Business Management - Marketing/Sales

DeWese--No News Is Good News
April 1, 1999

The printing industry never gets any publicity in the national media. Television, magazines and newspapers ignore us. It's as if commercial printing didn't exist. The graphic arts industry gets no attention or respect. If I'm not mistaken, we are something like the third largest employer and the seventh or eighth largest industry in terms of the dollar value of our production. I think I'm about right. You can look it up. The technology sector gets tremendous coverage on television and in newspapers. Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Sun MicroSystems and all those Internet companies get lots of press. Cocktail party conversations abound with tales of fortunes

DeWese--Time for Some Self-analysis
March 1, 1999

I don't know about you, but the Gallup people have never, never, never called me for my thoughts on any national issue. I have never been polled by anybody. Not "CNN," Time, Newsweek, USA Today—nary any national media pollster or political party pollster has called me. Hey, I'm in the phone book. I've even got an e-mail address. I file and pay my taxes every year. I'm a registered Republican voter. I've got credit cards, and all the catalogers have my name and address. I'm not hidin'! The pollsters can damnsure find me! No one has asked me to rate the president's performance or that of

Marchand--Coherence - Putting The Pieces Together
February 1, 1999

I used to provide advice about how to develop marketing programs in the fall, when most printers were developing their plans for programs to be launched in January. Today, there is no longer a single time of the year when marketing and sales executives write their plans. New programs are likely to be launched in almost any month. In companies with fiscal years that vary from the calendar, annual budgets may kick in on July 1 or September 1. Newly acquired companies and additional capabilities also frequently lead to the development of new marketing programs in the middle of the fiscal year. So February is

DeWese--An Interview at Poor Richard's Place
February 1, 1999

Attila the editor sent me an e-mail that ordered me to his office at 8 a.m. the following morning. "Ordered" me, the Mañana Man, in his office at 8 a.m.! I was indignant! I considered deleting his electronic mandate, but I decided he must have some big assignment for me. I knew if he actually wanted to see me, it had to be important.

Marchand--Segmentation - Man of Many Words Finds One
January 1, 1999

Never known for brevity, I am thrilled to be able to reduce to one word my marketing advice for the new year now upon us: SEGMENT. Life is observably complex. A walk in the woods, a stroll in the mall, a visit with a client in a downtown high-rise—they all reveal diversity and the complex relationships that affect our lives. So I intuitively mistrust reductionist approaches to difficult matters. They tend to oversimplify. Still, I say to all you printing sales and marketing managers, segment your customer and prospect lists. It's true: My teeth are set on edge when I see brief guides to

Mañana Man Runs Amok, Again —DeWese
January 1, 1999

Harris DeWese has been under the weather with the Cajun Flu for a few days so, I, The Mañana Man, am writing this column in his stead. As you know, I am the genius "other" personality trapped in DeWese's body, such as it is. This will give me a chance to get some things off my chest that DeWese never lets me say.

DeWese--Brand Loyalty Works In Printing, too
December 1, 1998

I was eating a Boar's Head smoked turkey sandwich and, although I'm an investment banker and supposed to read The Wall Street Journal at lunch, I was, in fact and as is my habit, reading the label on my jar of Kraft mayonnaise. The same can be said for the Cheerios box at breakfast and Rita's tabasco sauce label at supper. I have been reading the label since I developed a fierce loyalty to Kraft at age six. That was more than 50 years ago. There should be a law that every deli and sandwich shop have Kraft mayonnaise available as an option to

Marchand--Perils Ahead - Recession, Deflation. . .
November 1, 1998

Soon after this column appears, many printing companies may find themselves struggling on the unfamiliar terrain of a deflationary contraction. Even companies that have done well during the long period of uninterrupted growth—now perhaps about to end—may be faced with new and severe challenges. Before winter is over, slower demand may begin to reduce the number of cylinders in the market. Or not. I'm reluctant to predict an imminent downturn. I'm just not sure the hard times are really waiting for us around the next turn in the road. Moreover, I know little about deflation, too little to be confident of my advice about

DeWese--Drowning in Decrees
November 1, 1998

Along with several other people, I was inducted into the printing industry's Soderstrom Society last month. I haven't read the Soderstrom Society by-laws yet, but I'm sure that membership gives me broad powers. For example, I now have the power to ban things in the printing industry that I don't like. Be it ordained and decreed that all print buyers henceforth shall purchase printing based only on quality and service. This means that "price" will no longer be a consideration. Printers are inherently honest people, who would never gouge buyers, so why all the fuss over a few dollars? Furthermore, I proclaim and demand that

Marchand--Good News / Bad News
October 1, 1998

I love those old good news-bad news jokes. In the best of them, the bad is unexpectedly derived from the good. On close examination, what seems at first glance to be good news turns out to be a mixed blessing, sometimes even a grotesque outcome. The humor comes from the disparity between what we at first expect and what we then learn. Well, there's good news for marketers in the printing industry. And, predictably, the good news is also the bad news. After two decades of struggle during the '70s and '80s, marketing won widespread acceptance in the printing industry. Few printing executives doubt