, Rita. "I started out in manufacturing, spec-ing fabrics for suits and menswear, and eventually learned a lot about importing."

When he and Rita first started out on their own, it was jewelry. "We didn't have a whole lot of cash, so we started small," Scott said. Accessories came later (they financed their first 50 products) and then furniture. "We grew through the early '90s but it was the jewelry sales in the beginning that helped get us off the ground."

Scott's time with Ralph Lauren, famous for his successful marketing of an idealized old-money lifestyle, and even more famous as the first designer to appear in his own advertising, still sparks inspiration. "We weren't close friends or anything, but working closely with him, seeing how he lived — it really made an imprint."

Now, Scott enjoys his own bit of advertising fame, thanks to a year-long print campaign in which he's played the roles of ringmaster, construction worker, policeman, agent 007, sheik, mad scientist, leather-clad biker, doctor, firefighter, farmer, astronaut and Indiana Jones, all promoting Sterling products with vocation-appropriate puns. "The firefighter was my favorite," he said. "The person I borrowed the outfit from had fought a fire earlier that same morning, and it still reeked of smoke."

When asked if his creativity extends to his personal life, he recalls last Halloween when one of his two daughters wanted to enter a local costume contest. "I said 'yuck' to the idea of a store-bought costume and encouraged her to be creative so she went as a picnic table, complete with grass on her legs," he said. "I realize I'm not the norm but I can't settle for mediocre."