Tarkenton & Addams offers a range of services. The following sections outline those and provide a picture of some of our past and present work for clients.

Corporate Communications

Corporate communications involves creating and supporting the positive image of an organization or its products or services in the communities where the company operates. And tackling issues that might alter or damage that image.

Under the umbrella of corporate communications, we offer speech writing, public affairs, community relations and grass-roots lobbying. Services menu

Communications Strategy

Operating a successful business involves a constant effort to find and exploit opportunities, all the while keeping costs on a downward slope relative to the competition. To accomplish this, many companies—including Toyota, Dell, and Southwest Airlines—use strategies designed to pump up employee initiative, eliminate unneeded activities, streamline flow, and compress the time required to make and execute decisions. Tarkenton & Addams believes that this approach offers the most effective framework for today’s business environment, and that communications must enhance  these activities and sell their benefits for all stakeholders.

We also have extensive experience working with companies implementing radical improvement initiatives, such as lean and Six Sigma, and emerging from financial restructuring. It is vitally important that companies undertaking improvement and restructuring efforts communicate their progress to employees, suppliers, customers, and the financial community.

T&A staff members have taught, lectured, and published in the area of leading edge business strategy, including the recent guide to time-based strategies, Certain to Win. Services menu

Crisis Communications

Crisis communications involves helping clients address situations and manage issues arising from unforeseen or uncontrolled developments. It means working with clients to respond to what often are hostile news reports and public reactions to those developments.

Timely, effective communications through the news media are essential during a crisis, and preparation (and a good plan) are key.  Two of our principals are co-authors of Unexpected Chaos and Preventing a Crisis, a proven survival manual for crises.  We offer a variety of methods to prepare clients not only to survive crises but often to emerge the stronger for them.  Services menu

Media Relations

Media relations involves working on a client's behalf with reporters, writers and editors in the trade press and consumer news media, daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, radio, television and on the internet.

An important element of successful media relations lies in the strength and worth of a company's story. Is what you have to tell a compelling, interesting and attractive story for reporters and editors? How can you assess your company or product strengths and shape a story that will be attractive to reporters and their readers?

Today, more than ever, news people thrive on information. Identifying and targeting a story—not merely distributing news releases in mass quantities—proves the most reliable method for telling a company's story through the news media. Services menu

Employee Relations

Employee relations involves using communications to support employee motivation, team-building, performance and productivity programs. It also means keeping employees in different locations informed about new products, new strategies and new developments that will affect them. It means keeping them connected to their company and one another, no matter where they are.

Effective employee relations are essential to building mutual trust, which lies at the heart of all effective organizations. Services menu

Product Marketing

Product marketing involves new product introductions and marketing communications for goods and services to consumers and to businesses. Tarkenton & Addams has created and managed successful product introductions for companies in manufacturing, consumer products, and professional services.  Services menu

Presentation, Sales and Media Training

We offer intensive coaching in remarkably realistic settings to improve speech delivery and conducting television, radio and print interviews. Our training prepares executives and other representatives to anticipate media questions and turn potentially embarrassing encounters with the media to the company's advantage. Our training can also help sales representatives to increase closings by using effective communications to identify and meet a client's needs. Services menu