Wichita Chamber Member Minute

Sonia Greteman, President and Creative Director, Greteman Group
316-263-1004
1425 E. Douglas Ave., 2nd Flr.
Member for 25+ years
Interviewed March 2015

Please tell us a little bit about your company.
I founded our firm in 1989, with two other designers. After a couple of years, my two partners went their individual ways, and I pressed on with our core team adding writers, strategists, and marketing. Through the years we’ve steadily grown, adding both staff and capabilities. Our reputation for concept-oriented creative driven by spot-on strategy sets us apart. Clients turn to us for full marketing, advertising, PR and digital. They span the globe – from Fortune 500 companies to start-up entrepreneurs.

Our Air Capital location led us to specialize in the aviation industry, starting with that first call from Learjet almost 25 years ago. We’re privileged and humbled to work with some of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers, flight support and aftermarket services. To name a few: FlightSafety International, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Signature Flight Support, Dallas Airmotive and USAIG. We also support such creative clients as the Kansas State Fair, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Verus Bank and IdeaTek. We thrive on the variety and the challenge.

What do you find most valuable about Chamber membership?
The chamber’s investment and commitment to retain our young minds. We need to keep our community workforce vibrant, involved and contributing to the greater good.

What is the best thing about doing business in the Wichita area?
Wichita’s status as Air Capital of the World delivers advantages at home and abroad. We support some of the most respected brands in the aviation industry. Not all of our clients have their headquarters in Wichita, but many have outposts here.

Describe your business’ most recent success.
Our most recent success is also the longest in the making – and that’s the creation of monumental displays that tell the story of Kansas aviation. They populate the waiting area and concourses within the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport terminal, opening this May. We started the project in 2007. Yes, right before the big recession. So, the project has had a number of starts and stops.

To what do you contribute your success?
Our people. Our passion. Our commitment to beauty and telling stories from a different point of view. We stand out, have an opinion, cut through the sameness, hire bright motivated people and treat our clients with the upmost care.

What is your favorite Chamber event, program, or service and why?
Honors Night celebrates exemplary business people, community commitment and architectural achievement. I invariably know the recipients, so it’s an evening feting friends.

What is something people may not know about you or your business?
I’m an outgoing, creative person who likes to be involved in many things out and about. But I also really like to dig in and work. I design, write and sweat the work in the trenches with our team.

Our interactive leadership may be something the average person doesn’t know. Early in our agency’s history we were one of the first to provide turnkey websites and we’ve continued to stay at the forefront of digital solutions and channels – responsive design, search-engine optimization, data-driven marketing, email campaigns, social-media management, you name it.

What one word best describes the Chamber?
Booster

Where do you see your organization in five years?
Greteman Group will continue as a nimble, innovative team. We have young ambitious team members who burn to create, and we give them the platform to launch ideas out into the world. The communication tools we use may look quite different, but our customer-first, never-settle-for-mediocrity philosophy will not change.

What about your business are you most passionate?
Solving challenges for our clients – growing marketshare, boosting sales or changing perceptions – puts a bounce in my step. Our Ascend planning process provides a platform for developing a value-based, results-driven marketing approach and compelling, move-the-needle creative. Whatever the marketing channel – online or off – we serve as a trusted, proven partner. I find that incredibly rewarding.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how strongly would you recommend Chamber membership to a colleague?
10 – Anyone with a business – small or large – should belong to the Chamber. It offers something for everyone. And all benefit.

Favorite app?
My iPhone FlightTracker keeps me on top of flight delays, cancellations, gate changes, you name it. It tracks flights in progress so my husband knows when to expect me home.

Favorite business book?
“First Break All the Rules” by Curt Coffman

Complete this sentence: “When a customer walks into my business, they can expect…”
…to see their name on a reception desk sign, a smile on our faces, gorgeous locally sourced original art and a go-getter attitude.

If you could have any meal delivered to your doorstep right this second, what would it be?
Some fresh delight my husband conjured up from our garden.

If you could have the answer to any question, what would you ask?
Where’d you bury the treasure?

Is there anything else you would like to include?
The friends, art and aviation community we’ve cultivated keep us going and smiling.

This Member Minute can also be found on the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce website.