Philanthropic Marketing

Philanthropic Marketing

Philanthropy is an excellent way to give back to others and volunteer in communities that need help. Dock Houk is passionate about his philanthropic efforts and has put together a few tips on how to incorporate philanthropy into a marketing strategy for your business.

Dock Houk believes integrating philanthropic endeavors into a marketing strategy requires creating public awareness of the social need to give back to the community as well as promoting the effort from your organization. This is a great opportunity to not only raise awareness for a good cause but also show that your business is dedicated to striving for a better society. By creating a balanced marketing strategy you can be sure to drive interest to not only your company but towards philanthropy.

You should start by choosing a problem we face as a society and target your philanthropic efforts towards that problem. Find ways to solve this issue at hand and incorporate ways your business can help reach a solution. After you have developed a few solutions, get your customers involved and ask them to donate or help with the cause. This will show customers that you care about the community and in turn increase sales for your company. Supporting different philanthropic campaigns is not only good for our society but can also help your business grow and succeed. For more tips and information, contact Dock Houk.  

The History of the U.S. Open

 The History of the U.S. Open

It’s that time of the year again where the summer months slow down and the tennis courts heat up! The U.S. Open Tennis Championship is a hard-court tennis tournament and is known to be one of the oldest, most recognized tennis championships in the entire world. Dr. J.T. Houk has a passion for tennis and put this together to take a stroll down memory lane to the history of tennis. 

If you are even the slightest bit of a sports fanatic then you know exactly what this championship is, but have you ever questioned its origin? The history of the U.S. Open all began in 1978 in late August through early September over a two-week period. Beginning on acrylic hard-courts located at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, the U.S. Open is owned and operated by the United States Tennis Association as a “not-for-profit” organization. Surprisingly, the proceeds from ticket prices are used to implement a higher knowledge and growth of the sport of tennis across the nation. 

After existing for 9 years, The Grand Slam was developed and The U.S. Open became the fourth and final tennis major worldwide; the other opens consist of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. Consisting of five event championships, this tournament is any tennis fanatics dream, even inclusive of wheelchair players, juniors and seniors. With rich history and great intentions, the development of this tournament not only helps the USTA but also the overall development and promotion of the sport nationwide.

How to Market Real Time

With real time marketing, there are certain elements which can take your business to levels it has not been before. Dr. J.T. Dock Houk knows quite a bit about marketing, and will share a few tips to have your real time marketing campaign explode. 

Identify the high level communities that your brand is trying to reach. Once you can identify exactly who you are targeting, you can launch a full out assault on them at every event, convention, and meeting that these people may be at. Also, get your team and your process in place exactly how you want and need before you get started. Have the right people in the right places leading the charge. Finally, monitor everything closely. Do not let pieces fall through the cracks just because you weren’t paying close enough attention. 

Developing Marketing

Companies and businesses need marketing. This is a known fact in order to be successful as a business. The issue is, many business owners think they have a great marketing plan, and expect it to flourish overnight. As Dr. J.T. Dock Houk explains, a great marketing strategy does not happen overnight, and is more of a snowball effect.

 Too many times business owners see another business become successful after using a marketing campaign, and they think they need to follow the exact campaign to be successful. When in reality, every business is different and needs to use their own approach. Trying to implement another businesses strategy as your own could work in some aspects, but to be truly effective it would need to be tweaked to fit your business needs. This will not happen overnight, and trial and error is a large portion of marketing.

 

How to Help Employees Work Harder

Eliciting the best possible work from employees is a goal that many bosses wish to achieve. Increasing productivity and cutting down on mistakes is something everyone can strive for. Being able to do this makes the mark for a great leader. Dr. J.T. Dock Houk of the NHF knows how to motivate employees and can share ways to keep everyone on the right path for your business.

Reinforcing you expectations with employees with set forth a guideline that you expect them to follow. Once a clear path is defined, distractions become less opportunistic. Explain to employees who you are as a business, what you are trying to achieve, and how you expect to get there. This will relay the message of what is expected. Take a personal interest in your employees. Showing them that you care in their work, and personal lives will help them be able to relate to you, and to also see you as more of a human that has the same frustrations and struggles in life. They will be more comfortable and this may help with future ideas, and opinions.

Rafael Nadal Wins Yet Again

This past weekend, tennis great Rafael Nadal won his record 8^th French Open tennis title. He has been dominant throughout his career, and this weekend was no different. He defeated David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. 

He cemented himself as the sport’s greatest ever on clay, and being only twenty seven years old, has many future victories ahead of him. A proponent of the lesser-known double racket tennis, Dr. J.T. Dock Houk recognizes this outstanding achievement of single racket tennis.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are two of the tennis’ most polarizing athletes and the debate on who is better is never ending. Roger Federer is more accomplished overall with 14 major titles, but he is also older. Nadal is not far behind with 12 major title wins. It will be interesting to see how the future of these two rivals pans out.

The Events with NHF

While there is a series of unfortunate events that occurred to NHF several years ago, the “news” stories and blogs found on the web are blatantly misleading to completely false. Dr. J.T. Dock Houk

would like to set forth some of the history of this charity.

In 2006, NHF was sued by a family in Texas over an insurance policy the family donated to NHF. The Mancillas family lived in Texas and retained a lawyer known for attacking companies with “deep pockets”, meaning companies with large asset base and insurance. NHF had to appear in the Brownsville Texas courts to fight this case. NHF tried to get its insurance company, Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, to indemnify NHF in this case which was clearly a covered claim. The insurance company declined. NHF made every effort to resolve the case amicably, including making efforts to settle with the Mancillas family, but they turned down all efforts. In the summer of 2008, the court in Texas, presided by Judge Abel Limas, tried our case. (Note that the Judge was voted into office, that the Mancillas family were personal friends with the judge, and that critical evidence in our case was suppressed.) NHF lost and a very heavy judgment was levied.

With the Mancillas case, NHF needed to post a bond to appeal the Texas judgment in the amount of the judgment which was $7 million dollars. Bond insurers would not allow NHF to secure a bond with stocks because of the volatility in the markets at that time – stocks were fluctuating by thousands of points daily. The insurers required cash. NHF had to liquidate millions of its stock accounts very quickly to post the bond. This resulted in having to file for bankruptcy.

NHF reorganized in the fall of 2009, paid off the annuitants and other creditors, unfortunately with donated funds, because it was required to by the bankruptcy courts to do so. Since the fall of 2009, NHF has restored nearly $2M in lost funds to donor’s accounts from its own assets held in more illiquid form. There was no court mandate to do this, NHF has voluntarily done so.

In 2011, NHF sued its insurance company for failure to cover and for bad faith in denying coverage in the Mancillas case. NHF won a settlement from Philadelphia and has used those funds to restore even further its donor advised funds, to pay tremendous legal bills in the bankruptcy and ensuing insurance.