The focus of this year’s SDA Spring Meeting: Embrace our differences and focus on our strengths.

In their book, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton call for a Strengths Revolution, in which organizations shift their energy away from battling weaknesses and instead focus on strengths. It’s a scenario where an employee’s biggest area for growth isn’t their greatest weakness; it’s their greatest talent. This is an idea that has always made sense to us at Smith-Dahmer. Our office is like a variety show and we pride ourselves on an incredibly diverse mix of skills and talents.

While the idea seems like a no brainer, Buckingham and Clifton point to a Gallop poll that says just 20% of employees working in large organizations feel their strengths are in play every day.

So at this year’s annual spring meeting we took it a step forward by identifying our different strengths and participating in a variety of exercises to bring them out. According to Smith-Dahmer Associate Sara Schillio, “it was really eye-opening to see how different team members can compliment one another and cover the weak spots.”

Moving forward, project teams will be assigned with team members’ strengths in mind and training will focus more on enhancing an individual’s existing talents rather than trying to shore up any alleged shortcomings. The idea is to create an environment where strengths can thrive and keep hammers in the hands that build and dancing shoes on the feet that dance (even though the quant team was still first on the dance floor when Love Shack came on that evening after dinner).





Crossing the river; Smith-Dahmer Associates rely on each other’s strengths in this team building exercise.

Smith-Dahmer Associates Offers Hispanic Perspective

In this year’s presidential primary contest, candidates have been clamoring for the attention of Hispanics like never before. Wielding $800 billion in spending power, this rapidly growing demographic is one marketers have been targeting for years. And as the Hispanic population in the US continues to soar, understanding their needs and attitudes will be increasingly important.

Smith-Dahmer Associates is pleased to offer a suite of capabilities dedicated to understanding Hispanics - including Spanish interviewing; focus group moderation; and survey design.

Fresh from conducting a series of health-care interviews with Hispanics, SDA’s bilingual researcher Jorge Martinez reminds us that, “there are over 42 million Hispanics in the US and that’s a number that’s growing very rapidly. We represent a very unique segment of the market and an incredible opportunity for companies that can understand us.”

Smith-Dahmer Associates Participates in Person to Person Holiday Giving

A question that commonly plagues holiday shoppers is, “what do you get for that person who has everything?” Most of us know at least one person like this (after all, someone is fueling the demand for things out of the SkyMall catalogue, right?).

But for every one of these people who seems to have everything, there are hundreds of families with virtually nothing.

For the fourth consecutive year, Smith-Dahmer Associates participated in the Person to Person Adopt a Family Holiday Program. The program reaches hundreds of families in the greater Minneapolis area, responding to gift requests from both individuals and families.

Smith-Dahmer Associates teamed up to cover a wish list offered by a single mom and her three sons. We also provided gifts to a special needs class of 7 to 10 year-old boys. Items pertaining to Spiderman were among the top requests.

In the words of SDA’s Sara Carothers,

“The program helps families who are trying to get their lives together by offering a little relief around Christmas. And for us, it feels good to shop for someone who really needs it.”

Positioning Powerful Brands

Positioning Powerful Brands

Positioning brands that elicit strong emotions is something Smith-Dahmer Associates specializes in. But in a recent project for Hospice at Home, we saw emotional connections with a brand taken to a new level. In the words of Angela Malik, a researcher at Smith-Dahmer,

“I was fighting back tears in a lot of the interviews I did. It’s amazing the role Hospice has played at such a critical time in so many people’s lives.”

The reality is, Hospice deals with death. So it’s no wonder that the brand comes with baggage. According to a Hospice employee,

“People are afraid of the word Hospice because when they hear it, it’s like they’re ready to die.”

Understandably, these perceptions often make people reluctant to bring Hospice in.

Interestingly though, in listening to peoples’ associations with the brand, a stark contrast emerged between those who had called on Hospice before and those who had not. Among those who had worked with Hospice, the brand was associated with compassion and nurturing and offering much needed relief. Multiple individuals referred to Hospice workers as “angels on earth.” It was those who had not worked with Hospice who simply associated the brand with death and dying. The notion of caring and adding to the quality of life was overshadowed.

The challenge, then, was transferring the emotions and perceptions shared by those who have used Hospice to the general public. Listening to a diverse cross section of the community and working closely with Hospice’s marketing team, we helped revamp Hospice communications. The result was a new brand position, logo and tagline that battles misconceptions and captures the extent of the services Hospice at Home offers.

Naschair

Living out a work place fantasy and supporting a good cause

Let’s face it, on some level haven’t we all dreamed of zooming our swivel office chairs down a city street, business casual shirts and blouses flapping in the breeze? It was last July, on a day when the street in front of the office was closed, that Smith-Dahmer Associate Jason Mejeur actually went for it. To the amusement of shop owners and passers by, Jason and a few other Associates took their chairs out into the vacant city block and raced them down the slight incline.

When word of the episode reached Chris Laurent, director of Development for Habitat for Humanity, it sounded like a fundraising opportunity. According to Chris,

“The world of non-profits has become an increasingly competitive market requiring us to be more creative. Its getting harder and harder to get people excited about a piece of chicken and a fundraising dinner. This has forced us to press the envelope of creativity in designing events that are high energy, high exposure and bring the community together while at the same time supporting a worthy cause,”

A few lunches later, Chris and Jason developed NASCHAIR, an annual, city-approved event that would raise money for Habit for Humanity while delighting throngs of spectators and business owners in downtown St. Joseph.

In this, its first year, NASHCHAIR raised over $3,000 with eleven teams participating and four companies sponsoring the event. NASCHAIR’s debut exceeded the expectations of its originators,

“Just imagine co-workers from a variety of companies racing down a street lined with fans – from kids to grandparents, shoppers and business owners. When you can bring so many different members of the community together and get them excited about something you’re on the right track.” Jason Mejeur, SDA

This year’s checkered flag went to a team sponsored by Whirlpool Corporation with teams from Smith-Dahmer Associates and Kalin Construction taking second and third place spots. Next year’s event is likely to be even bigger, with rumors already circulating of an alternative energy-fueled chair in the works at Whirlpool’s R and D lab.