Torque Blog

February 18, 2010 – 11:31 am

Navigating the New Normal: Midmarket Companies in the New Economy

Best of times, worst of times? Maybe…and no doubt a thrill of you’re a stimulus junkie entrepreneur. Here’s what we’re seeing: Midmarket companies face multiple challenges: the wobbly economic recovery, global competition, and relative invisibility in a business world dominated by the lore and legend of Fortune 500 companies.

Torque has been working with midmarket companies and increasingly find this to be not only a sweet spot for our agency services, but somewhat of a holy grail for the economy and our nation’s prosperity as a whole.

Consider that midmarket companies drive about half of the nation’s economy, including 45% of all jobs. Niche midmarket players are the seat of innovation, playing a well-understood role in generating new ideas for business, often to be acquired and scaled by large corporations, themselves unable to innovate at the same levels.

However, the challenge remains: where do we go to engage the dialog for midmarket ideologies and practices? Who identifies with being a midmarket business owner or manager? I’d like to know what you think. Please voice your views here, or join an upcoming discussion on March 16. See below for details.

Some of the leadership voices in this investigation are people we’re working with, and sharing the dialog. I look forward to hearing from you, as well.

By Kevin Masi | Posted in Agency News, Event News, Marketing Leadership, Midmarket | Tagged Agency, Midmarket | Comments (0)

February 13, 2010 – 12:38 pm

Redefining Solar ROI

Unique Solar Solutions, a solar thermal heating system manufacturer, needed to launch the business and build its brand image in the marketplace. Torque positioned the Company as an industry disruptor, against the high-end (read: expensive) solar photovoltaic market. Torque designed the company logo and brand standards, then developed the website to highlight USS specialization in pragmatic heating cost reduction for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. The website showcases how Unique Solar Solutions offers the most efficient solar thermal system ever, reducing the cost of heating fuel, lowering the carbon footprint, and providing the world’s best return on investment for industrial and institutional facility owners and managers.

Logo and brand identity

Website

By Kathryn | Posted in Agency News | Comments (0)

January 7, 2010 – 7:36 am

Managing the Wobbly Economic Recovery

MENG Evening Marketing Leadership Town Hall Meeting January 21

Marketing leaders are in the line of fire. We’re on the road to the New Normal, but it promises to be a wobbly and unpredictable economic recovery. Fully exposed to the volatile pressures of an uneven recovery, marketing leaders must learn to navigate the change. This wobbling recovery will present challenges as we strive to manage reactions (and overreactions) within our organizations, markets and customers.
Join our guest moderators—veteran marketing leaders— who will share experiences from current or past exploits, to spark discussion about how we might all learn to balance the wobble:

Gaye Van Den Hombergh, President, Winning Workplaces

Jerry Rosen, Chief Executive Officer, Rosen & Brichta

Shari Matras, VP Brand Management & Strategy at Career Education Corporation

Part one will address managing expectations and events that occur within the organization, such as increased expectations from top management as well as dealing with fear and anxiety from direct reports.

Part two will examine managing expectations from outside the organization, e.g., communicating with customers and maintaining a positive response to the information flowing in from the company’s audiences, such as through social media.

I hope you can participate in the passionate debate and creative ideation of the issues of managing the wobbling recovery of this economy. Attendees will have the opportunity to exchange their views, visions and apprehensions, helping to shape this leadership charter. See what the minds of MENG have to say, and be sure your point of view is heard!

Event Essentials and registration
January 21, 2010
Location: Information Resources Inc., 150 N Clinton St, Chicago, IL
Drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvre buffet
5.30p networking
6.30p – 8p program
8p-8.30p networking
Admission: $30 members, $40 non-members

Friend MENG Chicago on Facebook

Join the MENG Chicago Ning community

Follow MENG Chicago on Twitter: twitter.com/mengchicago

The facility for this event is generously provided by IRI

By Kevin Masi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

December 14, 2009 – 3:28 pm

Tis the Season to Venture Something New

It’s the season for many things: festivity, shopping, and last but not least, connecting with people. The holidays are a time of year when many people acknowledge they want to feel more connected to others. They let their guard down and embrace the messages and experiences that are all around them. And in doing that, they discover a side of themselves they never expected.

Last Friday, in the spirit of connecting, we held our Torque holiday party. We opened the doors wide, and invited friends, clients, vendors and associates. It was a great success. What made it even better was having long-time friend and highly talented photographer Angela Swan photograph our guests in wildly unexpected ways. Angela changes what can be an awkward occasion into an engaging, spontaneous experience that makes for lasting memories.

Angela has modified her business model to be unique in a crowded market of event paparazzi and wedding photographers. She gently pushes, prods and cajoles party guests to leap with wild abandon into the air, where she captures them in a clear moment of euphoric glee. She calls her business Jump Shots, and hires herself out to events as a photographic experience. Her images are provocative portrayals of people indulging their uninhibited selves and connecting through pure play. They can transform an otherwise ordinary event into a lively surprise.

Angela is a great example of how a company can depart dynamically from a predicable service, to provide a unique offering. I found her work to be a clear reminder of how important it is to make a product stand out, get remembered and build connection. Don’t take my word for it: see for yourself how the Torque party guests flew!

By Eric Masi | Posted in Event News | Comments (0)

December 10, 2009 – 3:21 pm

Reinventing Business at The Hilton

Hospitality has been hard hit by the current downturn. But the host must go on, and the hotels that are rethinking their customers and the communities they serve are finding a way forward.

Darla Sinnard, Catering Sales and Convention Services Manager at the Hilton Lisle/Naperville has done just that.

She began more than 18 months ago with an attitude of: how can I re-think revenue streams when overnight guest stays are down? As with many hotels, she has focused on events and event planning services. But she’s gone further. She has reached out to the community, hosting fundraisers for charities and showcasing vendors in her community. The revenue is modest, but that’s not her only measure of success. The nonprofits appreciate raising even a thousand dollars, and her vendors and suppliers appreciate the exposure during slow times. Of course this all occurs in the upper tiers of society where Hilton naturally moves.

In addition, Hilton Lisle has rolled out a Signature Toffee, announced this Thanksgiving and offered during a wine pairing dinner event. This Chocolate Pecan delight is the handiwork of Nick Landeweer, Executive Chef at Allgauer’s Restaurant.

As Darla takes stock of the Hilton Lisle/Naperville’s performance over the past two years, she notes that many other hotels are not doing as well (neither top-line nor bottom-line). She attributes this to having been engaged with the surrounding community, with local organizations and of course with her vendors. As the economy turns around, she expects the relationships that she has been careful to maintain and nurture, to flower into new volumes of traditional guests and overnight customers.

Darla has focused on the Hilton brand promise and the customer tribes in their habitat around her hotel. She has held the long view, a patient approach to building relationships and business in a time when more direct or aggressive sales may have been off-putting. The result is strong relationships and a business that keeps moving forward despite difficult times.

It is our view that the virtues and practices of tribal customer relationship development and brand building, which depend on long-term exchanges of value and consistency, will deliver the greatest business returns over time. Companies and brands that focus too closely on sales transactions and operations will be left vulnerable in challenging times when the marketplace becomes extremely choosy about how it spends money.

Follow Hilton Lisle on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hiltonlisle

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