Jeanette Bennett, BusinessQ: How is the convention and meeting industry doing in Utah County?

Joel Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’re not feeling the same level of impact that destinations like Scottsdale, Ariz., and Las Vegas are feeling right now, but we are definitely feeling contraction and pull back from corporate meetings and events. Some companies are on edge about how they are spending that money.

Mark Hiles, Diamond Rental: At Diamond Rental we have seen a contraction of corporate events either through cutting back or downsizing. Some companies who do four or five events a year are now down to one or two.

Fritz Black, Cowboy Leaders: Companies are spending less money on lower levels of leadership and spending more on upper management.

Kendall Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: Our corporate numbers are holding well, but the companies are spending less on the higher-end audiovisual and tent rentals. They are still having meetings, but they are downscaled.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What would you say to businesses about the importance of events and why they shouldn’t continue to cut back?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Anytime you send someone to an event or a retreat you are hoping for a change in behavior. Executives need to understand what that change in behavior is and where you can get the most bang for your buck. One of the best ways you can institute a change is to go away from your comfort zone with people you haven’t met before. Different ideas can be exchanged where there isn’t the pressure of the daily grind. It’s really important to get away from the workplace.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: The notion of teleconferencing has its place, but business is really accomplished face-to-face. That is where you can get creative, you can brainstorm, you can look at the body language of individuals and you can feel how your meeting is going. We just hosted an event yesterday at the courthouse. What we accomplished there we could not have accomplished in a conference call. We had to hash it out and have some compromise and negotiation. We had a successful meeting.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Recently the media has painted a negative picture of some big national companies spending a lot of money on lavish events. What do you want people to understand about why meetings and events are a way of doing business?

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: There is a difference between a corporate retreat and an AIG corporate retreat. Very productive meetings can happen by getting away from the office. These meetings don’t have the distractions of the phones and copy machines or other employees coming in. There is a tremendous amount of team building and camaraderie that comes out of an event. Getting your mind away from the office and focused in an unfamiliar territory elicits new ideas.

Jack Marvell, Marvellous Catering: For the past 10 or 12 years we have done a party for the same company, and their numbers are down this year from 1,500 attendees to 1,100. But they are still going forward with the party to say “thanks” to their employees, because those employees are still working everyday. Every year, we cook steaks and the corporate executives serve them to their employees. They go around and talk to their people. It’s good stuff.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: There is something about changing attitudes that can’t be done just with policy change or a procedure change. What you really need to change is the attitude of the people, and you can only do that in a face-to-face setting. When you are sitting down, getting to know each other or breaking bread together, that is where you really share. That is when attitudes can change.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What role does food play in a successful event?

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: I have discovered that if you want them to come, feed them. If you want them to come back, feed them well. That is what it boils down to. When you feed them filet mignon for 12 years, they keep coming back — as opposed to other parties where it is a hot dog and a bag of chips. Only half of the company shows up to an event like that.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: If the food is bad, that is what they talk about. You can forget the message about the whole event presentation because they are going to talk about the food.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: In the final analysis, it all comes down to that. The food is where the rubber meets the road.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: I agree with everything that has been said, and I also think good food is a lot more affordable than people think. We see a lot of people in our deli area crowded around a public table trying to have a business meeting. For a few bucks more on food and a nominal room fee they can have a catered event in a private room with a staff that will care for their every need. Many places in the community are more affordable than people think.

Jared Kearns, McKay Events Center: We have an excellent Culinary Arts program at UVU. I’ve seen corporations come in and have elaborate dinners for all their employees. Then if they scale back the next time, they have less of a turnout. Food really does play a big part in an event.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: When one company switched from steaks to hamburgers and hotdogs, we didn’t hear the end of the complaining. Everybody was saying, “Where are the steaks?” When I looked at the situation, I really didn’t see a good explanation for their decision because the difference in price between the two options was a buck or two.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: People are trying to walk a fine line between not spending too much and still trying to take care of their people. They don’t want people saying, “If things are so tight, why are you spending so much money on an extra?”

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: As things get tighter, people have the mentality of pulling in. But you have to be careful because people who are working for you need to know you care about them.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Let’s switch gears and talk about planning. What is the ideal time frame for someone to come to you and start planning an event?

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I’m a member of the Western Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus, and every year we go to a CEO forum. Three years ago I thought, “Why don’t we host this event in Utah?” I wanted to see the economic impact come to my community. I also worked with the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Park City bureau, and we put together a bid. We had to get organized early on in the bidding and planning process.

Sharon Curley, Diamond Rental: We usually work a year out to plan an event, which gives us time to talk to the show managers and the vendors to make sure that everything is in line. Within that year of planning, I keep an open mind in case something comes up. I like to talk to the convention center early on and follow up with them. With a large expo event, we focus our attention on the exhibitors. If they aren’t happy, it isn’t a successful show.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: At a year out, we would love to know they are coming. As we get closer, we secure bigger details. Often the menu falls into place as the last thing.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: I wish I had a year out! We have a lot of people show up two weeks or a month out wanting to pull off a dinner for a thousand people. Our clients are often first-time, local people.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: You need to understand the size and scope of your project. For small groups you can plan things on a very quick basis. And here in Utah County you can put things together in very short time span. Look at the people around this table — I don’t think there is one of us who would say no to business next week.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: How about tomorrow? I’ll tell my wife to load the wagon, and we’ll take care of it.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’re seeing that the booking window is much more narrow than it used to be. Groups aren’t always planning a year in advance.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: That is a good point. We do see the time frame contracting a little bit with the economy. We really bend over backwards for a lot for these people to make sure we can accommodate their needs and get it done last minute. Utah County is great for that.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What are some of the big mistakes people make in planning an event?

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: Too often, people neglect to utilize the expertise of professionals. All of the people at this table have done this a lot. We have seen hundreds of events, and I’m surprised how often people don’t take advantage and ask us questions. We have professional meeting planners who often don’t get to use their skills because someone else is forcing an idea that may or may not work. We can take care of the little details, and we are there to make you look good. If you communicate to us about what you need, we can help. People often make the most mistakes when it comes to planning their audiovisual needs.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: The biggest thing I see is that people assume we have everything at our facility. People show up with their computers and don’t know how to run them.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: As a rental business, we see people try to cut expenses by doing it themselves. They don’t realize what goes into planning an event. We try to accommodate them as much as possible, but we do get a lot of last minutes calls about audiovisual or sound needs and lots of little overlooked details.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I went to a tech summit in Northern California, and we had Internet connectivity problems. There were all these wired techno-geeks with laptops and Apple products, but they couldn’t get connected. We were close enough to Cupertino that it should have worked. It was a wonderful event, but the tech problems are what people were talking about. Think about the type of group you have and be proactive about the things that absolutely have to work.

Curley, Diamond Rental: As part of the planning, we need to ask the client the important questions. We ask them if they have thought about this or overlooked that. We can find out how to make things work.

Bennett, BusinessQ: After all the planning has been done and the event is actually happening, what can companies do to ensure the meeting goes smoothly?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Watch the behavior of the people. Make sure you are getting the behavior you want to get. Get comments from people at the event and make changes on the fly.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: What you don’t want to do is start a meeting with chaos. For a lot of people the first hour is spent running back and forth getting the last minute things taken care of. The key to an event going well is in the pre-planning stages. With proper planning and using your meeting planner, you can walk into a room that is already set up and be shaking hands at the door instead of running up and down the hall.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: When an event begins, you have to be in execution mode.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: It’s showtime!

Bennett, BusinessQ: Are there any misunderstandings about the options in Utah Valley? Do you see businesses going to Salt Lake for meetings when they don’t necessarily need to?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Absolutely. I think people look outside of Utah County first. We’ve got some great businesses here, but they look to Denver or Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. They figure they have to leave the county to get what they want, but they don’t pay attention to what is right here under their nose. If you want to cut money out of your event, cut your airline ticket. If you cut that you can spend more time and more money at your venue.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: The accessibility of areas in Utah County are much better than in Salt Lake or other outlying areas. The ease of parking and access from I-15 makes a big difference.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We in Utah County can do much more than people give us credit for, but we do have limitations. We have limitations of the size of groups and meeting space. Many network marketing companies hold their events in Salt Lake where they can handle 7,000 or 8,000. In Utah County, we only have about 3,000 hotel rooms.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What about tourism in Utah County? How do we entice people from out of state to come here to host events?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: The majority of our business is out of state. We host small groups that come to our outdoor setting where all of our meeting facilities are open air with all the modern conveniences you would expect to have. People come and spend time in the mountains — just a half hour out of Provo — and then they say they want to bring their families back. It boosts tourism.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: Meeting attendees are definitely future tourists. I can’t tell you how many individuals who attended my conference a week or two ago had never been up here, and they are already planning a trip to bring their families back. We’re talking about Utah Valley, which is great, but high tide raises all boats. When outdoor retailers comes to the Salt Palace, the attendees will cross lines and come down to Thanksgiving Point, or come down to the Provo River to fly fish.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: We’re seeing a lot of businesses bringing families with them to conventions. We’re seeing corporations taking it into consideration — What is there for my family to do? Mom or dad are going to the meetings, so the kids are finding avenues to explore.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: It’s become a trend to tack on a vacation at the end of a business trip. It’s also a trend for people to stay closer to home — the “staycation.” Our state park numbers are up this year because Utahns are visiting. Timp Cave, Camp Floyd State Park and Utah Lake State Park are spiking in the number of attendees during the summer travel season. People are bringing their families and tacking on one or two extra days. Some people may not think of Utah County as a true tourism destination. Our goal is to help people understand what additional things they can do here. Whether they have come here for a purpose or a specific vacation at Sundance, for fly-fishing on the Provo River or golf at one of our 11 incredible golf courses, we have a lot of things to do.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What are some of the trends in conventions and meetings? What things are big right now in food and decor?

Curley, Diamond Rental: Utah County is very conservative. We have seen a lot of weddings scaled down. But a lot of them like to use lighted canopies. Décor-wise, they use lighting to give more flow. As far as conventions, we use the standard tables and chairs. A lot of times the exhibitors want to upgrade to different linens to add to their booth packages.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: It’s been interesting to me to watch the trends in food over the past 20 years. I would attribute most of it to the Food Network because people are now aware of food. About 12 or 15 years ago, there was a little barbecue place down by Albertsons, and it didn’t make it. Now we have seven or eight of them in the valley. People want to taste what they see on TV — chipotle this, Asian that. The Food Network has changed things dramatically. We still serve a lot of the traditional kinds of things, but all the time we see requests for things they’ve seen on TV. In Utah Valley, we’ve become very international as it relates to food.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’ve got some good ethnic restaurants here, so I would agree with that.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: The trend we’re seeing is toward athletics. We had the Utah Thunder start up, and we have the Utah Flash. Throwdown does a few events, also. And, of course, we have UVU athletics. The trend I see is more and more people coming out to support these athletic events at the McKay.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I admire your programming ability. You’ve got to be on top of things to pull off everything that happens in your facility.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Let’s look forward. What are some of your predictions for trends in your industry for the upcoming years?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: I predict people are going to start making decisions to do things they have been putting off. Rather than saving money, they are going to say, “No, we’ve got the money so let’s go ahead and do an event.” People are going to start breaking loose with dollars for conventions and training. They are going to look for more value for their dollar — whether it’s the quality of the food, the quality of the facility or the quality of the training. I strongly recommend to anyone who is going to hold any type of event that you look at the quality of the change you hope to make. Decide what outcome you want, and go to a place that will give you that outcome in buckets. If it’s food and pleasure, certainly go to someone who is going to give you the kind the food you’re looking for. If it’s training, then look for a company that can train. Whether it is sales training, leadership training or relationship training, find those things that are going to have a profitable outcome. People are going to be looking for that.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: Our infrastructure is going to change dramatically in Utah Valley. The venues we have are going to improve and increase. There have been groups who would love to come here but haven’t because we can’t meet their needs. Once the economy turns and the airlines are looking toward small carriers, we’re going to see scheduled service at the Provo Airport within three to five years. When we have a carrier that connects to Las Vegas or Denver, we’re basically connected to the rest of the world. Some facilities have been announced and we have seen efforts toward developing them such as the Frank Gehry Project in Lehi and the John Q. Hammons project in Pleasant Grove. Utah County has talked for a number of years about developing a smaller convention center in downtown Provo. I got three phone calls yesterday that said they are moving forward. It’s very exciting because if we wait before the economy rebounds to start this facility, we’ll continue to miss opportunities. This facility could be built in the next two years. We’re going to start getting a better piece of the pie. Hopefully, the regional corporate meetings, events, monthly training meetings and fly-in weekends that are currently being held elsewhere, will be held here. So we’re going to see incredible growth and much improved infrastructure.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: We anticipate continued growth at Thanksgiving Point. This year, our food service numbers have been down, but our venue numbers have been higher than last year. It’s been good to see the locals come out and take advantage of local opportunities. As we start to get back to business, there will be a return to old business practices. People are understanding — particularly on the wedding side of the business — it’s not a whole lot cheaper to try to pull something off by yourself than to use one of these venues. The cost of a tray of fruit might be more than you would pay at Albertsons, but after you factor in tables, chairs, linens, glassware and canopies, you get a-la-carted to death. You end up spending a lot of money, not to mention the headache involved and not really enjoying the day you’re supposed to be enjoying. We continue to see talk about the quality of life here in Utah County. I think that will continue to attract businesses, and businesses will continue to build in this county. Transportation is huge. When UTA’s Front Runner goes in, that will be huge. I think it’s a very bright future for Utah County.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: I’m more in the entertainment industry. There continues to be more entertainment and better quality. I think of the Orem Owlz and the Utah Flash. Businesses come for parties and entertainment. Businesses are using these different venues and avenues to bring clients in. Utah County is developing these areas, which they haven’t in the past.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: The days of nothing to do are long gone.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: Right! There is always something to do here.

Curley, Diamond Rental: As Utah County continues to grow, there will be more tradeshows and conventions coming to Utah County.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: I don’t even suppose to know what’s going to happen in the industry. I just know that we have recently moved into a new facility and we’re keeping ourselves in as good of a financial condition as we can. We’re going to ride this thing out, and we’re going to figure out how to sell some food. When the economy comes back, we’re going to be ready.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: I’m excited about the new facilities that will come in and bring more business. As Fritz was saying, people look for a bang for their buck. In Utah County, we don’t have a Salt Palace or a South Towne Expo Center. But I think UVU offers a great venue for the expos, especially for the smaller ones because you get a better bang for your buck there. I’m excited Utah County does have enough to offer. We just need to continue to get the word out about what is available here.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: If we can get folks in Utah Valley to be thinking about how they can become an ambassador and bring events here, there are organizations to help them. And the Convention and Visitors Bureau is one of them.

Bennett, BusinessQ: That’s a positive way to end. I’m excited about the future just as all of you are. Thank you for your time today.

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Hold onto your logo, ladies and gentlemen, you’re about to go on a roller coaster of branding, market share and “Google love.” These seven experts know 2009 is the year to go to market. Their agencies are helping clients leave competition behind in their marketing dust. Take that, recession!

Jeanette Bennett, BusinessQ: Why is advertising more important than ever given the current economic conditions?

Bill Brady, M2 Results: A lot of companies in history have taken recessions as an opportunity to pick up market share. For our clients, we’re encouraging them to go after it. We’ve got to get past the doom and gloom.

Judy Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: When you go back and look at every recession dating back to the Great Depression, studies have shown advertisers who have either maintained their advertising or have increased their advertising through recessions have benefited. They’ve grown their market share even though they may not maintain their profit levels. After the recession is when they see the biggest gain.

Brady, M2 Results: During a recession, the marketing landscape becomes a lot quieter. Not only is a brand more easily heard, it can steal attention and business away from weak competitors and gather momentum for brighter times around the corner. History shows that market share gained during a recession is typically never lost, and that market share lost during a recession is rarely made up.

Wes Chapman, LIME: Now is an opportunity, not necessarily a downfall. It’s a time where you can step up. The natural cycle of life is going to weed out those that are weak — and those that are strong will survive and stay in business.

Stephen Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: It’s certainly the cheapest time to build market share because the media is giving great bargains and service.

Lance Black, Eli Kirk: It’s easy for us as agencies to say that you need to spend more money, but the reality is people are scared. The natural tendency for people is to hunker down until the recession is over. History is full of successful companies that have spent money during this time, but it takes a bold personality to take that risk. A great example is Fortune magazine. They launched four months after the stock market crash of 1929. They saw an opportunity and took it. The irony is that the Great Depression caused people to think more about markets and financial systems, so it was a perfect time to launch a financial magazine.

Chapman, LIME: It comes down to education, too. Fear is leading people to hunker down, but the fact is they aren’t educated about these companies that basically took over the market during recessions.

Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: Along with that goes responsible spending. They have to pay the bills, but their profit levels are going down. It’s responsible spending and a deep analysis of everything they’re doing that helps them.

Black, Eli Kirk: A recent case study that took place in the mini-recession of 2001-2003 is Apple. They spent more money on marketing during that time and look at them now.

Bryan Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: It’s incumbent upon us to point out to our clients that the great times they can remember are a result of a past recovery. Recoveries are opportunities for growth. But when we get into the good times we sometimes forget about the bad times and don’t realize the connection there. Every bad time leads to a recovery. It’s our responsibility to show our clients where we are at in the cycle and how we get out. Every business today should be helping their customers save money and time and helping make the fear go away. We can all get creative in the actual messaging, but it needs to inspire hope and confidence.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: A lot of businesses are just five years old and have never been through a recession like this. It’s important to help them remember that this is a cycle we go through. It’s going to happen again in the future. The best thing to do is capitalize on the opportunities.

Chapman, LIME: This is a cycle of life; this is a cycle of business. It becomes a matter of not waiting and instead taking the bull by the horns and running with it.

Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: We need to be creative in not only the way we talk about a product or service but in the way we deliver or price the product. I hate to use clichés, but in the movie “Mr. Mom,” the Schooner Tuna ad was great. I’m not saying we need to go to that extreme, but it is a great example of doing something different and being successful with it. We have to dig inside and reinvent the product or service with an argument of safety and affordability.

Brandon Scott, MIM Creative: Most of our clients are looking for how they can stand out. It’s not necessarily about being better; it’s about being different.

Bennett, BusinessQ: And being different is part of branding your company. How important is branding — especially in 2009?

Scott, MIM Creative: This is a critical time for branding. From the time someone wakes up to the time they go to bed they’ve been hit with more than 400 messages. How are you standing out from the crowd? Most of my conversations with clients are about consistency. The less consistent they are, the less effective they are with their marketing dollar.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: One of the problems people experience when they’re going through a down economy is they want to turn to price-based marketing completely instead of branding. The long-term problem with that is consumers become used to buying cars with a $15,000 discount, for example. You really disaffect a lot of your customers this way. Branding is the best thing to do in a down economy. This creates a loyal customer base.

Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: Building a brand is about building a relationship.

Brady, M2 Results: And when we’re talking about a brand, its essential that we’re not just talking about creative. The quality of the product is very much the driver behind the brand. We can’t forget that. There is a perception that your brand is nothing more than your logo and image. It’s much deeper than that. Creating a brand is about creating a customer experience, including everything from the quality of the product or service to the customer’s interaction with the outward symbols of the brand. A good brand inspires confidence, and that confidence inspires market interest and then reinforces buying decisions. People want to be associated with products and services that they feel good about buying, even during a market recession.

Bennett, Business Q: How does a business know if its marketing is working?

Scott, MIM Creative: Look at natural laws. You never see a guy fishing all day in the same spot who hasn’t caught a single fish. That’s how marketing is. You have to measure and see if something is working, and if it’s not working, you have to change things.

Brady, M2 Results: Model everything. Measure everything. Scrutinize every dollar spent. Establish up front what you expect from your marketing efforts. If you’ve hired an agency and they make you look pretty but don’t drive measurable numbers — especially in gross profit — fire them.

Black, Eli Kirk: We can’t be afraid to retool and change. Take the measurements and reexamine and then change based off of educated numbers.

Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: As an agency, we have to have a strong enough relationship with the client that we all walk into a campaign intelligently, knowing we are going to have to maneuver and change as we go through the process.

Chapman, LIME: We live in a day and age where everything is now, now, now. But marketing is an investment. You may not see results immediately.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: Don’t abandon a campaign two days into it.

Scott, MIM Creative: You have to be able to look at the big picture.

Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: You need to set expectations up front with your client. You need a timeline stating when you are going to evaluate, but certainly you’re not going to do this after only a few days.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: Most business people are “business people.” They want to see hard numbers and know that their marketing is paying off for them. But it’s half art, half science.

Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: It’s incumbent upon us to teach our clients how to measure.

Black, Eli Kirk: If we’re doing our jobs as agencies, we not only tell them we need to measure it, but we ask them what their definition of success is. We may assume that success equals customers — which would make sense in most cases — but maybe it’s not. Define what is successful and then create a campaign around that so that you can measure success.

Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: That is really key. Sometimes there are advertisers who have no clue how to establish a measurement of success and sometimes they are very unrealistic. You have to manage the expectation to make sure it is a feasible goal and that the plan in place is going to achieve the goal they want.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: That is one of the problems with some client expectations. They’ll come to us and say, “I want to do a billboard. Now tell me how I can measure it.” Their question should be, “I have X objective, now give me a campaign that reaches that objective.”

Bennett, BusinessQ: What is the advantage of hiring an outside marketing agency such as the seven of you around this table?

Brady, M2 Results: Consider how much it costs to hire a seasoned marketing professional in-house — $75,000 to $100,000 per year? On top of that, add employment taxes, benefits, vacation time, furniture, hardware, software and unproductive time while the person talks to his or her spouse on the phone and plays around on Facebook. Despite that significant investment, the new hire will typically bear true expertise in just one or two facets of marketing. On the other hand, by investing that kind of money in an agency relationship, you end up with an account team that brings broad strengths and varied experience. Instead of hiring one limited person, you end up with a diversity of creativity, intellect and talent delivered by a team of strategists and creatives.

Black, Eli Kirk: What you gain by going to an agency is expertise, a paradigm shift and out-of-the-box thinking. A lot of the time in-house they just can’t get past that this is the way something ought to be or this is the way something ought to look. Having that paradigm shift can add a lot of value.

Brady, M2 Results: The person you bring in-house might simply adopt the opinion of the CEO and then they’re no further ahead because there is no diversity of opinion.

Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: Whenever my clients ask me whether they should hire someone in-house, I always tell them it depends on whether they want to be doing the strategy and design or if they want someone else to do it. What typically happens in-house is the boss dictates strategy and design. If they’re qualified that’s great, but if not then let someone with experience help you.
Copier, Kim Brown & Associate: You end up hiring a jack-of-all-trades, an expert of none. Where as when you go with an agency you have an expert in each individualized section. You can’t get that with one person.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: The best way to do an in-house group is not to have the production people in-house, but to have a really smart coordinator who knows what the company needs and can help identify good strategy when he or she sees it. Those are the very best relationships and that’s why all the largest companies in the world outsource their marketing. They have good people in-house who work with outside people to bring that expertise to the company.

Black, Eli Kirk: If you ask any small business — somewhat tongue-in-cheek — if they have an in-house lawyer or accountant, they’ll laugh at you. They will tell you that is a specialized service. So with something that actually makes you money, such as marketing, why would you not do the same thing? Hire the expertise of an outside agency that brings to the table all the experience of previous clients — successes and failures — instead of relying on one or two individuals who don’t have all of that industry experience.

Bennett, BusinessQ: A big piece of the marketing puzzle is technology-based. How do businesses drive customers and future customers to their Web sites?
Chapman, LIME: You need print advertising to get people to your Web site. And then you can use the Web to communicate a message very effectively. I think businesses have this allusion that once they get their site going they are going to sit back and watch the bank meter go up. That’s really not the case. There are very few businesses that are going to have true success selling on the Internet only. But the Web site can inform and educate.

Scott, MIM Creative: Obviously Web sites are essential, but you can’t market with just one medium. When you eat dinner you’ve got your vegetable, fruit, meat, bread, etc. — it’s the same thing with marketing. You need a little bit of everything. That’s what makes a great meal. It’s the whole stirring together that makes a great “marketing” meal.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative.: Technology is just one element of marketing. You need to find out what you want to talk to people about and where those people are. If it’s technology, that’s where you need to go, in addition to every other place they are. Be careful not to jump on something because it’s the latest or coolest.

Copier, Kim Brown & Associates: On a real basic level, 10 years ago we started telling our clients they’ve got to have a Web site. So they got one and it just sat there because they didn’t know what to do with it. We know that consumers do go to the Web to research before they walk in to any business. It used to be you would go to seven to 10 different dealerships before you would buy a car. Now it’s maybe two because you’ve done all that research ahead of time. Whether you are selling from a Web site or if it’s just an information gathering tool, it’s important. But you have to use external mediums to bring people to your site.

Black, Eli Kirk: I’m going to make a bold statement and say that in today’s market, the Web is the most important thing you could spend money on. People are using the Web to judge credibility. There has to be a hierarchy to your Web site. You give them a little bit on the homepage and then the more interested consumer can go and dig in a little further. It’s very important to have an SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. Search engines love content. Blogs are a great example. They get a lot of “Google love.” The reason for that is because they are new and fresh and Google loves that. Write content, be active in the community, be an expert on a topic, comment on other people’s blogs and link them back to your Web site. It’s an active process, but that’s how you drive people to your site.

Scott, MIM Creative: We like to tell people that a Web site is like yesterday’s business card. You can be a small little company, but just by having a professional look and providing information, it saves you time.

Brady, M2 Results: Choices of which mediums to use should be evaluated based on clear, predefined goals. The question to ask is, “What tactics will reach the greatest number of the target audience for the lowest cost per contact, cost per lead and cost per sale?” With our clients, we typically spreadsheet out the options to look at hard numbers and take the emotion out. Looking at hard costs and likely yields of each option makes it easy to prioritize and plan.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What does a new business need to do to get off the ground?

Black, Eli Kirk: It’s a challenge, because new businesses are struggling. Unless they’ve got a sugar daddy, they don’t have money. They have to be creative. The perception is if you hire an agency, it is going to be more expensive than if you bootstrap. That’s not true. You get more bang-for-your-buck and more return on your investment if you hire an expert. Experts should launch your marketing strategy. If you’re an entrepreneur and not a marketing expert, hire a marketing expert. It’s cheaper than you might think.

Brady, M2 Results: Marketing comes down to three fundamental things: targeting, positioning and messaging. First, targeting. Who exactly are you trying to sell to? It’s not enough to just say “college students.” Among those college students, who are you trying to reach? Second, positioning. Who are you relative to everyone else? What do you want to be perceived as? What is the role you seek to play? Third, messaging. What are the messages your target audience needs to hear? From there, it’s time to look at marketing tactics and to figure out the best way to get those messages sent out.

Chapman, LIME: These are all great points. One other thing I would like to add is integrity. Do not pretend to be what you are not. Do not over-promise because you will always under-deliver. Now is a fabulous time to start a business. You just have to be smart and maintain integrity.

Ferre, Cultivate Ideas: Now is the time to really understand what the marketplace is asking for and needing and demanding, and then find ways to transform your product or service to hit those magic buttons. At the end of the day we all want to save money, to make more money and to have our lives be easier. One of the best reasons to hire an outside set of eyeballs is they understand what the market is doing. They can help you take your product or service and meet the needs of the market. People are buying things, and we in this room know what they are buying. As a startup company, not bringing someone in as a marketing expert is as scary as not getting a business license.

Scott, MIM Creative: Study the competition. A wise man learns from mistakes, but a wiser man learns from others. That’s where advice from experts in the field comes into play. Taking in other people’s opinions and their successes and their failures can be easily transferred to your venture.

Hales, Stephen Hales Creative: Anybody who starts a new business needs to recognize they’re going to make mistakes. How do you minimize the mistakes you’re making? You get help. Get a lawyer, get an accountant, get a banker — then you need to talk to somebody who does marketing. Even if you don’t have the money to do everything marketing-wise that you want to do, at least you know what you need to start with and then you can build from there.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Thank you for bringing us up to speed on marketing. This is one of the most optimistic and upbeat roundtables we’ve had recently!

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It’s back — in all of its growing green glory. The UV50 — which features the county’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies (measured by percentage growth over a three-year period), 15 Top Revenue Companies and 10 Startups to Watch — has enjoyed another year of record-ranking success.

Meet all 50 winners, and go inside seven companies that share how they did it — in their own words.

BY BRIANA STEWART  |  PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRYANT LIVINGSTON PHOTOGRAPHY

UV50 CONTENTS
Fastest-Growing Companies
Top Revenue Companies
Startups To Watch

FEATURED WINNERS
NetSteps
AtTask
Simplicity Group
Five Star Painting
Best Vinyl
NuSkin
Zoobie Pets

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*** Video by Issimo Productions.

To say the Smoot brothers have animal instinct is a bit of an understatement. The men behind the Zoobie Pets phenomenon have taken the toy world by storm — and by surprise. In just two short years, the patent-pending stuffed animals — which turn into pillows and blankets — have won 30 industry awards, landed gleefully into the hands of celebrities, bloggers and magazine editors, and turned its parent company into a million-dollar operation. “The response has been amazing,” says JC Smoot, 26, who started the venture with his brother, Reid, in 2007. “We make toys, and we have a lot of fun doing it. But it’s nice to know we’re something worth writing about.” And that you are.

The idea for Zoobies began as a break-off idea with the sourcing company my brother and I started. He lives in China, and in that business we work with medical and dental products — primarily plastics. At one point we did a big order of blankets and pillows for a company, and we had great pricing on the materials. Shortly thereafter, we came up with the concept for Zoobies.

We worked so hard on the concept and dumped a ton of money into it. We did a lot of research and tested the Zoobies at different day cares around town. They were a huge hit. Parents were loving it, and we knew we were on the right track.

Our first trade show cost us $23,000. We were doing the American International Toy Fair, which is the biggest toy show in America, and we went all out on this booth. We didn’t want to show up and look like a startup. We wanted to look like we had been around the block a couple times.

We showed up at the toy fair, and all the toy companies in the world were there. There were companies like Matel, Hasbro, LEGO — all the big guys. That first night I was so nervous. I was 24 at the time and realizing how much we were putting on the line. I threw up all night, and I wasn’t sick. It was all nerves.

*** Video by Issimo Productions.

I shouldn’t have been nervous. At the toy fair, our booth was literally swarmed with people. The fair took a poll of the “must-see things,” and we were in the top five companies out of 1,500 booths. There was a lot of buzz. It was a big deal.

We were approached by a lot of big box and high-end companies like FAO Schwarz asking when they could get us in their stores. We had 80 accounts by the end of that first show.

It felt good. We had spent so much time and money working on this, and it was great to know we had a good thing going. There was still so much to do — including moving the office out of my parent’s kitchen — but we were on our way.

The company name has nothing to do with BYU. I actually didn’t know about the “zoobies” term beforehand. We were firing around 200 different names, and I liked the word zoobie. Zoo animals … zoobies … Zoobie Pets. It just worked. I promise I’m not making fun of BYU students. I don’t think they’re caged animals.

Our stuffed animals are patent-pending, but more powerful than our patent is our brand. Within two years, I’ve never seen a brand in the toy industry grow this quickly — it typically takes years to get this kind of recognition. We’re actually busier than a lot of major national accounts. Their sales are bigger, but our hype is greater.

It’s been fun to see celebrities fall in love with their Zoobies. Meredith Vieira from The Today Show got a Zoobie from a fan, and out of the blue she wrote a blog post on how she carries it with her wherever she goes. Here was a grown woman who loved our stuffed animal — it was awesome. We were later on The Today Show, and then The Early Show called, and then the magazines started calling.

When we demo the product, there’s an audible gasp. People love it, and the best part is they keep coming back. You can always sucker someone into buying something once. But when they come back, that’s when you start celebrating.

We get e-mails from parents every day. They tell us how their kids can’t go to bed without it, or how it was a lifesaver on their vacation. And when we walk through the airport and see kids carrying it, it’s hard not to think, “We’ve got something here.”

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Nu Skin Enterprises turned 25 this year, and the landmark company is as good as Nu. With more than $1 billion in sales, 8,000-plus employees and a presence in 48 worldwide markets, Nu Skin, a direct sales company that sells skin and beauty products, is stronger than ever. And according to founder Blake Roney, it’s all good. “Our company has been successful because our goal in life is to do good for others. It’s that simple.” And that’s the beauty of it. The Nu Skin Force For Good Foundation has been fueled with thousands of hours, millions of dollars and a whole lot of heart — and in turn, the company has become one the most successful of its kind.

We love being located in Utah Valley. It’s a beautiful place. Those mountains! I get to see them through visitors’ eyes, and our mountains blow them away. But even more than that, there are better people in this valley. There are people who value honesty, goodness and a strong work ethic.

A key aspect to maintaining employee morale is the opportunity we give them to be a part of something bigger than themselves. We started the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation and Nourish the Children initiative to provide opportunities for employees and distributors to make a difference. And so far, the generosity has translated into more than 146 million meals for malnourished children all over the world.

Because of this, Nu Skin employees are a little more altruistic than your average employee — and this is not business spiel. They tend to be people who want to do more than just earn a living; they want to do good with their life.

*** Video by Issimo Productions.

We hold onto our employees 35 percent longer than the national average, and it’s because people go to bed at night and think, “I was a good guy today.” That’s fueled our growth.

Our company has been successful because our goal in life is to do good for others. It’s that simple. We won’t sell our products unless they improve people’s lives. Our compensation plan for distributors is designed to improve their lives. And ultimately, they end up giving back along the way. We trick them into bettering other people’s lives.

There can be a lot of pressure that comes with being one of Utah Valley’s largest employers. There are a lot more people who want to work here than you can take on, and we also tend to be the first on the list when people are looking to raise funds. It’s hard because we want to contribute to the community, but we can’t always do everything that’s asked of us.

When you’re such a large part of the community, you can become a target. Other companies have paid a lot of money to steal away important employees, and they’re staffed at the management level with people who used to work here — and that’s a good thing. We’re happy to see those people moving ahead and sharing those same philosophies of giving back to humanity. It’s great — we’ve tricked other companies into bettering people’s lives, too.

There are pros and cons to being a public company. In direct sales, a lot of companies fib in order to sound bigger than they are. So being a public company assures we are being honest with our earnings. It gives us a little more credibility in an industry a lot of people are wary of.

On the flip side, being public can be harmful. On a day when the stock goes down, there can be a feeling among distributors that things aren’t good — even if it has zero to do with the day-to-day business. We’ll have distributors call up and say, “Why is the stock down?” And we’ll say, “The same reason it went up last week — we don’t know!” (laughs)

Naively, we thought Nu Skin could be what it is today. That was ridiculous for us to think. When the company was 10 years old, I found a paper full of long-term goals I’d written before our first product came out. And the list matched up! But I didn’t consider myself a visionary. I thought, “What a naive guy I was that I thought we could do this!” We’ve worked hard, but magical stars have lined up along the way.

We’re determined to be the most successful direct sales company on the planet. And if we’re paying more money to our distributors, and if we’re doing more good for humanity, we will be. We’re already on our way.

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Three-Year Growth
1,021%

Twenty-two. That’s 21 more employees than NetSteps had during its first four years of business — and it wasn’t for lack of things to do. “It was me, myself and I for a long time,” says Derek Maxfield, founder of the company that provides technology solutions for direct sales companies and their distributors. “I was sales, support, development — all of it. I worked myself into the ground.” The ground-bound entrepreneur is a familiar story, but NetSteps’ stunning growth — which Maxfield is quick to credit to his team — is anything but.

I’ve been a programmer for a long time. I studied computer science at BYU, and I was working in Web development when I realized there was a way to make Web content dynamic. Someone could manage it and it would have easy-to-use interface Web pages. It wasn’t a new concept. But no one was doing it quite right.

I moved to Salt Lake and worked for a company in the network marketing industry. They were doing back-end stuff — things like commissions and storing the tree in the downlines. On my own time, I started making a product called Replicated Websites that allows each individual distributor to have their own site.

I worked on it on my own time. I’d get up at 4 in the morning and work on it for a few hours. After 18 months, I wrote a business plan and raised some money. I took the dive and quit my job, which was scary. I’m not much of a risk taker.

The risk was mitigated by the fact that I had a product ready and clients ready to use it. I didn’t feel like I was jumping into the abyss — every step felt like a natural progression. The biggest risk was when I started taking on employees. Before that, I was only affecting myself. If things didn’t go well, I could go out and get a job. But if I hired someone, I was responsible for them. So it was me, myself and I for a long time.

*** Video by Issimo Productions.

Hiring my first employee was agonizing, though in hindsight, it was so obviously the right thing to do. I had been working myself into the ground. I was sales, support, development — all of it. I met with clients to do sales pitches during the day, and then I did the actual coding for three or four hours at night. It was tough, but I wouldn’t do anything differently. We grew when the money was there to grow.

There was a lot of bootstrapping, and I’m glad there was. I got a lot of advice to get a big SBA loan, and I’m so glad I didn’t. I thought if a business couldn’t survive on its own cash flow, it couldn’t do well. I didn’t realize that was an unusual way of thinking.

We’re a software company, but we got our start as a relationship company. I had a personal relationship with our first five clients, and they trusted us because of that. They knew if they paid us all this money, we would follow through. Our founding principle has been to under-promise and over-deliver. More than make money — I want to exceed expectations. There are no skeletons in our closet. People can call every one of our clients and they’ll hear great feedback. I’m more proud of that than anything else.

The biggest growing pain is letting go. I can’t oversee all the projects anymore, and that’s hard. I’ve had to learn to trust my employees and give them the freedom they need. It’s strange, though. When I was in Paris on business, they hired three people who I hadn’t met yet. That’s a weird feeling, but it’s time for it to start happening.

The company has changed quite a bit over the years, and it was strange to wake up one morning and realize I have this company that has HR issues, that deals with insurance, that deals with all this stuff I never really thought about. For so long it was just a bunch of developers, and I was in the fox hole with the guys. Not anymore.

Flexibility is everything. Our product is always changing, always growing. Because of clients’ requests, I can never put a cap on it, and that’s just the way it’s going to be. I’ve tried to embrace that rather than get frustrated by it. And it’s served us well.

We’ve been blessed with the right clients and the right employees coming along at exactly the right time. I can’t think of a better word to describe it then “blessed.” I’m grateful for everyone that’s helped get the company to this point. There’s no way I could have done this by myself.