Behr Strategies: A Look Back at 2008

How quickly a year goes by. 2008 was a very good year for Behr Strategies. The biggest highlight was the culmination of a 15 month effort with the Saint Louis Science Center called SciFest 08. It is a 3+ year BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal as defined by Jim Collins) meant to change the perception of the Science Center as far more than just a great place for kids, bring the science community and the public together in an innovative way, and raise the visibility of St. Louis as a global center of excellence in science and technology. It started as a vision and ended up as a 5 day International Science Festival with over 20,000 attendees from 19 states, nearly 100 presenters from all over the U.S. and U.K. and an international partnerships with Cheltenham Festivals of England. Doug King, CEO of the Science Center described the festival as “A home run” to the media. And oh yes, there will be a SciFest 09 and beyond.
Read more about this in the December 2008 issue of St. Louis Commerce Magazine

Another highlight was developing a brand and putting together a marketing plan for a new bank called Parkside Financial Bank and Trust. My talented partners on the project were Walt Jaschek of WaltNow, Michael Kilfoy of Studio X and John Edwards of EZ Email Marketing. I also had the opportunity to lead a two day strategic workshop on a go-to-market strategy for an innovative new product introduction for Nestle. The cross function team included executives from California, New Jersey and Switzerland.

Other projects included some branding and key messaging work for the St. Louis IT Coalition and Innovate St. Louis, a strategic plan for a bold and exciting new initiative at KETC – Channel 9, and the development of a new marketing agency business model for the CEO of a public holding company. And lastly, we started and continue to work with an entrepreneurial St. Louis based exploration company called Arlan River, on marketing strategy, branding, Public and Investor Relations, and the development of a website and blog. It was a busy but very fulfilling and productive year.

A special thank you to my wife and business partner Cynthia Behr, who is VP, Finance and Operations. I could not have been as focused and effective on the client engagements if she wasn’t able to manage every other aspect of our small but growing company.