Phoenix Marketing Services —Multi-Solutions Evolution

SINCE ITS inception in 1976, when owners Cindy and Dave Casey established Phoenix Marketing Services, the business forms manufacturer has been continuously evolving.

Today, it is a completely different business operation.

The two-site enterprise—with facilities in Claremont, CA, and Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico—now boasts 200 employees and offers services ranging from marketing, advertising and design, to interactive media, printing, bindery, fulfillment, warehousing and shipping.

Initially based in Pomona, CA, the company developed its own creative department in 1980 to design forms and other marketing materials for its customers. It reached another milestone in 1982 when clients, namely those in the cruise line industry, began requesting labor-intensive services. To prepare documents, provide intricate gluing and perform other detailed assembly work, the Caseys expanded with a new facility in Baja that they called Phoenix de México. The supplemental operation focused specifically on fulfilling hand-assembly needs—which was accomplished with inexpensive labor.

Seizing Opportunities

At the dawn of the digital age in 1998, Phoenix Marketing seized on opportunities in the emerging multimedia market and created a new division that included graphic designers, programmers and Web developers. New services such as Website design and software development were added to the company’s growing list of offerings.

In 2001, business was prospering and Phoenix’s owners wanted to become a single-source provider. Subsequently, the firm moved to a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Claremont, where personalized and customized direct mail took center stage by 2004.

Branching into one-to-one marketing, co-owner Cindy Casey reports that the results have been phenomenal. “Response rates have sharply improved and retention rates have gone through the roof! That same year (2004), we added a Web-based, on-demand ordering system. The service allows our clients and their customers to go online and create, review, order and mail personalized marketing material with the click of a mouse.”

Once an online order is placed, the print-on-demand project is output with a Xerox iGen3 digital production press, which was purchased for that purpose in 2005.

The Caseys continually ask themselves: “What will be the next technological breakthrough that will change the way we do business?” Thus, they are always analyzing ways in which they can complete projects faster, while better controlling the cost of running a customer-centric business.

With that in mind, Phoenix recently acquired a 10-color, 40˝ Mitsubishi Diamond 3000TP Tandem Perfector with twin coating units, which allows one-pass printing and coating on both sides without tumbling the sheet after fully printing one side. “Our new press will enable us to significantly increase our productivity and performance, and maintain competitive costs in the marketplace,” notes Casey.

Like most printers, the Caseys believe the press is the heart of their printing operation. Today’s high-tech printing machines are packed with automation that marginalizes makereadies, reduces manning requirements and catapults production speeds to several thousand impressions per hour.

Such is the case with the Mitsubishi perfector installed last year.

Describing the new Diamond 3000TP Tandem Perfector with double coaters as one of the best presses made, Casey believes Phoenix Marketing Services has become “the Nordstrom of printing companies.” She says the new press allows Phoenix to better serve its clients by providing superior quality, quicker turnarounds and highly competitive pricing.

Those clients include a marquee list of high-profilers in the financial, travel, food, entertainment, sports, healthcare and academic industries. Here’s a sampling of clientele: Academy of Country Music, Indymac Bank, City of Hope Cancer Center, Disney, Claremont Colleges, Pacific Life Insurance, AIG SunAmerica, Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Pepsi Cola, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Pleasant Holidays, California Speedway, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Angels.

Numerous clients have been with Phoenix Marketing for many years, and some even jump at the chance to provide testimonials about the company’s outstanding service.

“What would I do without Phoenix?” opines Judy Trapani of Pleasant Holidays. “They provide me with creative services, printing, warehousing, inventory control. My customer service rep keeps me sane. . .even when I’m down to my last form due to some unforeseen fiasco.”

“We owe much of our success to Phoenix Marketing. They come through at every level: creative, Web links, print, fulfillment. No wonder our revenues were up again last year,” adds John Stoll with Crystal Cruises Land Programs.

Crystal Cruises not only experienced a profitable year, its CrystalCruisesAcademy.com sales binder (produced by Phoenix) received a Certificate of Merit for technical excellence in the Digital Printing category of the 2007 Premier Print Awards. The award was one of five for Phoenix in the competition.

“Receiving recognition [like that] is not only an honor, but a reflection of the high-quality production our incredible staff provides to our customers every day,” says Dave Bynum, president. “At Phoenix, we treat every project as an award-winning project—to the benefit of our customers.”

Benefits Abound

Customers also benefit from the company’s non-print services, which include database-driven content management, application development, flash development, interactive media, secure hosting, online presentations/seminars, e-mail marketing and other e-commerce solutions—all of which hold a special place in Cindy Casey’s heart as a one-stop solutions provider.

“Our cross-media solutions combine direct marketing with content management, database creation, tracking and reporting, programming capabilities, graphic and Website design, and content development,” she explains. “By providing data intelligence and results tracking and analysis, we optimize a site’s performance. The lasting relationships we develop with our clients extend far beyond the initial project.”

Extending far beyond its own initial project—mass producing business forms—Phoenix Marketing Services has evolved into a full-service marketing communications provider. With its cache of state-of-the-art technology, the firm is poised for an even brighter tomorrow.

“The future is now,” enthuses Casey, “and we’re ready.” PI