Our second sponsored event is one near and dear to our hearts. It is called Kenna’s Cup. Kenna is a little girl born with a form of craniosynostosis where the metopic suture running from her soft spot down to her nose was abnormally fused shut. Her condition, however, was not immediately recognized at birth. Her parents were assured this condition was not a major issue and would fix itself in a two year timeframe. Many visits to many doctors and her parents’ instinct were unfortunately correct; Kenna had a serious skull deformity. Kenna will endure numerous surgeries and treatments to ensure her brain has room to grow in her skull throughout her lifetime.

Kenna’s Kids is a foundation that provides funding for the hundreds of thousands of dollars incurred when a family has a child with a serious illness. Check out the website and read the heart wrenching stories of all of Kenna’s Kids. Kenna’s Cup is one of their biggest fundraisers and since a fun day of golf and food and drink is provided a great win-win for everyone who participates.

OnTarget Partners will be a sponsor of this benevolent event this year, and we are very proud to say we are involved with Kenna’s Kids. Join us in helping these kids and their families and play a round or two of golf while you are doing so.

Our first event is scheduled for May 4th, 2011. OnTarget Partners will be joining Texas Trees to assist in their goals to “green up” Texas. We are so happy to join forces with Texas Trees – the largest forestry organization the United States. We are pleased to support their efforts in planting three million trees in North Texas in the next ten years. This effort will contribute to the replacing the balance of clean air and natural forestry in the area. We have partnered our efforts with other organizations through the Entrepreneurial Foundation of North Texas and together we will combine the efforts of our companies to expedite the tree planting at Richland College 12800 Abrams Road, Dallas Tx. This event will run from 9am to 12 noon and the entire company will be pitching in! Learn more about this event at: Texas Trees Foundation or Entrepreneurs for North Texas. The company will enjoy lunch afterward before heading back to the office for the afternoon. Stay tuned for pictures!

Working at a company that promotes VTO (Volunteer Time Off) is a real honor. It is a very rewarding experience to be a component of such a good corporate citizen while helping our environment.

Organic, whole grain, natural, free range; all terms aimed to make the products they are applied to seem better for us and more wholesome overall. But why do they cost so much more? Shouldn’t it make sense that the chemicals used to preserve, enhance taste, plump up and otherwise alter our foods would add cost to the products?

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, much of the additional costs incurred in agrochemical agriculture are absorbed by the taxes we pay. After WWII the US Government began a subsidization program to ensure the food shortages we endured during the war did not reoccur. Subsidization became so widespread and so many experimental programs were encouraged that our food supplies could quite literally be stored for decades in some cases. Canning, preservatives, pesticides, steroids, hormones are all food additives that were born of the need to extend and enhance a possibly meager food supply. Like many practices incepted during or as a result of a war, they become obsolete after a time.

Technology has come a long way in reducing if not eliminating the need for these additives. Refrigeration, water purification, even your Tupperware can preserve food longer than in the days these subsidizations were put into use. Vitamins, soil knowledge, weather prediction and a host of agritechnology substitutes healthfully for the use of chemicals used to bumper crop our foods.

An organic apple will cost on average 5% more than a non-organic one but it will be about 60% more nutritious, juicier and have a better aroma than its chemically protected cousin. Its skin won’t be a shiny, that is a wax designed to keep apples on the “shelf” longer while making them prettier to the eye but it will taste better. Our bodies can digest organic more effectively, using the vitamins and minerals the way our bodies were designed to use them. Waxes, emulsifiers, flavor crystals, sucrose alternatives are taxing on our digestive systems.

Farmers will explain that organic costs them more; hand weeding and insect remediation with no chemicals is pricey and time consuming. Risk is greater too in organic farming. Minus the use of chemicals, crops are at a greater risk of not growing to full potential, to dying overall and requiring faster crop to shelf service.

Doctors and nutritionists are overwhelmingly supporting the incorporation of more organic foods into our diets. Ulcers, digestive issues, some autoimmune diseases and numerous other health concerns that plague our current adults could potentially be eradicated by removing the chemical overload from our kids’ diets.

Like our food supply, fillers and buffers and “junk” in our data is unhealthy for our businesses. Let OnTarget Partners clean your data to its organic state- the payoff is a more robust client base. 

-Debra Bertolino Waring is a Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.

                The nuclear situation looming in Japan evokes many emotions worldwide. Fear, concern, doubt worry to name a few. What about distrust, paranoia, dissension between the public and government? When we as a human race endure tragedy and disaster, we tend to look at things differently. Ignorance; the peace that comes with not knowing or accepting these types of reality, is replaced with the very sobering knowledge of just how fragile we are.

                On 9/11 I was living in the NY/NJ area and witnessed with my own eyes the devastation that occurred. I knew people personally that perished in the Towers, many of whom were college and even high school classmates of mine.  Until the moment of stark realization that the towers were being deliberately attacked there was a short but surreal time where all of us scratched our proverbial heads in an attempt to wrap our minds around what was happening. The panic, stress and lack of coordinated and viable information in the time-frame between the first hit and Tower Two falling felt like a horror movie running in slow motion.  Of course this was a man-made disaster, and by sheer numbers does not compare to the life lost in the latest surge of natural disasters in Japan, but the human emotion and response to it was very much paralleled.

                There are people; conspiracy theorists of sorts; who claim the government had to “know” that the plots against America were in place for years prior to their execution. Similarly, there are theorists now claiming that perhaps the government(s) are hiding knowledge of the actual risks present from radiation. Either way, it makes me recall an adage my Grandmother used to say; “The answer to your question may cause more grief than the wondering about it could ever present.” Do we really want to know if radiation is seeping across the sea into our water, livestock and crops? Do we really feel the knowledge of  eminent affliction would help us in any way?

                We see in film fairly often the idea that governments of whatever country hold deep dark secrets from their public in order to “protect” the people. Is that really that far off?  Is it inconceivable to buy into the fact that our own government might be privy to information that doled out in the bright light of honesty would serve no better purpose than perhaps to make us withdraw every dime we have and splurge on the Ferrari we always dreamed about? Would you want to know?

                What would you do with the knowledge? After 9/11 people pulled money out of stocks and literally started stockpiling in mattresses. The economy took its first of many hits in the aftermath. Companies ran out of NYC by the dozens, fear of airborne contaminants, additional attacks, spiritual unrest and many other ominous perceptions “haunt” that area to this day.

                We, humans, like solvable problems. We feel secure with foreseeable outcomes and manageable direction. The unknown, catastrophic calamity and especially uncontrollable forces make humans react in very primitive ways. We tend to gravitate towards other people, volunteerism and community outreach increase exponentially. Some cling harder to religion, numbers in religious institutions soared in the months following 9/11. Priorities change for a while.

It is important to predict some things in life. Business works best with an eye to the horizon, to see change and spot trends. Watching our children to head off negative directional changes and stop them from heading head first into pitfalls is critical. In life overall maybe  some things are better left undisclosed. Once we “know” there is no going back to the bliss of innocent disregard.

How can OnTarget help you see your business’ horizons? Click here to find out.

-Debra Bertolino Waring is a Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.

Trends. They come and go, some stronger and weirder than others but one thing we can count on is that when one ends another is lurking. The 80’s were full of trends. MC Hammer pants, mullet haircuts, giant shoulder pads, neon, big hair, Cabbage Patch Kids- it’s a wonder anything got accomplished in that decade.

The 90’s produced technological trends, tinier and tinier cellphones, ever growing TV sets that were also getting thinner and lighter, more efficient energy usage, electric cars, Social Media. One of the greatest trends of the 2000’s was Vampires. J.K Rowling paved the way into the slightly taboo world of magic and blended science fiction with fantasy with her Harry Potter series, and Stephanie Meyers took it up a notch with the single most popular five book series to date. Movies, merchandise, mimicked series, television shows, clothing styles and virtually every aspect of life as we know it was infiltrated with some sort of fang related item.

What makes a trend soar so successfully. Why don’t things like rainbow wigs or eyelid tattoos take off in such a manner? In a word — Emotion. When we are in need of cheering up what works better than bright colors and roomy, swaying pants? What can make you feel more productive than a haircut that is business in the front and a party in the back? Well, maybe some of that sarcasm explains why trends also wane.

Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight books sat on shelves for over five years unread, until the time was right. The public needed something different and some hope in the flight of fantasy. When we were ready to open our minds to accept the tumultuous and typically unsanctioned world of pretty monsters; the books flew off the shelves.

Marketing can prolong a trend. Good strategy can nurture the supply/demand ratio and keep up the hype required to enjoy a lengthy trend. Spotting trends before they “go mass” is a talent honed by practice and attention to detail. OnTarget has excellent strategy in place to do just that in the business world. Come visit our website here to see for yourself.

-Debra Bertolino-Waring is a Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.

The last week or so has been full of numbers, statistics, and other surprises for me.  Some of these events were immediately broadcasted to the entire world – largely in the forms of Tweets & Facebook posts.  Others were a lot closer to home…and will only be made known to those of you who are reading my blog!

On March 22^nd, LinkedIn announced that it had 100 million members.  (Wow).  Of course my first thought is whether this means we can have more invites now –that is a vast number of people that I am not connected with yet!  Primarily used for professional networking, LinkedIn was founded in December, 2002.

This brings me to my next “surprise.”  I have an 8-year-old son — who had been in the world for 7 whole months when LinkedIn came to be.  Over the weekend he came across a box of VCR tapes in the garage.  Yes, you read that correctly…VCR tapes.  One of the tapes happened to be Barney, which I thought had been forgotten about forever.  Wishful thinking on my part — he seemed so excited to get caught up with his old favorite friend and songs that I had to shake my head.  Luckily he got bored after 5 minutes and moved on to something else.  In the meantime, the tapes have mysteriously “disappeared,” at least for now.

This experience proves to me how very quickly both technology and society has been moving along.  Blink and you’ll miss it!  What seemed so novel and exciting to us many years ago…rotary phones, 8-track tapes, VCR’s…have been easily forgotten and replaced.  My son will never know of those old things and it is impossible to project what will be available in his future.

The same goes for B2B lead generation.  A lot of the data we collect and analyze today could be entirely different this time next year.  It’s the nature of data in today’s world.  For example, one of our researchers found the perfect contact for a company that we needed.  This was on a Friday — the person was also listed on the company’s website and still had an active voicemail.  On Monday, when one of our developers called for that person, that contact had not only just been let go, but a replacement had also been named…all in the same day.

I have recently enjoyed reading a blog by Scott Yara, the co-Founder & President of Greenplum Software.  He says, and I quote, “Knowledge is power, and we know more than any previous generation could even conceive.  We’re moving into a world of infinite information.  The challenge we face is turning all that information into insights, conclusions, and revelations — in other words, turning that knowledge into wisdom, without letting it be turned against us.”  Here is his blog.

I couldn’t agree more!

-Jennifer Hanford is a Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.

“What do you do?”…I work for a marketing firm…“Oh so like advertising right?” No, that is not right; but it is a common misconception and conversation I have come across.

Advertising does not exist without marketing. Marketing can exist without advertising, as a human being can exist sans an index finger. Advertising is an important component of Marketing, but Marketing is much more complex and, I believe, critical to today’s business.

When Darren Stevens worked for McMahon & Tate, he was an advertising man. He came up with slogans, drawings, storyboards and wooed the Presidents of the show’s fictitious companies with bewitched dinners and small talk. In a half –hour’s time, multi-million dollar accounts were signed, sealed and delivered. Wouldn’t it be fun if that were all there was to success in business? One catchy slogan or mascot and hocus pocus- your company was launched into unfathomable success. No confidence building, relationship nurturing or proving value required.

We know this is a fantasy show, the simplicity portrayed done so to tie a mortal, semi conservative theme to a then controversial concept via a relatively short lived television series. Marketing can encompass these concepts in actuality, but what are the true key differences between the two ideas?   In simplicity; Advertising is the announcement and Marketing is the strategic placement of that announcement; the choosing of whom that announcement should be announced to and the manipulation of that announcement while recording and measuring that announcement’s success.

Marketing takes it a little further than even that; it also covers the matching of business activities and contacts to ensure maximization of message and revenue. Analytics, contact information, sales, demographics, and the compilation of business plans to affect an efficient use of the advertising or sale of the product or service. OnTarget Partners is a full service Marketing Firm. Check our website out at www.OnTargetPartners.com to see what services we cover for your marketing needs.

-Debra Bertolino-Waring is a Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.