ED/c Partners

We’ve worked with regions, counties, communities, government agencies and state networks to help create productive, well-managed economic growth. Talk with any of our clients. They are our very best cheerleaders, champions and salespersons. But first, read more about us HERE …. Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://www.edcgrow.com

ED/c Partners is our new core services division specializing in branding and marketing strategies for economic development, community marketing and SBA/SBDC program visibility. We have rebranded that part of our business to underline our expertise in economic, community and education development branding and outreach. ED/c Partners will help you Get Noticed and Get Growing in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

Branding is not a buzz word at ED/c Partners and Presentation Plus. It’s what we do. Lori Martinek has been developing insightful branding strategies for her clients for decades — and that experience is reflected in both their success and ours.

We create strong, successful brands for companies, communities, people and products that are clear, relevant, memorable and strong. They project positive energy into the marketplace, attract attention and interest and inspire engagement, trust and loyalty with target audiences. Our branding strategies are based on benefit-driven positioning statements that target your best prospects, online and off.

We help our clients Be Visible … Get Found … and Get Funded.

Visibility is the key to success for any county, community or region — large or small. A positive public image is important to every community or education-related organization and its mission. Whether you’re looking to build visibility, increase participation, identify and secure funding for key initiatives, reach out to key stakeholders or fulfill your program reporting requirements, we can help. ED/c Partners is the next evolution in our success story … and yours. … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://pplusonline.com

Branding is all about visibility, awareness and perception. Everyone has a brand, whether they choose to work at it or not. People who know you, do business with you or hear about you from someone else each form a perception about you. This happens whether you are proactive or not, so it is definitely to your advantage to frame those perceptions and expectations.

You can see the impacts of successful branding in website and social media traffic … inquiries … sales … and invitations to network, speak, bid or sell. These are all measurable (look for incremental gains.) Choose the variable by which you measure your effectiveness/success and benchmark it before you begin an aggressive branding effort.

People are attracted to bright, visible brands … companies … and people AND confidence creates confidence. Raise your visibility, raise your profile and you will increase your success. Do it strongly, condidently and clearly and you will make it (much) easier for people to choose you or your company. People like to be associated with success, in both their business and personal lives.

This was the premise of my book … Be the Bulb! … which talks about strategies for attracting the types of people and opportunities that we all need to be successful. Branding is the biggest tool in that arsenal. You can find it on Amazon HERE. … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author

Strong, sucessful brands are clear, concise and consistent … and they should be communicated clearly, concisely and consistently, always.

A strong brand is easily understood. It is based on a relevant Brand Promise and a compelling Reason Why. It is that Promise and Reason Why which ‘position’ the brand in the prospect’s mind. There should never be any doubt as to what the promise — and the promised benefit — is. You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospects to get excited about your brand.

Strong brands are concise. They have been whittled down to the core promise and concept and don’t need a lot of words or images to get their message across. They appeal to a basic need or want — and when they do it well, they are very powerful. Think Nike. Apple. Think iconic.

Strong brands are consistent in their promise and their delivery. They are communicated, shown and used in a consistent way. Always. Consistency is critical to building brand strength and franchise. Trust is a powerful motivator and trust comes from familiarity. Consumers buy brands that they know and trust.

A brand is a set of expectations, perceptions and experiences that other people have and hold in their minds about what it would be like to do business with you … or buy your product … or visit your community. It is  entirely subjective on their part. You can influence it, and you should. Branding creates the expectation and the perception. Delivery creates the experience. Make sure that your brand is based in reality … and that it delivers on its promise, every time … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has greatly simplified the certification process for its Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract Program.

The WOSB program levels the playing field for women-owned companies to compete for and win Federal contracts. The program an be utilized for contracts of up to $5 million for manufacturing and $3 million in other sectors.

Participating companies must be 51% owned by women who are U.S. citizens; a woman must hold the highest officer position and work full-time at the company; and long-term decisions for the company must be made by the women owner/officer. Applicants can self-certify and receive assistance from an AZSBDC Center. (See AZSBDC website for locations.)

Good news: The new program has no minimum time that the business has been operational, which makes new and emerging companies also eligible for WOSB certified status.

Learn more about the program and view the SBA presentation HERE.

Read the Federal contract regulations HERE

Certification opens the door to a lot of opportunity. Certification has never been easier. Explore the possibilities today.

Your brand’s message must convey a compelling benefit that fulfills a need or solves a problem that your target audience has, or finds themselves faced with.

If your brand is offering a solution, it must be a solution that is perceived as practical, desirable and believable. If you are describing a bundle of services or strengths, those attributes must be perceived as offering tangible results and being value adding.

Someone has to want, need or desire what you are offering if you are going to be successful. More importantly, they have to know that they want, need or desire your product and its benefits.

A great message strategy sets up a situation or need, makes a Promise, includes a believable Reason Why and Asks for the Sale – typically in very few words or through a single compelling image. Great advertising and media messages are a challenge to create and the most memorable ones are often stunning in their simplicity (‘Just do it!’).

Those of us in the advertising industry know that it only looks easy. An enormous amount of research and thought has to go into the process. 

Forget what some adult may have told you when you were younger: It is far better to be seen AND heard.

To be seen and heard, you have to break through the avalanche of messages that are launched each day, online and off. Social media and online marketing have made this both easier and harder than ever before by creating more ‘noise’.

As you plan for 2012, keep these two very important concepts in mind:

There are FOUR steps in the marketing process. Only four. Attention. Interest. Desire. Action. Get someone’s attention. Keep their interest. Make them want to do or buy something. Inspire them to take action. Master those four steps and your marketing will succeed.

There are FIVE questions that you must be able to answer BEFORE you invest time or money in marketing: 1) WHO do you want to speak to? 2) WHAT is important to them? 3) HOW do they get their information to make purchase or other decisions? 4) WHICH media do they use to get that informatoin and, therefore, 5) WHERE can they be found?

Put yourself in front of your best prospects in the setting of their choice and you will have a much better chance of being seen and heard. And remember: Attention leads to Interest, which leads to Desire, which leads to Action … sound familiar?

That’s how it works … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://pplusonline.com

Learn more about V-Wise here: http://whitman.syr.edu/vwise/ 

And be sure to Like the V-Wise Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/VWISEconference 

Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://pplusonline.com

Too often, the fear of change — or uncertainty — keeps us from moving forward. Familiarity equals comfort, but it doesn’t usually translate to progress.

Seth Godin has a way of summing these things up neatly or, at least, of presenting his thoughts in a way that makes ME think about how I feel about the way that things work … and the way that they should.

Change is a requirement of progress. You can not move forward without it. Change does not always lead to progress, however, so ‘change for the sake of change’ is never a good strategy.

But getting out of your comfort zone is. Once you accept the status quo, progress is over.

Those are my thoughts. Here are some of the questions that Seth advises us to ask ourselves when confronted with a new idea. Do we: 

• Consider the cost of switching before we consider the benefits?
• Highlight the pain to a few instead of the benefits for the many?
• Exaggerate how good things are now in order to reduce your fear of change?
• Grab onto the rare thing that could go wrong instead of amplifying the likely thing that will go right?
• Focus on short-term costs instead of long-term benefits?
• Embrace an instinct to accept consistent ongoing costs instead of swallowing a one-time expense?
• Compare the best of what we have now with the possible worst of what a change might bring?

Get uncomfortable and keep moving forward! … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://pplusonline.com

Crisis comes in many forms … including natural and man-made disasters, economic challenges, social inpropriety or scandal. Companies, communities and even countries of every size are challenged by crisis. How to react? When to respond? What to say (or not to say)? And to Whom?

Disasters that affect regions can be particularly challenging, whether we’re talking wildfires, hurricanes or oil spills. Mother Nature or man-made, it doesn’t matter. So many voices. So many interests. Getting everyone on the same page is critical.

The common denominator to disaster of any kind is damage — not only to property or landscapes or infrastructure, but to brands and reputations and the regional economy. The impact on businesses, key industries, tourism and future economic development often continues, long after the physical clean up has taken place.

Last summer, I travelled to the Gulf Coast with the IEDC (International Economic Development Council), as part of a national incident response team. The group, which included economic development subject matter experts and representatives from the SBA, USDA, HUD, Homeland Security and the White House, was charged with assessing the damage to the regional economy and with suggesting strategies to help bring it back. Big damage had been done to the Gulf Coast tourism, seafood and economic development brands, even as the region was still rebuilding from 2005′s Hurricane Katrina. What was clear from the start is that Katrina may be in the past, but it was not (and is not) history. Post-crisis perceptions continued.

Last month, I offered advice in crisis outreach and branding to businesses that had been impacted by the Wallow Fire — the largest wildfire in Arizona history. The month-long fire left people across the country thinking that the White Mountains had been destroyed and that the forests and lakes were all closed. Tourism was threatened. Small businesses worried about survival. The mountain was — and is — alive and well. It was perceptions that needed to be changed.

You can listen to me talk with radio host Barbara Bruce about strategies for marketing outreach after the Wallow Fire … rebuilding tourism on the mountain … and next steps for the Real AZ Corridor HERE. The interview includes strategies for using social media to get the word out in any situation — fast.

Here’s the Takeaway: Areas which suffer from recurrent wildfires, hurricanes or crises of any kind adapt by learning to deal with disaster, recover efficiently and manage internal and external expectations. Crisis can also lead to opportunity, as strange as that may seem. A crisis can be an opportunity to:

      – Be more proactive in communicating;
      – Polish up the brand;
      – Create new industries around recovery or mitigation;
      – Rebuild better, stronger communities; and
      – Become a model for effectively dealing with disaster.

Disasters come in many forms and crisis can crop up anywhere. We specialize in helping regions, communities and companies assess real or potential damage, identify short-term AND long-term issues and work collaboratively to develop — and implement — strategies that repair, rebuild and sometimes even restructure brands that have been damaged by crisis or catastrophe. Even better: Having a plan in place so that you can react quickly when crisis occurs. Let us know if you’d like to talk about it. … Lori Martinek, Branding Expert & Author, http://pplusonline.com/