The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Conclusion

If the concept of a supply chain dedicated to the production of marketing materials never crossed your mind before you began following along, don’t worry, you’re not alone. That is exactly why we began The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide. Now, after twelve installments, it’s time to put the wraps on our exploration of one of the most complex, yet underappreciated, areas of marketing operations.

Will you be able to walk away knowing everything there is to know about the marketing supply chain? Probably not. And, in all honesty, that was never the goal of this series. The goal was to give you the insight to be able to identify the existance, and components, of your organization’s own marketing supply chain. Hopefully you are now able to do just that.

Knowing that the marketing supply chain is made of familiar elements whose connections may not always be clear; you now also know that coordination, acquisition, production and analysis are four areas commonly encompassed by the concept. Because every marketing supply chain is as unique as the the organzation it serves, you know that flexibility is a must for successful and strong project and digital asset management.

All of the critical roles – from marketing to finance, procurement and even legal – required to bring your organization’s marketing materials from concept to reality should now be easier to identify. Identification the graphic communication materials your organization relies upon, from the common marketing and sales items to packaging, displays and large-format visuals, should also be easier. All of the vendors who are crucial to the production, implementation and success of these materials – even those you may not have thought about before – should be easier to identify as well.

Armed with your newfound knowledge, identifying all of the elements of your organization’s own marketing supply chain should be fairly simple. Unfortunately, once you have it all mapped out, you will likely discover that coordinating, connecting and managing all of the elements, resources and people within it to be a challenge. This is not uncommon. So now you know what the marketing supply chain is and have identified yours, the next step is to manage it and the projects that flow through it.

While many orgaizations have tried either broad-scope ERP, procurement and other entreprise management software; others have looked toward outsourcing or building thier own solutions using complex systems of spreadsheets, email, and files. Each of these methods, while partially successful in some instances, tend to come up short because they don’t take the individuality, complexity and custom-specified nature of a given organization’s marketing supply into consideration. Organizations that have turned to a project management solution that is not only purpose-built for the marketing supply chain, but also tailored precisely to the organization’s people, processes and vendors, have found much greater success.

As this concludes The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide series, it certainly does not conclude the information we have to share here on the eLynxx Blog! Be sure to check back frequenly as well as connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter for continued insight into the marketing supply chain, marketing materials and marketing operations in general.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Conclusion

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 12 - Vendors in the Chain-Continued

In last week’s installment of The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide, we began exploring the variety of vendors we rely on to produce and assist in the execution of the projects in our marketing supply chains with a look at some of the types of printer and other primary producers you may encounter. Today we are looking at the some of the often forgotten, yet equally important, supporting vendors common to the marketing supply chain.

Once the Ink’s Dry on the Paper

It’s no secret that most full-service commercial and even specialty printers have the capabilities to do a good bit of post-production or finishing work. This often includes services related to putting the finishing touches on marketing materials. Die cutting, scoring, folding, basic bindery and some packaging and assembly are common services to find. The larger the printer, the more apt they are to have a broader offering of these services. Meanwhile, more specialized printers will tend to have more unique or complex post-production services aligned with their specialty. For example, a point of purchase specialist will likely have more complex cutting and forming capabilities to facilitate manufacture of corrugated displays.

It’s also no secret, however, that many printers do not offer post-production or finishing services. Instead, these primary producers will subcontract or refer to specialists, shipping the printed but unfinished marketing materials to them for completion. Although it involves additional vendors and more complexity, knowing the additional services that are available to you, and the vendors that can provide them, opens a world of new opportunity and creativity. Two different high-quality printers with different specialties can produce the elements of a sales kit and another specialist can assemble the kits. Common post-production specialties include the ones listed above as well as kitting, assembly, packing and converting. Finding such specialists is not always easy, but consultation with experts in marketing supply chain sourcing and production is a good place to start. And don’t forget that these additional vendors are all part of the work that needs to be tracked and kept on specification, time and budget.

Time to Get the Word Out

Even the most gorgeous, well-produced marketing materials won’t do much good sitting in boxes on pallets collecting dust. They need to get out to the public and carry the message your team so masterfully created! Of course the method for distribution is going to depend upon the type or marketing material in question. Shipping, logistics and distribution of marketing materials is another complex and unique step in the marketing supply chain. Whether it’s getting your materials from the final production vendor to you, from one of your facilities to another, or from you to the final audience; there are a plethora of potential – and uniquely non-marketing vendors to be considered.

Motor freight lines, currier services, railroads, air freight services, maritime shipping lines, and warehousing and logistics companies are not commonly thought of as being in the marketing business. But when they are involved in getting your marketing materials from point A to point B, they are part of your marketing supply chain. Not all vendors involved in distribution of marketing materials are so far removed from marketing functions. Mail houses, letter shops and others involved in preparation, processing and execution of direct mail campaigns are also important vendors to consider when specifying, planning, sourcing and managing marketing projects. One missed move related to distribution can keep your marketing materials driving your message to your audience.

Data Makes the World Go ‘Round

While you’ll certainly find some people in marketing who don’t care for dealing with data, it’s doubtful you’ll find many who say data isn’t important. Indeed data is so important to marketing that a whole industry exists to collect process and provide data-based information to marketers. The vendors of data services often play a crucial role in an organization’s marketing supply chains. This is especially true in direct mail and other highly targeted areas of marketing communications. The list being used for a campaign is as important as the direct mail piece itself. When data service providers are part of a marketing project that is being managed, it is absolutely imperative that these vendors are considered part of the marketing supply chain and managed accordingly.

Anyone reading this article will be able to think of other areas or individual examples of vendors in the marketing supply chain. That’s wonderful. That’s exactly what The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide is all about – recognizing, thinking about and identifying the myriad of people, processes and vendors you rely on to deliver marketing material results. That being said, this article wraps up our look at vendors in the marketing supply chain. Join us net week when we look back over these twelve installments and draw to conclusion The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 12 - Vendors in the Chain-Continued

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 11 - Vendors in the Chain

Over the course of the past two installments, we have identified the various marketing, communication, direct mail, packaging and display material categories that organizations may manage and source through their marketing supply chains. While we can easily say that some form of printing is a critical element in the production of each marketing material category; we can’t simply lump all printing together. Just as there are a variety of marketing material categories, there are a variety of vendors – print and otherwise – with distinct capabilities on whom we rely on to produce and assist in the execution of the projects in our marketing supply chains. Today we will explore some of those primary producers.

When You Think “Printer” You Think About These Guys

Commercial printers are your good old all-purpose printers. Or are they? Variety, demand, expectations and ever-changing processes and technologies mean that specialization is becoming the norm. Sure, there are commercial printers who can and will print anything and everything they can squeeze out of their equipment and resources. There are also many commercial printers that despite technically having the capability to produce on a broader scope choose to specialize.

A vendor may do a fine job of producing a certain material for a good price because it fits their specialty. But given a material they are capable of printing, but that is outside of their area of specialization, quality and price may not be up to par. This is just one of the reasons why knowing the true, objective capabilities, capacities and levels of quality of all of your vendors is crucial to an efficient and effective marketing supply chain.

Consider the Whole Package

Aside from simple boxes, bags and other containers and labels of stock sizes and shapes that are custom printed; the production of most packaging is very specialized. Effective packaging in today’s marketplace often pushes the limits of production methods and materials. Substrates run the gamut from paper and card stocks to corrugated materials, metals, plastics, glass, wood and other organic materials. Every form of printing from digital and offset to silk screening, embossing, stamping, painting and even non-ink methods are used. Die cutting, folding, converting and other forms of physical manipulation are common and multi-part packages made of dissimilar materials are as ubiquitous today as a simple box was in the past.

Packaging is an attractive and lucrative market for printers as well as processors of plastics, metals, glass and other materials. It’s not uncommon to find printers who are able to print on surfaces they never would have considered in the past. It’s also not uncommon to find producers and suppliers of cans, bottles, jars, plastics and other packaging materials with in-house printing capabilities. Regardless of whether the packaging vendor is a printer or otherwise, packaging is the face of the product, and knowing that the vendor’s capability, capacity and quality are a precision match to project specs is of the utmost importance.

Creating Something with P.O.P.

If marketing materials were a family, point of purchase, or POP, displays and packaging would be first cousins. In fact much of the same that was already said for packaging above can be said for displays, signage and other materials intended to attract attention where a product is being sold. POP materials can essentially anything from uniquely-printed and constructed boxes, to permanent or semi-permanent merchandising fixtures, electronic displays, simple printed signs, banners, shelf-talkers and the like or anything in between. That means vendors of point of purchase materials can range from printers, to box and packaging specialists, to fabricators, cabinet makers and more. Elaborate POP displays may even require working with several vendors such as a commercial printer, a fabricator and a sign manufacturer.

Seeing the Big Picture

With the advent and subsequent growth of digital design and printing, one specialty area of the graphic communications industry that has grown by leaps and bounds is large or wide format printing. The capabilities of printers who specialize in the large and wide format area open a whole new world that goes beyond billboards and signage. This specialty is one that makes covering vehicles, walls, floors and other large objects with beautiful, detailed graphic images easier and more cost-effective than ever. Large and wide format printing is, however, definitely a specialty and something where capability and quality should be well-vetted. It is also an area of production where close, consistent communication and mutual attention to detail in project specifications is a must.

Join us next week when we wrap up our exploration of vendors you may encounter in the marketing supply chain with a look at some of the important yet often overlooked supporting vendors and partners.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 11 - Vendors in the Chain

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 10 – Materials in the Chain (continued)

Last week we began dissecting the catch-all term “marketing materials” to discover just what kinds of items may be flowing through your marketing supply chain. Even as we began our exploration with some of the more common, old-standby sort of marketing communication tools, we saw that there was much more complexity than the simple and bland-sounding description of “marketing materials” would lead us to believe.

This week we’ll explore unique items that may not commonly be thought of as marketing materials, but certainly are flowing through your marketing supply chain right now.

So Unforgettable We Forget It’s a Marketing Material

They’re pretty hard to escape in your daily routine, and if they’re done well, they’re hard to forget. Interestingly enough, many of us get so wrapped up in their function we forget that at their core, signage, point of purchase and merchandising displays are indeed marketing materials. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken with fellow marketers and when the subject of printed marketing materials comes up they say something like “we really don’t do too many printed pieces anymore, most of our brochures and literature are digital now. Then I say “well what about your point of sale and merchandising materials?” and they get the “oh…yeah” expression on their faces. The whole point of these materials is to get attention, build brand presence and make customers buy. If that’s not a marketing material I don’t know what is.

So why don’t people think point of sale, display, merchandising and signage materials at their core level? One possible explanation is because marketing has become so fragmented and specialized based on function. There may be a team for displays and a team for collateral and a team for this, that and the other thing. Another explanation is simply that some forms of marketing communication tools are elevated in importance because the function they serve is seen as more important or their creation and management is considered more complex than others. Everything from copy to artwork to construction of display materials tends to be project specific. Often times multiple versions are required. More than one vendor or service provider may be involved and specifications are certainly crucial. On the surface a POS display may look more imposing than a product flier and there may be more people involved with it. While both are highly specific, target-focused marketing communication tools can be complex to coordinate, source, produce and manage.

So Important It Often Outshines the Product Itself

Every year around the holidays you are bound to hear stories about how someone’s child tore open a toy, took it out of the package, and then proceeded to be more enamored with the box than what was in it. It’s funny when you think of your friend being mad that they dropped 50 bucks on something their kid found less interesting than its packaging, but it also makes a point about how important packaging can be to attracting consumers to, making them want to buy, and then buy a product. Packaging has always been important to branding and marketing, but in today’s cluttered world, packaging is more complex and important than ever. To a marketer, the product really is the package and the package is more important than what’s inside it. Because of this close tie to the product, the packaging dictates how a product is shipped and stored or is designed around how it will be shipped and stored. Packaging may be considered more in the realm of product development. But let’s make no mistake about it, packaging is physical, graphic communication. It is intended to gain attention, make clear brand identification, encourage purchase and communicate usage and other important information. Packaging is a marketing material.

Perhaps even more than display materials, packaging is extremely complex and often highly customized. There may be multiple layers of packaging – like a bottle with a label on it, placed inside of a box with an informative insert included and a branded outer wrapper around the whole thing. Each element may come from a different manufacturer. Packaging may have to adhere to government regulations for labeling or notices. There are often multiple variations on size, shape or method merchandising in a retail environment, and packaging is often required to change because of new promotions or product evolution. With all of this information in mind, it’s easy to understand why packaging is part of the marketing supply chain mix and why it is important to manage packaging projects with tools built for the job.

So Much Fun We Forget Their Real Purpose

Let’s pretend that we’re walking through a trade-show and there are two different companies pitching the same basic thing. Both have nice looking professional displays and friendly looking staff. Company A has some really cool giveaways and novelties. Company B does not. Which booth do you go in first? Be honest! Chances are you’ll go to the booth that has the swag first. Chances also are that even after going into both companies’ booths, you’ll remember Company A down the road because that knick-knack they gave you is still sitting on your desk. Promotional giveaways, or advertising specialties as they are often called, are definitely marketing materials. They may not tell a big story or convey lots of benefits, but they say something about the personality of the organization. They make a personal connection and they’re memorable. But when many of us think about marketing materials we often forget about promotional materials. Why is that? Perhaps because once again we don’t connect with the term; giveaways are fun, the term seems boring.

If your organization is designing and sourcing branded tchotchkes for the purposes of connecting with and influencing prospects and customers, then they are items in your marketing supply chain. Granted, some promotional giveaways are fairly simple and are more personalized than fully custom-made. However some giveaways, especially those intended to stand out and make a big impact, can be rather involved and truly custom-built. But even in the case of simpler items, managing the project like any other in the marketing supply chain makes sense to control brand assets, track progress and get the job done on-time and on-budget.

So Big We Get Lost in Their Size

It was not all that long ago that large-format graphic communication required either custom painting or many individually-printed sheets assembled as one large installation. While both sign painters and traditional multi-sheet billboards still exist today, modern printing technology and new developments in printable substrates have made large-format graphic communication more accessible, adaptable and affordable than ever. Depending upon where the large-format item is being installed, it might be easy to forget that it is first and foremost a marketing communication tool and therefore a marketing material. For instance, your organization may be ordering a new fleet of delivery vans. The plan is to have these new vans covered in branded vehicle wraps. You certainly wouldn’t make such an investment without ensuring that the colors, logos or messaging was correct, would you?

Large-format communication makes a big impact at a big price. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the scale and scope of producing such projects. At the same time it’s also imperative that such projects are handled as marketing communication projects and that all parties involved with them are on the same page. The scale, cost, complexity, specifications and the people involved in large-format specialty projects are often unique to the project. One missed step or lost detail can be enough to take the project from colossal impact to colossal disaster. Managing large-format printing and graphic communication projects requires tools that can adapt to their scope and needs to ensure desired results are achieved.

While this installment wraps up our look at the kinds of materials that may be flowing through your marketing supply chain, it is by no means exhaustive. Just as we have said in the other marketing supply chain areas we have explored, there is no one across-the-board model to follow. The best that can be done is to go deeper than the surface, pull back the cover and expose a broad sampling of the many elements that comprise a simple term like marketing materials. You may never consider some of the materials we have discussed in this and the previous installment. You might use some that we didn’t discuss and certainly your organization’s mix of materials is going to vary from that of your competition. That’s why, over the past four decades, we have come to believe in the use of tools that are not only purpose-built for the job, but also tailored to the organization using them.

Join us next week as we explore the variety of vendors and partners you might encounter when managing projects in your marketing supply chain.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 10 – Materials in the Chain (continued)

In the News - Digital Meets Print in a Unique Place

The communication potential of public restrooms is not something that has gone un-noticed. After all, everyone uses them and in the process becomes a captive audience. Even twenty years ago, at a nightclub I was marketing on Philadelphia’s waterfront, we had frames on the inside of the stall doors where we promoted upcoming events along with display ads from beverage companies. There is also the good old American ingenuity of posting the sports page of the day’s paper above certain male-oriented fixtures; giving guys a chance to catch the box score of the second half of last night’s double header instead of merely executing the silent, dead-ahead stare that is standard men’s room protocol.

Then there is this little bit of pure genius from south of the border.

Mas Por Mas a popular print and online Mexican newspaper looking for a way to increase readership and direct eyes to its online edition teamed up with ad agency FCB Mexico to take the news in the loo idea a step further. The paper has installed internet-connected paper towel dispensers in public restrooms that print the latest headlines right on the towel.

Pure. Genius.

Imagine the possibilities of this technology for marketing communications. Being internet-connected, content could be changed in real-time. Knowing where the dispensers are installed gives the ability for demographic and geographic targeting. If combined with other digital-meets-print technology such as augmented reality or other smartphone-scanable technology, a simple paper towel could lead to an immersive multimedia communication experience.

See a more detailed article on the dispensers and the campaign here – via psfk.com

In the News - Digital Meets Print in a Unique Place