Behr Strategies Merges with Creative Producers Group

I am pleased to announce that Behr Strategies has merged with Creative Producers Group. Behr Strategies has enjoyed great success over the past two years in working with CEO’s, entrepreneurs and business leaders to align vision and strategy with marketing and branding to fuel growth and change within numerous organizations. Creative Producers Group (CPG) has enjoyed over two decades of success working with business and organizational leaders on engaging audiences and getting them to act. They focus on B2i, or Business to internal, building brands from the inside out. They help companies, franchises, and not-for-profits tell their stories through integrated marketing, communications and events focused on internal audiences such as employees, sales forces, investors, and franchisees. Clients include industry leaders such as BMW, Panara Bread, H&R Block and Curves.

I began conversations with Keith Alper (CPG’s co-founder and CEO) several months ago and felt the merger would be a great marriage and good strategic move for both companies. I am now part of CPG’s management team and lead strategy and business development efforts focused on B2i. The Behr Strategies brand will not carry forward but the Big Picture Thinking approached which I have developed and utilized with numerous clients for strategic planning around marketing initiatives will be incorporated at CPG.

For me, I now have access to an incredible team of producers, writers, designers, developers, and project managers that I did not have access to before and limited the growth potential of my company. CPG gets a proven strategic planning methodology for marketing initiatives and brand platforms, an expanded network of resource partners, and the talents and contacts that I bring to the agency.

One thing that helped influence my decision to merge with CPG was their track record of creating and investing in innovative ways to reach and engage audiences through storytelling. Technology and how we communicate has changed dramatically over the years and CPG has always been ahead of the curve. The most recent example is Vidzu, a turn-key web based TV platform for corporations. Check it out at Vidzu.tv. Also check out CPG at getcreative.com

My new contact information is:
mbehr@getcreative.com
314.367.2255

Cutomer Service and WOM

Not too long ago, I wrote a post called WOM Worthy? I was eating lunch at my desk and reading Twitter when I can across a great headline which caught me attention and took me to a blog called think B.I.G. Blogger Ken Peters had a great post about customer service and talked at length about an exchange he witnessed at the Wendy's drive through which he used as an example of a company doing it right.


So back to WOM, if you read Ken's post you'll realize that exceptional customer service will also drive WOM. I'm sure the woman highlighted will tell a handful of people about her positive experience at Wendy's.


Speaking of great service, I was in Nordrom's in St. Louis over the weekend getting some new pants after my wife informed me that I needed to "retire" some of my existing dress slacks. The team in the Men's department there is always excellent. My wife went online to Nordstrom.com a week earlier to order a couple more pairs of pants that she just got for me in the past. They had an option to ship them directly to a store location and not have to pay any shipping charges. We were heading into the store over the coming weekend anyway to get some slack my wife picked the previous week altered so she chose that option. As I was getting fitted for the alterations, the sales associate working with us, who through conversation knew that we had ordered some pants online and that they were upstairs in customer service, offered to go up to customer service and retrieved them for us so. He saved us about 10 minutes of time and an extra trip (we were in a hurry).


I've explored other specialty stores and department stores for my clothes and always end up back in the men's department at Nordstroms. Better selection and far far better service. So Nordstroms gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me on being WOM worthy. After all, I'm writing this post.

Wendy's has a real opportunity to be the Norstroms of fast food if they can truly build it into their DNA in the same way. I wonder if the manger discussed in Ken's post had a chance to share this experience internally and was recognized for it?



Customer service rant over. Check out Ken's blog.