Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Synergy Production Group and World Vision’s Experience Hope Sunday

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Synergy Production Group has successfully finished its first week of dress rehearsals for World Vision’s Experience Hope Sunday Tour!  The tour is scheduled to launch with its first event in Naperville, IL on August 29, 2010.  The Synergy and World Vision staffs have been working hard to ensure this unique event can easily accommodate a vast variety of host churches.

Experience Hope Sunday is an honest and inspiring journey to Africa that introduces viewers to two young children that have been orphaned by the HIV/Aids pandemic and face a perilous journey to their only remaining family.  The story is truly compelling.  World Visions seeks to raise awareness for children and families all over the world using the story Derek and Margaret, the two young children from the film.  Believe Pictures produced the film and Synergy Production Group is producing the event and has put together two teams that will be traveling with exhibits across the country.

Once again, Synergy is very proud to be working to improve the lives of others by partnering with an outstanding organization like World Vision.  We are greatly looking forward to the results this exhibit will produce.

If you would like your church to be involved, it’s quite simple.  The event is free to host!  I will be posting details regarding the process of signing up as soon as the website is finished.

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Uncovering Your Sweet Spot Part 2

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

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Do you know your sweet spot? Are you using technologies to your advantage?  What technologies are available?  Whether a product driven company or an idea and intellectual properties driven organization, you have to be able to think outside your office walls.   For example, as a product based company you may want to understand what your consumers think of you. Forget the granular level of thinking and float to the top to better understand how they view your products. What makes your product better?  What emotion does it evoke? You may respond by telling us that your product doesn’t need to evoke emotion but rather it serves a very practical use and therefore people will want it.  Lets go with that for a minute.  It is practical.  It is functional.  It eventually wears out, breaks, or ceases to exist.  Are your consumers tied to the brand or the functionality?  If the functionality, they will seek out another functional piece, most often selected based on lowest price.  While this model is okay, do you really want your base to be tied to the lowest common denominator?  If so, someone will always beat you out in product or brand placement.   If you are content to play this game, then no need to read on further. If you want something different, read on.

Why does your brand or cause need to evoke emotion?  On BrandingStrategyInsider.com, they hit the nail on the head with several statements:

To achieve brand insistence the consumer must trust your brand and feel an emotional connection to it. People become emotionally connected to a brand for a number of reasons:

  1. The brand stands for something important to them.
  2. The brand is intense and vibrant.  It connects with people on multiple levels across several senses.
  3. The brand is unique.
  4. The brand is admirable.
  5. The brand consistently interacts with them.  It never disappoints them.
  6. The brand makes them feel good.

They go on to say the following:

“good service is all about creating positive feelings, treating people well and solving people’s problems.

Ultimately, emotional connection will come from positive shared experiences with the brand over time.  While this trust is built over time, offering an unconditional guarantee is a quick way to reduce the risk of a new unknown brand and to generate some minimum level of trust immediately.”

Chew on this and take a look at your brand.  Do you use emotion to activate your core base?  Do you use emotion to drive their perception of your brand?   NOT YOUR NAME.  YOUR BRAND. Big difference here.   In our business we create touch points for our clients in the form of events.  We are often on the forefront of audiences impression of our clients and what they have to offer.  We connect on emotion.  In the 3rd part of the three part series, we will outline methodologies that Synergy uses to help our clients uncover their sweet spot, activate, and expand their core base.  Happy Thursday.

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Uncovering your sweet spot – Part 1

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

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Expanding your brand. How is this accomplished in today’s economy of business that is fast paced and here today and gone tomorrow? For many businesses, the allure to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks or media platforms. While they increase your name recognition, what do they do to increase your brand? There is a difference between name recognition and brand awareness. Social networking, while powerful, provides a forum in which the consumer decides on their own how they interpret your brand. Do they know your name? Yes. Do they understand what you do and who you are? Probably not.

How can you fix this? How do you address your core members and unpack your brand for them while limiting your marketing costs? To do this, a business or non-profit must understand it’s sweet spot and how to drive its audiences into the center of this sweet spot. Scott Davis of Brandweek, states, that the benefit of understanding this sweet spot are obvious. First, you get greater flexibility in driving out new products and services. Second, you are able to potentially serve segments of the market you may not have had a prayer of reaching earlier. Third, you help to make competitors appear incredibly one-dimensional. Fourth, you’re able to exert more channel power. And fifth, you can drive your company’s growth agenda more confidently.

You know the benefits but for many the question still remains. How do I uncover this sweet spot? Tomorrow, we will answer this question with an example of what we have seen work with our clients and offer additional technology solutions that will activate your core base.  Happy Tuesday

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Shared Intelligence

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

SharedIntel

Often times in reading, I come across blogs from other companies or leaders that inspire me to write my views. However, in this case, I came across a great blog from a former CEO and I thought rather than me try and expound, I would just put the entire blog here for you to read as well.

All Credit to http://www.hlworkshop.com

“Dick, they hate you.”
“Who hates me?”
“The people who work for you hate you.”

That was a tough day. Someone decided to tell me the truth about how I was doing in my first position as a boss. It was the day I learned that boss is a four letter word. It was the day that I learned that controlling is not leading. It was the day I learned that leadership is a job, not a position. It was the day I began to transition from “me” to “we.” It was one of the hardest days of my life, but one of the most important.

Have you had a day like that? Do you know if you are a boss or a leader?

If “authority” is a word you use a lot—you’re a boss.

If you believe people work for you, not the organization—you’re a boss.

If you control and approve every action and decision—you’re a boss.

If you believe you have all the answers—you’re a boss.

If you love policies and rules rather than principles and values—you’re a boss.

If those same policies and rules don’t apply to you—you’re a boss.

If the best and brightest don’t stay long—you’re a boss.

If everything comes to a standstill when you’re gone—you’re a boss.

If you use budgets as a hammer—you’re a boss.

Don’t trust yourself to answer these questions objectively. Ask someone. If you are as fortunate as I was, they will tell you the truth about yourself. It may hurt, but you need to know because, “Boss is a four letter word.”

Many of us our leaders in some capacity or another.  Take this and dwell on it and think how this may impact your day to day lives.

More news coming from Synergy this week.

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Does your brand standout and why? -part 1

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

stand out

Recently, I was cris-crossing the country on multiple airlines, staying in multiple hotels, and overpaying for rental cars in each market and I decided to conduct unscientific simple research into how well people know national brands and why.   I was armed with my iphone and twitter account and decided to have a little fun.   This project included restaurants, hotels, airlines, and anything else I could find.

I found one restaurant that was identified simply by its colors and the pattern they displayed.  It was proven that the red and white stripes of TGI Fridays were very recognizable. The bigger question is what was that recognition attached to?  Was it good food, good experience or annoying flair?  That night my experience was poor service and poor food.  Thus the red and white stripe logo took a negative hit in my mind based on that experience.

A second test was conducted with the slogan of an airline.  ”The Most Destinations Worldwide”    No one recognized this statement.  I wasn’t surprised because it is bland and very non-committal.  So you have the most destinations worldwide, so why am I paying for peanuts?   A statement that offered customer service would be something that would make an airline stick out to business and personal travelers.

Your identity goes much deeper than a logo and a slogan.  Do you have a slogan that works with your branding?  If so, what does it reflect?  Is it bland or committal?   If you have a service business, you probably shouldn’t highlight your customer service.  Why you ask?  That is expected.  If you are in the service business I expect you to have good customer service, otherwise we have nothing to discuss.

Take a few days and look for brands and slogans that you come in contact with daily and think about how they affect you.  If you have your own business whether for profit or non-profit, evaluate your own branding.  Does it reflect you or is it broad strokes on paper?  Does it call your clients to action or put them at a distance? If you won’t commit, why would they?  Think on it and leave us your comments.  Part 2 will come later this week as we explore a few more examples and discuss our perspective.

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