I’m sitting in front of Gate 5 at the Scranton Wilkes Barre Airport, getting ready to jump into the very minuscule, propeller plane en route to Charlotte, where I’ll have a three-hour layover before my connecting flight to Palm Beach International takes off. Normally, just the thought of airports, going through TSA security, layovers, rushing through terminals and sitting in the plane not unlike a canned sardine… next to a new mom whose baby is either screaming or being breast-fed, all elicit high anxiety levels. Post 9-11 airport travel sucks.

But this time, it’s different. I have this exhilarating feeling. I’m coming home after spending three days at the annual Arley Classic, a beaucoup extravaganza where our long-time client, Arley Wholesale Products, every year seems to do everything right… everything better than the previous year. To call the 2015 edition impressive, would be a gross understatement. It was, without question, one of the best “business gatherings” I have ever attended throughout decades as a marketing communicator. 

How did  Arley knock it out of the park? Well, first of all, the entire team functions as one professional unit. I’ve spent many a minute listening to clients’ personnel talking behind their co-workers’ backs, one person bashing another to ostensibly bolster their standing. Not at Arley. The entire staff, from seasoned owner to rookie, functions as one smooth-moving, totally professional entity. Each team member is a veritable campaign manager for the other. Positivity abounds at Arley, as well. The entire three days were put together seamlessly: trade show, golf, dinners, cocktail hour(s) and more, each one at optimal levels. On time, well attended, everything perfectly choreographed! Even the comedian, brought in to perform after the first night’s dinner, exceeded all expectations!

And, why was this fun, worthwhile, highly professional gala event even better this year than in previous ones? My take is that as highly up-to-date as Arley is, I’ve noticed the one and only item the firm always toots its collective horn about pertains to tradition: how the company steadfastly sticks to the ideals of its founder, dating back to the mid-thirties. This credo includes: 

• Being honorable in everything you do
• Living up to your agreements; your word is your bond
• Being loyal to your suppliers. They are the backbone of your business

The result is a highly advanced, extremely sophisticated, contemporary company that hasn’t for one second forgotten its roots… or, the good old-fashioned business maxims it built its foundation upon.

This guy had such a good time. And from the first night’s apres-dinner, awe-inspiring speech “The  Champ is Here” (manuscript available upon request) given by the firm’s executive Vice President of Operations, Scott Levy, I knew this wasn’t just any old business soiree; this was the epitome of a textbook-level company event. Not surprisingly, I was far from being alone with these thoughts.

Congratulations to Arley Wholesale Products on its 13th annual Arley Classic and Trade Show. It was a TEN. On behalf of Communicators International, Inc., let me emphatically state how proud we are to be the advertising & public relations firm for such an ultra-professional client that seems to exceed first-class levels on regular basis… with everything it does.

We started Communicators International, Inc. in January of 1994. It seems like yesterday.

Business Beginnings in Venice, 1989. L-R: The late great Dave-o King; Mustachioed Ron Treister; Randy Stertmeyer, navigating as always.

Our very first client was Creative Edge, the Fairfield, Iowa-based company which has grown to be the world’s leading waterjet design and fabrication firm. They’re still with us, and the relationship has never been stronger. It’s still a lot of fun working with Jim Belilove, Harri Aalto and key members of their great team. Another core account from way-back-when was Rover North America, the stateside subsidiary of Italy’s then-premier manufacturer of agglomerated marble slabs and tiles. The President/Managing Director of that firm was Randy Stertmeyer, who today is our COO. Randy worked for four other companies which became our clients since that time, one being Creative Edge, for which he was VP/Sales & Marketing.

It’s all about good people helping good people…and, not forgetting each other.

I hired Terri Sparks in 1990 to work as my assistant at Treister Incorporated in Chicago; I think it was just after she had graduated from college. She stayed with me when we sold that firm to another ad agency, and then joined up with the ex-client for whom we both worked a short period of time. Moving forward, she became the marketing director of a very large stone company about the same time I started this company. In 2003, Terri came back as an account exec, doing great stuff (as always) until she left four years later, taking on an even more important job: being mother to her twins. Now that her kids are in school, she’s back with us on a part-time basis.

It’s never been easy. It’s never been dull. Overall though, it’s always been rewarding. Thanks to everybody who has worked with Communicators International, Inc. over the last two decades!

Since 2006, the amount of time that the average person spent on social-networking sites has more than doubled, from 2.7 hours to 6.9 hours per month. Two of the fastest-growing groups on social media are males and people over the age of 55. Go figure.

So how much time is too much? Here are some signs you are addicted to social media:

1) You Have Social Media For Breakfast. If you’re checking your streams, posts, messages and tweets before that first cup of coffee or the morning workout, you’re on very shaky ground. Get some of your own thoughts and your own game plan going first before you start reading about everyone else.

2) You Like Your Own Posts. Do you post a comment on Facebook that you find particularly witty and then “like” it, too? Don’t do that. It makes you look like you’re obsessed with yourself. No one likes a narcissist.

3) You share big news online before you call your mom. New job, new baby, new house. If your first inclination is to blast it over Facebook or Twitter instead of calling your friends or loved ones, you might be a tad obsessed.

4) Your mood depends on how many online responses you get. If you’re basing your self esteem on how many of your friends liked or retweeted your picture or witty comment, please don’t. It’s probably a sign that you need to spend some more time with yourself.

5) Your phone buzzes every time there’s a new message or post waiting for you. There’s no sense in being notified every time someone retweets or comments on something you said. It keeps you from being in the moment and focusing on the task at hand.

There once was a stigma among Europeans that Americans were a bit vulgar and had no style. That’s what my mom said, anyway. Growing up as a German-American, I would hear my mother go on for hours about how plain American women used to be. “They look dowdy,” she said. “They have no table manners.” “They don’t know how to use what they have to get what they want.”

by Tanja Kern

Those comments made me cringe. After all, I am an American (albeit a dual-passport-holding one). But those comments also made me pay close attention to first impressions and fitting in. The impression mom wanted to project in the 1970s was that she was the sexy, yet classy, Bond woman who could teach American women a thing or two. In contrast, our American neighbors thought my mother was a bit of a stuck-up maneater. (In reality, she was all bark…no bite).

As you can probably imagine, mom still has a very strong German accent, and she is proud of it. Over the years, however, that accent caused some miscommunication. “I love my husband’s muh-stard,” she would say (when she meant mustache, for example). Everything dramatic was always “tur-ble” (ie “terrible). There was also the little issue of German words that just don’t translate into English. Take fremdgeschämt, for example, which means “to be ashamed for someone else.” You can only imagine how often that word was tossed around in our house.

First impressions are based on your own cultural perspective. What’s acceptable and considered “good” in one country might not be correct for the next. Language is a big part of that.

As a U.S.-based communications and marketing firm, Communicators International speaks English fluently. We also write in English, we joke in English, and we know what images and ideas appeal to the American market. We’ve gotten around the world enough to fully appreciate the nuances of world cultures and how products researched and developed abroad can be repackaged to appeal to American consumers. That’s not to say that European companies shouldn’t play up the sex appeal of Paris or the style of Milan, but they should say it in a way that is clear to their target audience and with the words that will inspire consumers to spring into action.