Inside Marketing

Marketing Service Providers

Up until now, I've been wary of printers calling themselves marketing service providers.  Just calling yourself something doesn't make it so.  But at one of the earliest breakout sessions at this year's NAPL Top Management Conference, I stood corrected. Two companies,  BOPI in Illinois and COT Media Group in the Bahamas have made the transition and serve as models for others to follow. 

Keys to the transition include but are not limited to:

Time.  It's not something that happens overnight. It takes a plan, strategy and commitment. But it doesn't take forever. It can be done in a year with foresight and dedication.

Teamwork.  Both organizations use a team approach that involves all many talents including IT, marketing and frequently the top guy in the organization as part of the sales team. 

Identity.  They've renamed their organizations and printing is not in the name.

Structure. The organization has to be fundamentally different.  Same old same old sales tactics won't work, and same old same old compensation structures have to change as well.

Help.  Both companies availed themselves of outside consulting services to help them pave the way and create change within their respective organizations.  They knew change would not just come from within. 

A complex issue is how to change customer's perceptions of the organization.  Change doesn't happen by accident. Just saying you're a marketing service department doesn't make it so. Both BOPI and COT are great examples of making it so.  

~ Rhona Bronson

Interactive or Integrated Print?

A news item from Cal Poly posted on WTT.com today states: "Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department is partnering with Goss International to revolutionize the printing industry by making it interactive."  The article goes on to discuss using print to provide codes that can be uploaded to mobile devices to create coupons and assist customers with obtaining special offers.  It's an "important step to ‘reinvent’ the value of print as a medium that expands reach and utility when combined with interactive technology such as handheld devices,” states the release.

That's good news, but begs the question: Hasn't print always been interactive? I would argue print's role hasn't changed, but the definition of "interactive" has.  Years ago, interactive meant a call to action in calling an 800 number and using a coupon code to get a special offer. Today, it means walking around with the coupon code in your mobile phone. Tomorow it may mean having the register scan your mobile phone for the coupon bar code and to do the debit transaction from your checking account.

And, in the end, isn't it all about marketing?  It's not a new concept that integrated marketing programs are the ones that work best. Integrated means using all medium at your disposal including (not excluding) print.  Every medium has its role in a well-thought out campaign.  The goal is to make sure that marketing people like me know where print fits and use it wisely and to their best advantage. Integrated in today's world just means "also interactive!" 

~ Rhona Bronson