The value of planning is immeasurable

By Don Schempp, Senior Vice President of Torrey Pines Bank
Jan 01, 2010

By necessity, local businesses and residents have tightened their belts and are delving into savings to get through these tough times.

These are good short-term solutions, but the important question is what will be the lessons that endure once the economy changes from downturn to recovery and eventually to growth and prosperity?

I’ve been in banking for almost 40 years and I’ve seen many recessionary periods and times of great prosperity. The common denominator in any economic cycle is that planning for the future is fundamental to achieving your financial goals. Read more!

Here at Zenzi, we strive for excellence in all areas of the marketing matrix. We pride ourselves on keeping up with every new trend and delivering unprecedented PR results. In an effort to increase the quality of our PR efforts, we have launched the Zenzi SEO PR service.

Zenzi SEO PR is a new service that leverages blogs, online and traditional media, reviews, video search, photo search, events and social media networks to influence and optimize your Website results.

With Zenzi SEO PR, we have expanded the traditional definition and approach for SEO to include both Organic SEO and Universal SEO. Organic SEO is about optimizing your own site. Universal SEO optimizes links from influential sources such as reviews, video sites, social media and directories, which can either positively or negatively impact your website’s level of relevance.

We offer a variety of SEO PR plans to fit your individual needs. Please give us a call for more info!

He’s French (but don’t hold it against him!) says Christophe Morin of SalesBrain, a dedicated researcher in the field of neuromarketing. For many years, he has been on a quest to find the “buy button” in the brain, and his findings may surprise you.  Instead of decisions being made in the frontal lobe, the highest cognitive functioning part of the brain, they are happening in the brain stem, or “old brain” or “reptilian brain,” which is 500 million years old. It acts on basic instincts and is responsible for sleep, respiration, and other life critical functions.

So, how can companies use this knowledge of where decisions are made to influence customers and accelerate the marketing decision making process?  Integrate some of the basic principles of neuromarketing and make a quick and meaningful connection and cut through the clutter:  

The time has come for breakthrough creative ideas in business. With a little innovation and originality, it’s possible to capture your target audience’s attention, build mindshare and gain a long-term competitive advantage.  Now, more than ever, creativity is an essential component of all successful PR and marketing campaigns.

Going creative in a big way doesn’t necessarily mean a big budget (this is a good thing!). Limited resources can force you to look at alternative solutions, find ways to better communicate and steer you toward the answers you need. Tumultuous economic times call for risk-takers, those willing to step outside of traditional thinking and let their creativity flourish. The results can bring a substantial payoff with new and unique market opportunities for your business.

At Zenzi, we hold weekly brainstorming sessions to generate a continual flow of “big ideas” that help our clients cut through the clutter. Good leadership plays a significant role in fostering a creative workplace, and we believe a strong commitment to creativity should be an essential part of every company’s culture.

To help your company “Be Known” and innovate in the midst of a rapidly changing business environment, it may require looking in different directions and taking a leap of faith. At Zenzi, we love to help our clients dream big and rise to the creative challenges of the time. Creative energy is contagious, and a dedication to infusing your workplace with its powerful buzz is the foundation of a strong and sustainable brand.

Zenzi’s Tips to Unleash the Creative Potential In Your Company

• Clearly define and get to the root of the problem before you start brainstorming.
• Choose a leader or a facilitator to keep the meeting on track.
• Get visual- use a white board or computer to record ideas.
• Study the history of your business or product to know what’s been done before.
• Unleash your imagination and tackle what seems impossible.
• Stay positive! Avoid talking about why ideas won’t work.
• Collaborate, don’t compete. Be open to multiple points of view.
• Put yourself in the place of the customer and play around with solutions from that perspective.
• Tap into current trends and ideas so you have more insight.
• Let go of the inner critic and connect with the flow of events in the moment.
• Push through the dry spells, but don’t forget to take breaks when you need them.
• Give everyone a chance to speak, and try not to interrupt when someone is talking.
• Be authentic and true to your values.
• Recognize when you’re over-thinking something.
• Continue to innovate and improve; piggyback on one another’s ideas to make them stronger.
• Give your team enough time for good creative ideas to bubble to the surface.
• Once you have concrete ideas in mind, weigh rewards versus risks.
• Evaluate from a strategic perspective and make sure your solution is in line with your overall business goals and objectives.
• Set forth vision and act on your creative ideas!

SAY WHAT?
Most managers believe creativity is effective, but don’t make it a priority
in the workplace.

The London Times reported that 96 percent of business leaders cite creativity as integral to business success. Despite that belief, only 10 percent discuss it at board meetings and more than 40 percent say “nobody has responsibility for it in their business.”
Tech Talk

Need inspiration? Go online for ideas!

Here are a few of Zenzi’s favorite sites to get the creative wheels turning…

• www.flypmedia.com  Breakthrough digital magazine that blends new technology + storytelling to make the news more interesting. Flyp Mag combines animation, videos, music and  additional links, along with a cool page-flipping feel.
• www.trendrr.com  Social and digital media tracking website, where you can track the latest online trends in anything, or you can browse the hottest trends to come. Try it free.
• www.infosthetics.com  This weblog “explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization,” featuring creative new ways of using visual language (think dynamic charts and graphs) to bring information to life.
• www.hobnox.com  Amazing entertainment and publishing platform, Hobnox focuses on creative collaboration and fosters a cultural community. Watch music festival footage on Hobnox TV, create your own music with their Audio program, or connect with other cool people worldwide.
• www.experienceproject.com  Imagine a social forum where you can explore over three million life experiences, toss ideas around with other users, share your own stories, and support causes you care about. The “Confessions” section alone is a well of creative fuel
• www.ffffound.com  This weblog of visual candy is the perfect place to get the brainstorming clouds rolling in, with a barrage of colorful images and designs. We like to scroll through the site to help break through creative blocks and get inspired.

Zenzi means crescendo, the culmination of carefully crafted notes, harmonies and dynamic sounds. Formerly SZPR, Zenzi is a full-service integrated marketing and PR agency whose sole mission is to help our clients thrive. Our ability to garner media attention, reach customers online and offline through media relations, social media, staging events, and generating buzz with grassroots publicity stunts is unmatched in San Diego, Boston or San Francisco.   We are experts at both traditional PR and marketing as well as Web 2.0, social media, and SEO using the ‘New PR’. Recruiting the attention of target markets at a variety of touch points makes a sound your customers will hear loud and clear.   Our marketing and PR expertise includes sampling products on college campuses, increasing brand awareness via media tours in New York with editors, creating viral internet buzz in social media, and getting publicity from feature stories in Business Week, Oprah or wherever you want to be. Zenzi has a track record of success, our media connections and marketing & PR expertise will help your brand BE KNOWN.