Higher Education Institutions Consistently Save More Than 35% Through eLynxx

The pressure being faced by many colleges and universities to get their messages out while staying within ever decreasing budgets is enormous. To survive many institutions have had to search for ways to increase efficiency without sacrifice of quality and on-time delivery, gain more marketing coverage for the same marketing spend, bring full transparency and instant reporting, substantiate compliance with minority, woman owned, small disadvantaged and other important initiatives, and improve control over their own people, processes and vendors.

This is not easily accomplished in an environment consisting of semi-autonomous operating units – like administrative, educational departments, athletics, alumnae affairs, student and staff recruitment, placement, marketing and communications, foundation, entertainment, student affairs, etc. Each operating unit has its own constituency, processes and trusted vendors. Yet there is also a need for centralized policy making, reporting and shared experiences.

Yet, during the first half of 2014, the higher education sector experienced a 36.11% savings on their print related spend through the deployment and adoption of eLynxx software. And these same institutions were also able to reach their parallel operational goals.

According to Mike Jackson, chief executive officer of eLynxx Solutions, “The eLynxx purpose-built software works well in a decentralized semi-autonomous environment where centralized policy making, reporting and transparency are highly regarded. The eLynxx software readily adapts to the specific needs, requirements and processes of its users.” Jackson continued, “only eLynxx provides centralized reporting, financial insight and sharing of resources at the institutional level without disrupting autonomy, people, processes and vendors at the departmental level.” Combined with an exclusive patented competitive sourcing method, eLynxx users across all business sectors regularly achieve per-unit cost savings of 20% to 40% on all kinds of custom printed materials.

Besides higher education, eLynxx Solutions also helps organizations in the non-profit, financial, manufacturing, heavy equipment, building products, logistics and shipping, grocery, insurance, medical, retail and technology sectors. Helping organizations extend their capabilities to get better results from a traditionally hard-to-control area of operational spending has been the primary focus of eLynxx Solutions since 1975. Other approaches always require some level of sacrifice. With the eLynxx approach organizations achieve the best possible price, quality and service on custom-printed materials while retaining control through their own people, processes and vendors.

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eLynxx Solutions has been providing innovative products and services for helping organizations manage projects and connect with vendors of custom-produced graphic communication, direct mail, marketing materials, publications, labeling, packaging and all things print since 1975. Born, raised and still located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania along the east coast’s graphic communications corridor connecting Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York City, today’s eLynxx Solutions is a leading innovator and provider of project management software for the marketing supply chain. As a software boutique, eLynxx Solutions tailors its cloud software and services to fit the needs and requirements of its customers, providing the functionality of custom software with the economy of out-of-the-box solutions. eLynxx project management software empowers an organization’s people to work with their own vendors and strengthen their own processes to achieve better results. For more information regarding eLynxx Solutions, please visit eLynxx.com.

Higher Education Institutions Consistently Save More Than 35% Through eLynxx

eLynxx Solutions Goes Back to School with Hometown Neighbor Wilson College

As the summer winds down and the 2014-2015 academic year begins, eLynxx Solutions will be among the masses heading off to college, but there won’t be any classes to attend or dorms to move into. In fact there won’t even be much of a trip to make. That’s because eLynxx Solutions is pleased to announce that it has been selected to provide marketing supply chain software for Wilson College in its hometown of Chambersburg, PA.

Founded in 1869 as a liberal arts college, Wilson College welcomes undergraduate and graduate degree-seeking students from around the globe to south central Pennsylvania. Wilson—with a long and storied past—is now excited about a bright and promising future. Having recently implemented a wide-ranging plan for improved enrollment, the College is adding academic programs and improving facilities. Coeducational expansion across all programs has widened Wilson’s horizons. Of course along with those widened horizons come additional responsibilities in marketing and communications. Wilson has also increased its marketing and communications program to meet the challenges of covering an ever-increasing number of communication channels while maintaining the budget discipline many marketers face. Wilson College also has some challenges that are unique to its situation.

Although technology has opened new avenues for marketing, printed communications still play a major role in higher education. Wilson College is no different in that respect. What is different at Wilson, however, is that the college has only recently centralized marketing operations and is in the process of rolling out a newly defined brand identity and rebuilding its print program to meet the needs of a greatly expanded prospective student audience. That translates to a lot of new design work to create new materials. It also means increased pressure on the people, processes and vendors that make up an institution’s marketing supply chain to produce quality results within budget. That’s where eLynxx Solutions comes into the picture.

“Wilson is growing and moving through change, and the marketing and communications department plays a central role in reaching our audiences. We’ve put a comprehensive marketing program in place that is very bottom line oriented—cost and results,” said Brian Speer, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Wilson College. “Given our new position and expanded market, we have a lot of work in front of us. eLynxx allows us to enhance our capabilities, expand our print marketplace, ensure product quality, meet tight deadlines and extend our budget as far as possible. With the work eLynxx has done with other educational institutions in helping to improve results, they were a good fit for Wilson.” Because eLynxx is cloud software, there are no additional requirements placed on the college’s IT infrastructure. After the eLynxx Solutions team gathered the required information, Wilson College was up, running and ready to take advantage of increased efficiency and savings.

“We are extremely proud that Wilson College has selected eLynxx to provide its marketing supply chain software,” said Mike Jackson, Chief Executive Officer at eLynxx Solutions. “eLynxx has been helping higher education institutions achieve the best possible price, quality and service on printed marketing and communications materials for years. Being able to do the same with Wilson College, an institution with which we share so many ties in the community, is especially rewarding.”

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eLynxx Solutions has been providing innovative products and services for helping organizations manage projects and connect with vendors of custom-produced graphic communication, direct mail, marketing materials, publications, labeling, packaging and all things print since 1975. Born, raised and still located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania along the east coast’s graphic communications corridor connecting Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York City, today’s eLynxx Solutions is a leading innovator and provider of project management software for the marketing supply chain. As a software boutique, eLynxx Solutions tailors its cloud software and services to fit the needs and requirements of its customers, providing the functionality of custom software with the economy of out-of-the-box solutions. eLynxx project management software empowers an organization’s people to work with their own vendors and strengthen their own processes to achieve better results. For more information regarding eLynxx Solutions, please visit http://elynxx.com.

eLynxx Solutions Goes Back to School with Hometown Neighbor Wilson College

The Magic of Print - IKEA Gets It - and Makes Us Laugh Too!

Common Sense – In Furniture and Marketing

Leave it up to a company that has successfully made knock-down furniture, hex key wrenches and one-word names packed with Nordic accent marks stylish to not only get what makes printed communication important, but to make it sexy and desirable too. Taking a jab at the hype surrounding the upcoming fall releases of new products from the high-tech world, Swedish furniture purveyor IKEA has decided to call attention to all of the positive and user-friendly aspects of its printed catalog.

Experience the Power of…a Catalog!

IKEA’s launch video for the latest edition of its catalog has already been hailed for parodying the style of tech giants like Apple. Its dry humor presenting a traditional printed piece using terminology common to technology has made it a viral smash. But it also strikes a chord for marketers who know that printed communication is still a vital part of their promotional mix. While it may be funny to see a catalog being described as if it were an iPad; it brings awareness to the fact everything that digital media has to live up to was, and still is, based in good old-fashioned print. IKEA definitely gets it – print and digital communication can not only live side by side, they can drive one another as well. Check out the video below.

The Magic of Print - IKEA Gets It - and Makes Us Laugh Too!

Maintaining Control vs. Brokers and BPOs: What’s Right for You?

Printed materials in some form or another are integral to the branding and marketing of most organizations. When it comes to the organization, acquisition, production management, implementation and distribution of these materials; there is a decision to make. Organizations usually choose to either manage the entire process on their own, keeping control of the process in their own hands, or they can hand control over to a third party. The third party is often a print broker, who is a middleman between the organization and one or more print vendors, or a BPO (Business Process Outsourcer), who takes over management of all aspects of the process.

When making this decision an organization needs to consider what is best for its particular needs. Here are some key considerations of maintaining and relinquishing control.

The Pros of Maintaining Control over Your Own Print Marketing Materials

Some of the pros that people consider when managing production of their own marketing materials include:

Control over the Process

As mentioned above, handling the process on their own provides organizations with the freedom to make sure everything fits according to their requirements. They use their own trusted employees and vendors to manage and produce a finished product in a way that is completely integrated with the way the organization does business.

Integrated Management

When any part of your company is being outsourced, you lose a certain amount of visibility into what is going on. Most third party outsourcers don’t provide you with continuous updates of the project. You may not have any information until it is complete. Critical decisions on unforeseen issues that could impact operations beyond marketing will be made by an outsider. You cannot be certain if your specifications and requirements are being followed to the letter, or if corners are being cut, when someone else is in control.

Hence, retaining control within your organization not only ensures that responsibility lies with trusted individuals, but also that every piece of every process is handled in an approved manner. When it comes to coordinating marketing with other operational areas like finance and legal, there’s no better means for success than retaining control.

Vendor Choice

Managing printed marketing material production in-house also allows you full control over vendor selection. Choosing a vendor is not a one-step decision. Capabilities, equipment, quality level, service history and speed are among the variables to be considered. Each variable can mean success or failure in a marketing material project. While it’s near impossible to have total control over the success or failure of a project; you can get much closer if you retail control over vendor selection.

The Pros of Hiring a Third Party to Produce Your Print Marketing Materials

To most organizations there is an undeniable benefit in maintaining control over their marketing material projects. There are some who make the choice, as scary as it may sound, to outsource control of their marketing materials to a third party. The number one reason organizations opt to give control of their marketing material projects to a print broker or BPO is because they don’t feel they have, or want to take on, the capacity to do it themselves. They are looking to simplify and possibly reduce head count. Admittedly, managing printed material projects is complex; it requires a lot of collaboration and communication. To organizations that choose to outsource operations to a third party, sacrificing control is seen as a trade-off for avoiding complexities. It may even be perceived to be a way to save money through cuts in resources.

Isn’t There Another Choice?

Perhaps by now you find yourself asking “but what happens when I really don’t want to give up control, but I need something to stretch my resources and make these complicated operations more manageable?” If so, you are not alone. Many organizations have faced the same question. In fact, just about every organization that manages its own marketing material projects seems to have tried some method of making the job easier. Spreadsheets, files, adapting generalized project management and procurement systems, or combinations thereof are common attempts. While these may seem like viable solutions, complexity and the need for collaboration and communication eventually rear their ugly heads again.

The real solution isn’t to try to avoid the complexities and challenges of managing one’s own marketing supply chain and the projects within it. Rather it’s to embrace with purpose-built tools that extend an organization’s capabilities, enable collaboration, foster communication and help it achieve better results in managing its marketing material projects. Providing organizations with those tools is the force that drives us here at eLynxx Solutions.

Ultimately an organization has to be comfortable with the choices it makes. Those that choose to trade control for the promise of simplicity have their reasons just as those who choose to retain control have theirs. It’s your choice and we understand either way, but if you choose to retain control over your marketing supply chain and the projects it produces, we at eLynxx Solutions are always here to help you do it even better.

Maintaining Control vs. Brokers and BPOs: What’s Right for You?

Change Management - Knocking Down Barriers to Benefit

A company is very much like a complex organism. The workers serve as different organs, each with a specialized function, and the organism as a whole thrives and exudes energy if each organ is healthy. Like every other organism, an organization is part of a great race, competing and fighting to survive and be the best. When it comes to survival, it can only be achieved through adaptation.

There are species that don’t exist anymore because they couldn’t adapt to the change going on around them. We understand that change can be uncomfortable and terrifying at times, but for companies that refuse to adapt, the metaphorical extinction becomes all too real.

Why Companies Fear Change

One of the reasons that companies choose not to risk change is that they are threatened by it. The general mentality is why fix something that’s not broken, and a common denial of the need to oil something that would go rusty and eventually become obsolete if not tended to enough. We cannot stress enough how dangerous it can be to have such a mindset.

Even if you’re the best, the unfortunate fact (or fortunate beauty) of the capitalist world is that you can lose your status in a heartbeat. If companies stay too rigid in their ways, they’re bound to lose out in the long run. Globalization and technological reform require slight adjustments in short term goals or comfortable routines. Renovation is imperative for progress and staying afloat in this fast paced world. Progress is the best gauge of success and progress comes from change.

Sometimes the change needs to be on a foundational level. But not all changes have to be dramatic. Sometimes the change could be minute. After all – less often means more.

Change Often Brings Welcome Results

Since we’ve established how important change is, we understand that this may mean slight adjustments are required on many levels. But what most companies need to understand is that such change isn’t a colossal risk if it’s made through intelligent strategy and research. For example, a minor change made through the adoption of cloud software is a cost friendly, minimally disruptive and efficient change that can provide tremendous benefit to an organization.

Take for instance an organization that already has people and a process in place for the coordination, acquisition and management of custom-printed marketing materials. They know there must be a better way to get the job done; one that causes fewer headaches is more efficient and maybe even saves money.

When this organization looks at their options, they’ll see that most require a fairly extreme level of change, which may very well make them take a step back. However, cloud based software that simply augments their own people, processes and vendors with the tools, mechanisms and insight to achieve better results isn’t actually much of a change to make.

Since that is the business we are in here at eLynxx Solutions we see this day in and day out. In all honesty overcoming an organization’s reluctance to change is often one of the biggest barriers we face in helping them get the results they deserve. But, once they open up to the slight changes required in the adoption of eLynxx software and begin reaping the rewards, they wonder why they ever feared making the change in the first place.

Being Open to Change is Being Open to Success

Whether we’re talking about getting better results from your marketing supply chain or any other area of an organization, making a change to a crucial area of operations can be scary, we understand that. In fact we’ve experienced it. You don’t stay in the business we’re in for nearly 40 years without making some changes over the course of time. Successful organizations know when the time for change is right and when it is wrong; but they must first be open to change. Are you open to change and the success it can bring? If you are, we’d like to hear from you.

Change Management - Knocking Down Barriers to Benefit

Happy 180th Birthday - and Thank You - to John Venn!

If you’ve been out to Google today you might have noticed an interesting, if not slightly obscure, interactive commemorative Google Doodle gracing the page. It is commemorating the 180th birthday of John Venn. Unless you are the kind of person who gets at least somewhat nerdy over philosophy, math or statistics; you might be asking yourself who in the world John Venn is and why you should care that, if he had not passed away in 1923, he would be 180 years old today. Well, besides the fact that a man born in 1834 managed to live 89 years – a feat unto itself, John Venn is the man whom you may thank for the wonderfully visual way of representing complex concepts like set theory and relationships in areas such as probability, logic and statistics known as the Venn Diagram.

Great, so other than the fact that there are obviously some nerds on staff, why does eLynxx Solutions care about John Venn, his diagrams and his birthday? Glad you asked! Simply put, without John Venn and his Venn Diagram it would be a lot harder for us to explain our concept of bringing your people, your processes and your vendors together with eLynxx project management software to achieve better results in your marketing supply chain. You see, at its simplest – and trust me there are much more complex ways of using one than we have, a Venn Diagram shows a relational overlap between two or more distinct sets, areas or concepts. With each area represented as a ring or circle, the intersecting portions of each illustrate the point where everything comes together so to speak. It’s a truly elegant way to present data.

From our standpoint, an organization already has a set of people doing various jobs, a set of processes that are integral to the way it operates and a set of vendors with whom it has already built a level of trust and understanding in place. When it comes to managing its marketing material projects from concept to reality, an organization already has has a lot of what it needs to get the job done in these three areas. All that are really needed are some tools and additional knowledge to bring everything together and achieve better results. Sometimes, rather than bringing these areas together, organizations try highly disruptive methods that instead drive the people, processes and vendors already in place further apart. We have found that the more disruptive the method is the less likely it is to actually achieve marketing supply chain efficiency and savings for an organization. That’s why the tools and knowledge eLynxx Solutions provides are purpose-built and tailored specifically to an organization’s needs and resources. By being as non disruptive as possible, eLynxx simply fills in what’s missing so your organization can manage, source and organize its marketing material projects better than ever. Organizations that use eLynxx think it is an elegant solution. Since we can show how eLynxx works in one of his diagrams, we like to think that John Venn would agree.

Happy 180th Birthday - and Thank You - to John Venn!

Is Your Marketing Supply Chain "Prepped" - Three Questions to Ask

The concept of preparedness is a hot topic but it’s nothing new. Anyone who was ever in scouting or the military is familiar with the practice of being prepared. It’s simply more in the public eye today. Between public service campaigns urging every household to have a basic survival kit ready for common emergencies and documentaries on “extreme preppers” outfitted to survive and thrive in the face of just about anything man or nature can conjure up, being prepared has become part of mainstream culture. Being prepared is a great idea. Whether you choose to have a box with some basics to make it through a bad storm or a bunker to survive doomsday is up to you; but logic and history tells us that you go wrong with being prepared. However, when most of us think about being prepared, we think in terms of home and family not business.

True, many organizations have a general crisis plan for when they are directly impacted by the unforeseen. Disaster preparedness and recovery plans are also common to most IT operations. But what happens when the unforeseen strikes others you depend upon and the situation is beyond the scope of internal plans? What happens when the printer who is producing materials for a critical product launch campaign is impacted by a hurricane, tornado, wildfire or earthquake? The idea here is not to wish for such a tragedy; but rather to point out that even your marketing supply chain is vulnerable to the effects of disaster at many levels. Something as simple as a major power outage in the vicinity of one of your vendors has the potential to impact your marketing operations. In many parts of the United States, the late summer is prime time for nature-related emergencies; which leads to the question of whether your marketing supply chain has been prepped for disaster? Here are three questions to consider:

Is your vendor pool deep, and well-qualified, enough that you have multiple options available?

If you rely on a very small pool of vendors you are putting your marketing initiatives at risk. If one of these vendors becomes unavailable, even temporarily, your projects may take a hit that can be hard to recover from. Solid vendor qualification is equally as important. Even if you have a fair number of vendors who can pick up the slack from an out-of-commission competitor; if they are not clearly and objectively qualified as equals you could end up with less than acceptable results. A well-prepared marketing supply chain has vendor redundancy not only in numbers, but in capability and capacity as well.

Do you have easy access to all of your project assets and specifications?

In order to be able to work around unforeseen circumstances in your marketing supply chain you need to be agile. In the midst of a situation where a vendor is unable to operate in their normal capacity, you need to be able to take all assets, files, details and specifications for a project and shift them to another vendor. Any time spent searching for assets, recompiling information and getting it out to substitute vendors is time wasted. A robust project and workflow management regimen with provisions for management of project assets, tracking of all actions and the ability to directly connect with your vendor pool is a key element of having a well-prepared marketing supply chain.

Do you know where your projects are in the production cycle?

Suppose that a direct mail project is being printed and assembled by one vendor who will send it to another vendor for processing and mailing. An unforeseen circumstance has taken the print vendor temporarily off-line sometime after you sent the project to them. If you don’t know where your project is in its production cycle, you don’t know if it has been impacted. If you knew where it was, you would know whether it needed to be routed to another printer, or if the printer finished their part before they were impacted and it’s already at the mail house. If you don’t know, you’ll need to spend precious time finding out. Having a solid grasp of where your marketing materials are in their production cycle is another key part of a well-prepared marketing supply chain.

Like being prepared for the unforeseen in any other portion of life, ensuring that your marketing supply chain is prepared for circumstances beyond your control certainly isn’t limited to three areas. However by asking yourself the three questions above and thinking about your answers you are off to a good start that is likely to lead to more considerations. Can you think of any others? If you do, be sure to share them with us!

Is Your Marketing Supply Chain "Prepped" - Three Questions to Ask

Supply Chain Management from the Vendor’s Point of View

The sales approach in the print industry tends to be kind of old-school. It’s often product centric versus service, capability and capacity centric. When a vendor sells based on product they may have to find alternatives to preferred materials or processes to get the job done at a given price point. When a vendor sells based on service; efficiency, strategy and satisfying your on-going needs is much more valuable than simply getting jobs done at the right price. The service approach is one that is much more in tune with achieving better results through a strong, well-coordinated marketing supply chain. It is also an approach that vendors are beginning to recognize as mutually beneficial. That’s good news for you!

A recent article by Jennifer Matt in the printing trade newsletter WhatTheyThink? discusses the need for this shift in buyer-vendor relationships. It also points out the importance of having strong coordination, the use of dedicated project management software and the need for transparent tracking. Take a few minutes and check out the original article. It’s an enlightening opportunity to see something so close to home through the eyes of the partners in our marketing supply chains.

Supply Chain Management from the Vendor’s Point of View

Important Reminder - eLynxx Server Upgrades Scheduled for July 12

As part of our on-going effort to provide the best possible service to our valued clients, eLynxx Solutions will be executing a switchover to new servers in our data center on Saturday, July 12, 2014. Please note that access to eLynxx will be unavailable between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on July 12.

We understand that any disruption of service is an inconvenience; however, we hope to limit that inconvenience by making this extensive upgrade on a weekend. We appreciate your understanding and are confident that our investment in new hardware and the latest, most robust databases will be beneficial to your experience. By performing these upgrades, we can continue to provide the unparalleled level of service, security, reliability and system uptime that you have come to expect from eLynxx Solutions.

Additionally, in reflection of our current branding, the printLYNXX name will be changing to eLynxx and the entry portal will become https://connect.elynxx.com. This change will occur at the same time as the data center upgrades. This branding change will not impact functionality or any customizations that have been made around your own branding of the software.

After the changeover has been completed, you will be able to access eLynxx, your dashboard and all functionality with your login credentials. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your eLynxx Customer Care representative.

Thank you again for your understanding and for choosing eLynxx.

Best Regards,

Your Partners at eLynxx Solutions

Important Reminder - eLynxx Server Upgrades Scheduled for July 12

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

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 9 – Materials in the Chain

Over the past eight installments of our Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide we’ve discussed mechanics, functional areas and roles. Now it’s time to open a new chapter and take a look at the goods the marketing supply chain delivers – marketing materials.

Admittedly, a deep-dive into marketing materials may not sound like edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff, but that is exactly the point. It’s so easy to lump so many forms and mediums of communication that are so crucial to your marketing efforts together under such a simple – and frankly – bland term. But when you stop to think about the breadth and depth of everything that could be considered marketing materials those notions go right out the window. Marketing materials are anything but simple. Their variety and complexity is the antithesis of bland.

The oversimplification of such a complex operational category is likely one of the key factors in the marketing supply chain goes unrecognized. It’s also an important reason to consider purpose-built tools for managing projects within the marketing supply chain. Let’s take a look at some of the more traditional or common marketing materials that may be flowing through yours.

In the Universe of Marketing Materials – Here’s the Black Hole

It’s known by about as many names as there are varieties of it. Collateral, pamphlets, documents, handouts, fliers, folders, booklets, rack cards, one-sheeters, sales kits, brochures…you get the point. What we’re talking about here is one of the foundations of marketing and promotional communication and something that’s still effective even in the digital age; good old printed, branded and distributed information. Marketing collateral (let’s call it that for now) is pretty much the catch-all classification in the marcom world. Here’s the catch about this catch-all though; while it’s so familiar and seemingly basic, it’s really anything but. Everything about it is variable. Size, format, content, purpose, complexity (or simplicity), design, method of distribution – you name it – all varies from item to item. What doesn’t tend to vary is the need for consistent branding across all variants and the fact that collateral changes frequently to stay up-to-date.

Some organizations rely on hundreds, if not thousands, of forms of marketing collateral. Sometimes collateral is produced by multiple teams from different locations where each may be responsible for its own sourcing. Keeping information, branding and targeting current in the face of such an environment can be tricky at best. The simple act of having reprinting last year’s brochures suddenly isn’t so simple. In a well-managed marketing supply chain, marketing collateral can be a model for efficiency instead of a black hole where “everything else” ends up.

Snow, Rain, Heat and Gloom of Night Are One Thing – Project Complexities Are Another

Even today, direct mail is still considered one of the most effective ways to reach a client and customer bases. The ability to put a highly targeted piece of communication right in the hands of its intended audience is powerful. And say what you will about the state of the post office, it still does a remarkably reliable job of getting the message where it needs to go. Even though neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, as the old saying goes, are supposed to hinder the delivery of your next direct mail campaign; its own complexities could hinder its production. The term direct mail, like marketing materials, is another convenient phrase that oversimplifies a not-so-simple concept. Direct mail campaigns run the gamut in terms of design, format, content, purpose and complexity. About the only thing that remains constant across direct mail campaigns is the fact that they rely upon the post office for distribution. Even that is a point of complication.

Take for example a postcard campaign. It’s a single piece that’s self contained. No envelope is needed; postage indicia, and even addresses, can be printed directly on it. But like any marketing material there’s always a catch. There are stipulations on everything from physical size to stock thickness, finish and even layout and content. Significant attention must be paid to providing the appropriate space, on a printable and clearly visible surface, for bar codes to be applied for proper routing. Copy that is too close to the designated address area could cause machines to misread the address. Even when designs account for all postal regulations, simple production errors or variances, that are negligible in other instances, could render a postcard campaign undeliverable or much more costly to mail. Precision specifications and strict adherence to them in production are absolutely crucial to direct mail even in its most simple form.

In more complicated forms of direct mail, not only do size, thickness and weight come into play, but often multiple pieces as well. In some of the most effective and powerful direct mail campaigns there may be many creative assets with production spread across different vendors. Traditional (think ink on paper) and non-traditional (think plastic cards or product samples) media are frequently combined. Personalization is often involved in more than just the address. Mix in kitting, list and mailing services and direct mail project management might be as complex as it gets. In an organized marketing supply chain these complexities can be harnessed and the full power of direct mail channeled when you use tools that were built for the job.

Keeping the Publication Gears Turning

The fact that some catalogs, newsletters and other marketing and public relations publications are going strong while others have given up paper for pixels clearly illustrates that people take one of two sides on them. Those who continue physical publication of catalogs and outreach obviously see value and power in them with their specific audiences. The ongoing impact of printed publications seems to remain very strong where specialties, special interests and niches are concerned. Such audiences tend to be more deeply connected and involved and hard-copy publications speak well to that involvement.

Anyone who is involved in projects involving publications of any kind is sure to tell you that while techniques and strategies may be similar, each and every publication is unique. Because of the number of moving parts within them, there is a lot of opportunity for things to go awry in the creation, production and distribution of a publication. Nothing is inconsequential managing a publication project. Even a simple approval getting held up in the works could bring a publication that is critical to an organization’s marketing communications goals to a grinding halt. Big money could be lost and that deeply involved and connected audience could be left hanging. It is hard to squeeze something as individual as a publication into a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s near impossible to manage a publication project without the ability to adapt your tools to the specific resources, needs and purposes of your publication.

Join us next week when we continue to break down the many different kinds of marketing material projects the marketing supply chain is responsible for creating, producing and distributing.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 9 – Materials in the Chain

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 8 – Legal Roles

When you think of roles and functions that go hand in hand with each other; marketing and legal probably aren’t too high on your list. The fact is they work closer than you think, especially in marketing project management. We’re not saying that it’s common to have lawyers write copy, create designs, source materials or oversee distribution. However they will often be involved in those functions and more as compliance and contracts surround just about everything in today’s business environment.

Legal Compliance in the Marketing Supply Chain

We might as well start with the big gun that’s not always so obvious: intellectual property. Marketing material that does not contain some kind of intellectual property would certainly be an exception rather than a rule. Some organizations place stewardship of certain intellectual property like logos, slogans and other trademarked information in the hands of marketing professionals. They create and use some forms of IP, so they are expected to know the rules. Even in such cases it is not uncommon to for people in legal roles to be involved from time to time. In other cases legal is a standard part of the review and approval process regarding marketing materials. On the other side of the coin, especially in situations where comparisons are made or competition is very close, there may be legal concerns over the use or infringement on the IP of others.

We’ve all seen ads and marketing collateral that portray something outrageous to get our attention followed by a disclaimer. That often denotes the involvement of people in legal roles. If there is any risk of liability over real or perceived safety issues, product claims, or anything else that could lead to end-user endangerment or dissatisfaction, it’s a safe bet that legal staff involvement will be required. The same may hold true for any communication related to usage and assembly of products.

Giveaways, contests and sweepstakes are another area where legal involvement is common. Depending on the organization, its location and its target audience the laws surrounding promotions where “winning” is an objective can be deep and confusing. Ever see a promotion on a cereal package that refers you to a bunch of fine print that seems like a lot for sending in a box top? That’s not the work of some maniacal copywriter or just something lawyers do to irritate package designers; it’s the law and if it’s not done correctly it can be a costly mistake. Before it’s released to the public, or after something goes awry, legal will be involved at some point.

Targeting and execution can even be areas where legal becomes involved in marketing projects. For example there are various laws regarding promotion and packaging of products intended for children. Products that are considered to be “controlled” have restrictions and warning requirements for promotional and packaging materials. Non-profit and charitable organizations often come under different rules. Publicly-held organizations may have to follow requirements and restrictions of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Interstate Commerce Commission in their marketing. All of these situations will often trigger involvement of legal staff in marketing projects.

Just Sign on the Dotted Line…After Legal Approves It

Contracts are not something considered to be crucial to marketing – until the time comes that a contract is required to bring a marketing material project to fruition. Unless your organization’s marketing supply chain is completely internal, which is highly unlikely, you will rely on outside resources to get the job done. When you rely on outside resources contracts are a fact of life. When contracts are a fact of life legal staff will be involved.

Traditional contracts outlining all of the particulars of a business deal between two entities can exist at nearly any level and for any purpose. Common places where contracts will appear along the marketing supply chain include freelance creatives and analysts, agencies, vendors, printers, manufacturers, service bureaus, mail shops, transportation carriers, warehouses, distributors and media outlets. But the list doesn’t stop there.

Other forms of contracts, less common in other areas of business, are more common in the world of marketing materials. If models, spokespeople, voice-over artists or even testimonials and quotes are part of the project, releases may be required before the work can be made public. The same can hold true for photos, cinematography, written copy and designs even when created by an individual who is under contract, depending on the terms of their contract. Other times, especially when dealing with stock media such as photos, footage or music that was not originally created for the organization or its marketing, royalties or licenses may be involved. While releases, royalties and licenses might not seem as daunting as a thick contract; they can be just as complicated and the ramifications of non-compliance as severe.

Spotting the Legal Types in Your Organization

Legal departments vary in size and composition as much as any other department. There could be one person or a whole team. Some may even be outside resources on contract or retainer. Their titles will also vary as much as in any other department but their general areas of responsibility and interaction will be similar.

Generally at the top end of a large legal operation, or as a one person show in a smaller one, will be a chief legal officer, solicitor or other top level corporate attorney. If the organization is large, involvement should be similar to other C-level executives: top-level policy and major decisions. In smaller organizations this person may be involved with anything and everything.

Some organizations employ the services or specialty attorneys, either on staff or through retainers. When an intellectual property lawyer is present they will likely be involved with marketing material projects and the marketing supply chain at some point as their concern is focused on trademarks, logos, slogans, copyrights and patents owned by the organization. More concern over these areas may be noticed when agencies or other outside marketing resources are working with an organization’s IP as they may not be as familiar with it. Contract attorneys will be focused on the creation, review and execution of contracts between the organization and other parties. If specialty attorneys are not part of the legal team, those duties would revert to others on the team.

Lawyers are not the only roles to be found in an organization’s legal structure. Some organizations rely on paralegals along with attorneys. Depending upon the jurisdiction and situation of the organization a paralegal can often do a lot of what an attorney would do in a business environment. If paralegals are part of the team, they would conceivably be more likely to interact with the marketing supply chain on a regular basis than an attorney. Legal clerks or administrators are often seen in situations where the legal activities of an organization are frequent and consistent but there are not many lawyers or paralegals. As administrative level staff versed in legal matters and processes, legal clerks are often tasked with everyday legal matters and may serve as an initial point of contact.

As in all marketing supply chain roles, the legal ones in your organization may – and probably will – vary. You may even have roles or entire categories of roles that we have not discussed. Since it would be impossible to cover every unique circumstance, we focused on the roles that are likely to occur across a broad variety of organizations. As we close yet another chapter in the Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide, the seemingly unending combinations of roles further reinforces the importance of managing projects with tools and software not only built for the task, but tailored to your organization.

Join us next week as we open a new chapter investigating the kinds of marketing materials managed within the marketing supply chain.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 8 – Legal Roles

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 7 – Procurement Roles

Any organization that produces materials used in marketing is going to have marketers. There is also always some level of executive and financial management. There are some roles that, depending upon the organization, may not be so simply defined.

So Who Does the Procurement in the Marketing Supply Chain?

In many organizations the function of procurement within the marketing supply chain is considered so specialized that it is placed in the hands of the marketing department. The department may either have units for print and media buying or it may place the responsibilities with broader units such as creative or advertising. At the other end of the spectrum, all of the specifications and details for marketing material projects are given to the procurement or purchasing department. They identify vendors, request pricing and award the project. In between is any number of combinations where marketing and procurement work together; often with marketing identifying vendors and procurement handling RFPs, awards and follow through. These last two scenarios are the focus of this exploration.

A Wrench in the Purchasing Machine

Because of the nature of the work, procurement or purchasing departments tend to be very hands-on and process oriented. Requisitions come in, prices are sought and the award is made. It’s a tried and true system for procuring inventoried supplies, raw materials and commodities. Marketing materials are nothing like those items. Supplies, raw materials and commodities are not 100% custom produced. Some, like vehicles and computers, may be custom configured from an available range of options. Few items in those categories are manufactured entirely on specification from the ground up as marketing materials are. Every marketing material project is unique.

At a quick glance, two random four-color tri-fold brochures may appear to be made the same way, aside from their content. Looking at their specs is likely to tell you something different in terms of the combination of materials and processes used. Even quantity can have a drastic impact on how a project needs to be produced for optimum quality and efficiency. Not every printer is capable of producing every combination of material and process at every quantity at the same level of quality. That can throw a monkey wrench into the smooth-running machinery of a purchasing operation.

How – and Where – Do Procurement Roles Fit?

Some organizations, especially larger ones with robust marketing and procurement operations, have specialist buyers for each purchasing category. An effective specialist buyer understands the purpose of the items they source, knows the terminology of its specifications, and understands the methods of its production. Traditionally, marketing materials were sourced by print buyers since printing has always been the primary means of production.

In today’s marketing supply chain, the dependency on print processes is still huge, but emphasis has shifted from the means of production to the product being produced. While print buyers still exist, if a type of marketing material is of high importance to an organization, it may have buyers with expertise in more refined specialties such as packaging, point of purchase displays or direct marketing.

It’s also not uncommon to find a centralized, general purchasing department with managers and buyers who source everything across the board. In such a case the buyers or purchasing agents may work very closely with the project’s subject matter experts to understand the specifications, needs and purposes of the project being sourced. In such an instance a purchasing agent or even a manager would be wise to involve project subject matter experts in certain critical decisions such as vendor selection.

Taking a step further, there are instances where a purchasing or procurement department’s role in the marketing supply chain is more about administration and compliance. An example of this would be where the project’s subject matter experts provide not only the specifications and needs for the project, but also perform the research to identify vendors who can meet all of its requirements. From that point forward, purchasing agents, buyers and their managers would obtain pricing, award the project to a vendor and follow up with any additional administration.

Making the Right Connections

Regardless of where an organization falls within this continuum, a strong and free-flowing connection between procurement roles and the rest of the marketing supply chain is critical. Even in cases where marketing is responsible for sourcing its own materials; bulletproof specifications are imperative to getting the project done as planned. Tracking of tasks, actions, decisions and results ensures compliance with budgets and deadlines, as well as with procurement and marketing procedures. It’s a lot to try to make happen in an organization of any size but it’s not impossible especially with the help of project management software built especially for the marketing supply chain.

The next installment in the Marketing Supply Field Guide will wrap up our look at common roles in the marketing supply chain. See you next week.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 7 – Procurement Roles

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 6 – Finance Roles

Some combinations just go together well as polar opposites. They are distinctly different from, yet often attract, one another. North and south, fire and ice, good and evil are all classic examples. Marketing and finance is another. Marketing is driven by passion and human nature. Its output equals its success. Its results are born of ideas. At the other end of the spectrum is finance; driven by calculation and procedure, with success measured against forecasts. Organizational and operational success; however, require both and therefore a relationship exists. Unfortunately that relationship is often thought to be one of dysfunction.

A Great Place for Opposites to Attract

When marketing and financial operations work more closely together, they are more understanding of each other’s purposes and needs. When they work in an integrated environment, at a point where their paths naturally cross, agility and results are improved. The marketing supply chain is that point. It is where budgets go from forecasts on paper to tangible marketing materials that drive the revenue that translates into bottom line results.

Much like marketing, finance and accounting means something different to every organization. Sometimes even more so as laws and regulations often dictate the financial and accounting functions and roles that must be present. Because every organization varies, we will explore finance roles in the marketing supply chain from a broad perspective.

Finance Executives

The chief financial officers, chief accounting officers and chief auditors of the world – are not likely to be interested in the day-to-day functions of the marketing supply chain. They will be interested in the big picture and the overall results. Return on marketing investment is an area that seems to be getting more interest from today’s finance executives. Interest and visibility at this level are important as they demonstrate recognition of marketing’s move from cost center to driver of revenue. Metrics and KPIs that show outcomes directly tying marketing materials to increases in audience share and revenue are important points to communicate to finance executives.

Finance and Accounting Managers and Staff

There are many potential roles within finance and accounting beyond those considered to be in the C-suite. These are the people interested in the day-to-day touch points between finance and the marketing supply chain. Comptrollers, controllers, certified public and managerial accountants, auditors and bookkeepers all potentially interact with and contribute to an organization’s marketing supply chain. Because marketing supply chain spending is done with the intent of eventually driving revenue, the marketing supply chain actually impacts finance and accounting at both ends. Everything from accounts payable and tax accounting for freelancers to budget planning and annual audits are points of interface with the marketing supply chain for finance managers and their staff.

So Why Is There Often Such a Rift?

Even to the most analytic or strategic of marketers, the world of finance and accounting is likely to seem alien. An accountant and a brand manager may both understand the importance of, and even respect, each other’s work. However, dealing with the mechanics outside of one’s own zone of operations will almost always seem to be a hassle. Paying the bills, cutting the checks and keeping budgets in perpetual motion is pretty important to keeping the marketing supply chain machine up to speed. Without finance everything could grind to a halt. Organizations seeking to improve impact and results are wise to keep finance involved as part of the marketing supply chain.

The Right Involvement in the Right Amount at the Right Place

We already understand that an organization’s marketing supply chain can stretch far. It can also call for involvement from various roles at erratic times. One-size-fits-all solutions don’t work for keeping finance roles involved when and where they need to be. Project management software, purpose built for the marketing supply chain, provides what is needed to keep finance and accounting people involved in precisely the right amount and place.

Communication is vital. The more marketing and finance roles are connected, talking and sharing information; the more they come to understand each other. The more they understand each other, the less generalized interaction will be, leading to a more productive relationship.

Data is one of the ways that the gap between these roles can be bridged within the marketing supply chain. Remember the mention of finance execs looking at marketing efforts as the revenue drivers they are as opposed to the cost centers they have been? Data is the driving force behind it.

When the people involved in the marketing supply chain can see what is going on within it, the unfamiliar becomes less imposing and more understandable. Transparency leads to an understanding of all of the different processes, sharing of successes, shared accountability and increased efficiency in the future.

There is often no better way for any marketing operation to win hearts and minds within the organization than through efficiency and cost savings. If cuts need to be made and there is a choice of an operation that can demonstrate its level of voluntary efficiency and cost savings and one that can’t, which operation do you think will see the cuts?

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide continues in the next installment with a look at the sourcing roles found in many organizations’ marketing supply chains. Join us then and check back regularly for more.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Part 6 – Finance Roles