Study the leading companies in any field and you’ll find the key to their success lies in their ability to listen and solve the problems their customers say they want solved. If widget users want sharper widgets, trying to sell them dull widgets in new spring colors is not going to get you to the top of the heap.      Anyone who tells you that communications activities can’t help solve marketing problems doesn’t understand the power and potential of the communications function. What’s important is knowing your own goals, listening to your audience’s objectives and then finding the common ground so folks care about what you have to offer them. Public relations is a marketing tool that should provide a return on investment. That’s what our clients tell us they want. And, because at VOLLMER we listen, that’s what we deliver.