Human Resources: New York Brands Show Integrates People, Performance and Products

Tarrytown, NY – February 21, 2008 – “Brands Powering People, People Powering Brands” is the theme of the second annual New York Incentive, Rewards & Recognition Show and Brand Engagement Conference, to be held May 7-8, 2008, at the Hilton Hotel and Towers in New York City.

The show’s Brand Engagement Conference program focuses on the connection between an organization’s customers, channel partners, salespeople, employees and brand performance. The Conference reflects the growing need for U.S. businesses to engage customers, channel partners, salespeople and employees to achieve key performance objectives. Exhibitors at the NYIRR Show will emphasize the critical role played by both branded and promotional products to help break through the communications clutter to engage their targeted audiences.

Exhibitors include leading brands and suppliers of incentives, rewards, recognition and promotional products used by companies to reinforce their own brands in external and internal marketing programs. They also include incentive companies specializing in helping organizations engage their target audiences, as well as leading associations offering resources to planners of business engagement strategies.

The education component at the show has been divided into two tracks: The Brand Engagement Conference focuses on how People Power Brands and is headlined by marketing guru and noted author Don Peppers, a founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group and of 1to1 Media (divisions of marketing services giant Carlson Marketing), and Mark Schumann, a communications consultant for Towers Perrin and co-author of Brand from the Inside.

According to Bruce Bolger, Conference Program Director, “The Internet has leveled the playing field in terms of how companies are perceived, marketed and branded. In many industries, the ability to create a fulfilling customer experience will hinge on the ability to engage employees. The Brand Engagement sessions at this year’s show are designed to provide organizations with a fresh perspective on how to maximize performance.”

“Implementing a culture of engagement from scratch is exceptionally challenging,” says Conference Keynote Speaker Don Peppers. “That’s the bad news. The good news is that if I’m able to help my people make decisions that are governed by what’s best for our customers and our shareholders at the same time, it’s going to be very difficult for a competitor to replicate.” In their new book, Rules to Break & Laws to Follow, Peppers and his partner, Martha Rogers, Ph.D., argue that a climate of engagement is closely related to empowerment, and these internal values are imperative to the long-term success of your business.

Companies with a successful culture of empowerment work at maintaining it. Peppers believes companies need to “reinforce and reward a culture where the guidance comes from ‘the way we do things here,’ rather than from rules.” This involves recruiting people who can make decisions and live with the results. It also requires that management give empowered employees the tools to validate their decisions.

The second education track at this year’s show addresses how Brands Power People, with a number of on-floor “What’s Hot” brand presentations that focus on leading brands and suppliers in key product and service categories. These sessions will demonstrate how corporations can use branded and non-branded incentives, rewards and recognition programs to engage consumers, channel partners, salespeople and employees.

The show’s focus on brands and people performance is designed to reflect a number of trends currently impacting business:

The increasing shift from mass- to target-marketing, which requires an entirely new approach to engagement.
The increasing focus on creating a distinct customer experience, which requires a fully engaged workforce.
A looming shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers that will occur (with or without an economic recession) due to demographic trends and increased restrictions on immigration.
The increasing need to “break through” to reach target audiences in a memorable and engaging way.
The need to better integrate external marketing – promises made to customers – with internal marketing, and the efforts required to make sure those promises are fulfilled.

“Products used in promotions, rewards and recognition, whether they feature a leading brand name or are customized as a promotional product, are a powerful medium essential to breaking through to people, whether they’re customers or employees,” says Show Director Jim Kilmetis. “The exhibit floor and the live presentations are designed to shed new light on how brands and promotional products can be used just like other media, but with even greater impact.”

Among the leading exhibitors at this year’s show: American Express Incentive Services, Barnes & Noble, Bath & Body Works, Bose, Bulova, Canon, Fuji, InComm, Marriott, Movado, Sony, Tourneau, Tumi and nearly 100 more major brands. Leading incentive companies include Dittman Incentive Marketing, The Incentive Group, Marketing Innovators and Rymax, among others.

In addition, a number of sponsoring associations will be represented at the show: the Forum for People Performance Management & Measurement, Human Capital Institute, Incentive Marketing Association, Incentive Research Foundation, International Society for Performance Improvement, Recognition Professionals International and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

For more information on this year’s NYIRR Show and Brand Engagement Conference, go to www.nyirr.com.