CGC is a full-service public relations, marketing and communications agency with a specialty in multi-cultural communications and urban marketing. We provide an impact-driven approach to developing and implementing targeted, high-level media, marketing and advertising campaigns. Our campaigns are designed to generate measurable results on a company’s business or an organization’s goals.  We are MBE/WBE certified with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia. Our services include:

• Integrated Communications
• Media Relations
• Internal Communications
• Crisis Management
• Management of Publicity Events
• Public Affairs/Government Relations
• Community Relations and Grass Roots Outreach
• Supporting Non-Profit Organizations
• Market Research
• Advertising/Production
• Brand Positioning and Management

Integrated Communications:
We offer integrated communications because a good plan should contain a wide range of tactics that are strategically synchronized to help promote your company. In today's market, public relations is a highly effective means to enhance your company’s brand and support your overall communications strategy. However, multiple communications techniques must be employed to achieve significant reach for your message; and all communications materials should deliver a consistent message.

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Media Relations:
At the beginning of our relationship with a client, we can conduct a thorough review of the company/organization including: business objectives, communications strategies to date – successes and failures, competition, upcoming events, etc. Soon thereafter, we provide a game plan for reaching out to the press—and securing results with a combination of any or all of the services listed below.

• Strategy and Positioning: Working closely with company executives, we provide the critical counsel and positioning strategy that can make the difference between a feature story and a small-mention in the paper; or, the difference between a positive and negative story. Our philosophy is to work with your senior management team to position and communicate important information and strategic messages to diverse consumer audiences, investors, media, government, employees, customers and other community stakeholders. This communication activity focuses on maximizing competitive advantage, profitability and shareholder value.

• News Releases and Press Kit Development: We will draft any and all written background materials, including news advisories and releases, company fact sheets, executive biographies, etc.

• Pitching to the press: We have relationships with key reporters and editors at the local, regional and national levels. We take our clients’ news and key messages to them. Our knowledge and understanding of the media and how it works allows us to effectively facilitate communications on your behalf. From circulating a news release about your company, a special event or your products/services to securing a feature article about your company’s executive, we are well positioned to assist you!

• PSPR© (Press Secretaries for Public Relations): This service is founded on the needs of the client who may need public relations assistance for just for a day, a week, or on short project basis to handle a specific issue. For this purpose, CGC offers a pool of seasoned, former press secretaries who are experienced in all facets of communications and who hit the ground running when needed. These individuals have served in a variety of public service positions and are usually strategic and crisis communications experts who have excellent relationships with the press, government officials and community and industry leaders.

• Writing and Other Creative Services: We also offer the following additional services to compliment your media/public relations plan:

• Bylined articles
• Op-eds
• Letters to the editor
• Speeches
• Slide show presentations
• Newsletters (electronic and print productions)
• Brochures
• Scriptwriting
• Video and Audio Production

Internal Communications:
Communicating information to your organization's employees or other internal stakeholders should be as important as communicating with clients and external audiences. Internal communications not only helps to motivate employees but also engages them more fully in your organizations business strategy and success. To that end, CGC offers:

• Internal communications plans
• Employee media training 
• Employee event planning training
• Development and creation of newsletters/e-newsletters, and critical messages for bulk mail distribution to employees
• Training and policy roll-out video products

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Crisis Management:
This is a both reactive and proactive service that helps the customer manage current crisis or anticipate a future situation which could create significant amounts of bad press and stain your public image. A crisis can strike at anytime – whether it is a natural disaster that hits one of your company’s offices, a controversial lawsuit or executive misconduct, you must be prepared. In today’s competitive environment, no company, large or small, can afford to be unresponsive. A bad story can last a day or a week, depending on how it is handled from the beginning, and planning ahead will help preserve your good reputation in the event of a crisis. We can help you develop a comprehensive crisis response plan that includes step-by-step strategies to communicate effectively with your staff, customers, shareholders, media and other key constituents. We also provide your spokespersons with media training, train your staff in crisis communications tactics, and provide public relations counsel during critical times.

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Management of Publicity Events:
CGC can develop and manage client sponsored publicity events, designed to strengthen the client’s perceived business commitment. We are experts in planning and implementing press conferences, and large-scale public events such as public exhibitions, concerts, fundraisers, etc. While managing publicity events, we have a hands-on approach and clear operations plan to ensure success.

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Public Affairs/Government Relations:
We believe an effective public affairs protocol utilizes traditional public relations techniques targeted specifically at opinion leaders and decision-makers through a variety of venues. Our principals have extensive experience working with government and quasi-government agencies and can design government relations and communications strategies that deliver a unified message while still reaching diverse constituencies.

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Community Relations and Grass Roots Outreach:
Grassroots coalition development and effective community relations are key components of an overall corporate communications and public relations program. CGC ’s principals can introduce you to community leaders and organizations with a geographic, cultural, or economic interest in your project, business, program or service. We can relay the concerns and desires of these players, and help develop an effective and respectful approach for communicating with them. Without proper communication, these leaders can easily ignore the best-laid plans; with the right information, education, and relationship building, the people who are most affected by your issues, can become your best allies. We help clients design community relations and philanthropic programs appropriate to their goals. Using our experience in public affairs and research, we assist clients in developing an overall community relations program. This allows for the formation of strategic alliances and industry coalitions and helps to build mutually productive relationships with non-traditional allies. It broadens the messages and expands the scope of public information campaigns. 

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Supporting Non-Profit Organizations:
Non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life for others must tell their stories effectively in order to continue securing resources and to spread the word about their services/programs. Non-profit organizations particularly need aggressive media and public relations campaigns designed to support fund development and help to expand their capacity.

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Market Research:
Good research is the foundation for effective marketing. Research methods include focus groups, quantitative surveys, compilation of existing data, and competitive analyses. Through research, you can learn more about your target markets' attitudes, feelings, and beliefs about your products and services, identify new marketing opportunities, test new strategies, and refine your communications.

• The Philly Focus Factory ™:   At the heart of our business philosophy is a unique product, the Philly Focus Factory™. The Philly Focus Factory provides live-time access to the thinking perceptions and consumption tendencies of urban market dwellers. It's a mobile think tank whose innovative and qualitative formulas can be easily adapted to any urban setting but is always characterized by an authentic neighborhood location -- you will not find it in a downtown hotel because we go to the community, they don't have to come to us. The Focus Factory will provide community residents, potential customers and key audiences (housing coalitions, CDCs, grassroots political infrastructure groups, and opinion leaders such as, Ward Leaders and Block Captains) with a comfortable, easily accessible and user-friendly location in which to think and express themselves "safely" and creatively, thereby, enhancing the reliability of the data collection.

Advertising/Production:
For aggressive promotion of your product or service, free media is not enough; you have to advertise to control your message and image and target communications to achieve your sales or information goals. CGC offers a full range of advertising services from market research and product/service positioning to production and media buying. If you want to promote your product or service, we can help to create a theme and identity for it. Develop the ad that will get you noticed and place it in the appropriate media vehicle for your target audience.

More and more, corporations and public institutions are making effective use of audio and video products not intended for broadcast, but needed for presentation to external audiences, as well as for internal communications purposes. CGC ’s principals have direct experience in this type of production and an extensive network of colleagues in local video and audio production companies with whom we work.

One of our principals has more than fifteen years experience as a broadcast reporter and producer for several television networks and is an award-winning documentary producer. CGC principals have also produced institutional videos for public sector and national private sector corporations.

Brand Positioning and Management:
Understanding the evolution of a brand image is key to long-term management of a successful organizational or product identity. Whether you need to establish a new brand or re-position your existing brand, our positioning process is predicated on understanding your business – where it has been and where it is headed.  The more specific and distinctive your positioning, the more effective your brand image will be. We will help you identify and develop the most powerful images for your brand and reinforce them through integrated communication programs.  CGC will research, design and build a plan for a brand image that reflects your company’s core values and philosophy and leaves a positive, lasting perception in people’s minds.

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