HIGHLAND | The Highland Chamber of Commerce's new educational program already is working for one of its members.

In January, a spectator at the chamber's first seminar wrote down a statement he heard, typed it, framed it and hung it in his office so he would be reminded to focus on the recommendation every day.

That kind of behavior is why the chamber launched its Best Practices series, said Adam Gawlikowski, chairman of the chamber's subcommittee on the seminars.

The chamber held its third monthly luncheon seminar on Tuesday. The Marketing Your Business lecture was attended by 18 chamber members at Bean Counters Coffee House in Highland.

"Our challenge is for you to take something home with you," Gawlikowski told the audience in expressing his wish that the seminar help local business executives and their companies.

The chamber's January seminar's was called Goal Setting and Achieving Goals. In February, the title was Ethics in Business, Government, and Education.

Via Marketing President Julie Olthoff, Institute for Innovative Leadership Executive Director Keith Kirkpatrick and Precision Development Principal Robert Super spoke Tuesday about marketing and provided tips.

Olthoff discussed six marketing tools -- research and planning, branding, sales support, advertising, public relations, and the Internet. Her advice included spending 10 percent of a company's budget on research, creating brand recognition via a "consistent look with a consistent message," and analyzing the competition's brochures so you can formulate distinctive "talking points."

Most importantly, Olthoff recommended not putting all your eggs in one basket.

"You should be working in all six of these areas all the time," said Olthoff, whose company is in Merrillville, about the six marketing tools. "Never use just one media."

Kirkpatrick focused his presentation on the importance of building relationships with customers. He said customers frequently notice when a store's employees are spending time on internal business matters rather than serving, reaching out, and listening to customers.

Kirkpatrick, whose institute is at Indiana University Northwest, said customers' standards for service have gone way up in recent years because they travel more and want a "global standard."

Super stressed the importance of communicating.

"You never stop communicating," he said. "Your body language says something when your mouth is shut."