Beholder Productions Blog

“Trust has never been more relevant in today’s world, especially in such difficult economic times.  Now more than ever: the ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust with all stakeholders-customers, business partners, investors, and co-workers-is the key leadership competency of the new, global economy. Trust is a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing.”

-Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust

Craig and I had a discussion, stemmed from the 30 other conversations we had this past week, about what is the most important element we could present to our clients, prospects, partners, etc.  And, amazingly, we came with a unanimous consensus that we own a company that can be trusted.  It’s our need to express to anyone who is interested in developing a relationship with us, as an individual or through Beholder, is that we are ethical professionals, genuinely interested in their well-being.

Now here’s the tricky and frustrating part… how do you do that without first establishing a relationship?  Well… you don’t.  I wouldn’t.

Quick story on trust – About 15-16 years ago, Craig and I set out to buy our “first” car together.  It was an exciting time.  If I recall, we walked into a Toyota dealer, one woman seated us in one area, a gentleman came in and asked us to come into another room, and then a 3^rd gentleman came in to highlight all the wonderful things about their dealership, in a completely new cubicle.  As we were being piggy-backed room to room, I became increasingly annoyed because we actually didn’t like any car there.  Why didn’t we leave then?  Because they had our car that we drove in with, in the mechanic’s area, to establish its value as a trade in.

After asking politely the first 3 times, and if you know me personally, my tone changed to that of, “You don’t want to make me angry….” expression.  We told him we were not interested and just wanted to go.  And asked what is going on back there that you can’t just give us our car back? Mind you – it’s been about 3 hours!

He said quietly and sheepishly, “What?  Don’t you trust me?”  – I hit the cubicle wall and said “I trust you about as much as I trust this tack on the wall. I don’t know you and all I know is you have my car and won’t return it.”   Needless to say, within 5 minutes of this brief tirade, for fear of driving off other customers, we had our car and headed home.

They never established any sense of trust.  The brand itself built up a perception that it would be wise for us to go into the dealership… but the team inside ruined that experience… that expectation… the deal.

Final thoughts - Be consistent.  Build the relationship. Build your brand based on what you expect to provide.  And then do what is expected… if not go beyond their expectations.

Til next time…

Emilia

Beholder saw this coming over a year ago…  And no, we don’t have any magic powers.  It’s just that when you work in our field, you can “foretell” what will happen based on trends.

And the trend that I’m talking about is integration.  Companies CANNOT continue to do business the way they’ve always done business.

In order to keep the demand flowing, you need to fully integrate your message to your target audience and utilize different distribution outlets.  Case in point with the Inquirer… they did not move swiftly with the variety of applications they could have incorporated long ago… and in the web/ new media world… 1 year IS long ago.

Right now, they are focusing on restructuring their debts and are not focusing on their operations.  Well, shame on them!  Everything has to be restructured.  Because, as we all know, advertisers rule the world.  Without a new distribution/  integration plan… including operations and production… you just run around in circles.

If you’d allow me to give my 2 cents, and IF you’d like to seriously consider my suggestions – Brian Tierney, give me a call.  215-674-1612.

Til next time… Focus on your message.  Deliver a quality product/ service.  And keep moving forward!

Emilia Andrews

Please see here if you haven’t seen the “cartoon” that was published by NY Post.  http://steveharvey.com/call2action.html

I truly have nothing else to write, but fire them.  Discontinue all strips from them.  It’s a disgrace.

Have we seriously digressed so many years?  Or is this a horrifying, true depiction of what some folks still feel, believe, and endorse.   And I do mean… SOME.  Are we’re finally out of the politically correct time frame and will we now start to see people’s true colors?  I personally would rather know exactly what you’re feeling / believe, so that I can make a true assessment of your character. Back to basics, eh?  Virtue, morals, ethics.

Or is it a function that sales have been down so much that they’ll do anything to get more and more people to buy their product, visit their site, or talk about them?  ugh…

What issue are you trying to resolve today?  this week? this month?  this quarter?  Clearly, we’re all a bit tired of looking at the national/ global issues on the news and the web.  What we propose, as we have done with ourselves, is to take an in-depth review of your needs and goals.

Do you have a marketing , training or HR solution you need to accomplish? By providing a complete visual communication solution to your needs, we are able to target your audience, enhance retention, improve interactivity, and ultimately, positively impact your bottom line.

Give us a call to discuss your situation and let’s work together to help get them resolved.

215-674-1612

Talk soon…Emilia

With the DTV transition date fast approaching, there was much speculation that the February 17th deadline for all networks to switch from analog to digital would be delayed. After much debate, Congress finally changed the hard date from February 17th to June 12th of 2009.

With the new date solidified, television networks are still trying to make the switch to digital prior to the new June 12th transition date, however, the FCC is looking to implement a law that requires networks to give viewers at least 30 days notice prior to the switch.

Personally, I feel that the delay was necessary for a few reasons:

1) Nearly 6.5 million people would be left with no connection should the switch take place on February 17th. Although that may be less than 5% of viewers, that is a lot of people who will be without a primary form of media.
2) The lack of education on the transition is a big issue as well. Yes, there have been commercials, ads, etc. airing for the past year about the transition, but I feel there was little to know effort in how people install their converters and, more importantly, how to use them. I recently saw a message from Michelle Buckman of Fox-29 about the transition and I found what she was saying to be a bit humorous. She mentions the cut-off date and that you need to get a converter box, but then she goes on to say how you need to rescan your channels because fox 29 will be airing on channel 42 instead of the regularly broadcasted channel until a certain date… etc, etc, etc. Do you know how many people have no clue what she was talking about? And, why is this being aired what would be less than two weeks prior to the transition? Why not months before? I actually appreciate what Fox-29 did because it’s the first time I saw someone actually trying to educate viewers about it, but let’s get real nobody is paying attention to it.
3) Those that were against the delay said that it would prevent emergency responders to be on the same level to communicate between each other. For how great that will be once the transition occurs, we’ve done pretty well without it so I don’t think 4 more months will be that much of an issue.
4) ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Verizon and AT&T all supported the delay, including a number of public safety organizations.

Even though I support the delay, I must say that there were quite a few excellent points to mention on why the delay would be a terrible idea:

1) Networks that are broadcasting in both digital and analog signals are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional electricity costs to air their networks on both signals. In other words, money wasted and electricity wasted.
2) With the February date solidified, the analog spectrum space was sold to willing buyers and the government already cashed nearly $20 billion dollars in checks that were written to buy the spectrum space. Now that there is a delay, it’s like telling someone who bought your home that they can move in on February 17th, cash their check, then tell them two weeks before they are supposed to move in that you decided to wait a few more months.
3) Finally, and this is what I found to be the most interesting point, when the February 17th, 2009 date was set for the transition, it was said that once 85% of the American viewers were ready for the transition that it had to be executed. As of January 22nd, 2009… 95% of the American viewers were ready for the transition.

Yes, both sides have strong cases as to why the transition should happen immediately or why it should be delayed, but the fact of the matter is that television in most cases, and especially for the elderly, can be the most important connection to the outside world. Many people who don’t pay for cable still watch free television religiously. Taking that away from them can be a disaster.

What are your thoughts on the DTV delay? I would love to hear your feedback and hear why you agree or disagree with my choice. You can comment on our blog whenever you want and I will be sure to answer as soon as possible.

Until next time,

Matt