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For more than twenty years, I have been telling people I'm in the fulfillment business. The reactions I receive, even from seasoned business professionals, generally fall somewhere between a blank look and a distracted, "Oh, that's nice." Some of the more inquisitive may ask, "What's that mean?" or "OK, but what do you really do all day?"
The short, and somewhat flippant, answer is I work for a company that puts stuff in boxes. My more thoughtful response describes the importance of the function we perform. All companies seek to better communicate with customers, prospects, dealers, internal business owners, sales representatives, and others important to their enterprise. As a fulfillment organization, we close that loop. We are the essential link that puts materials, messages or goods into people's hands. Doing so requires the successful convergence of factors like organization, discipline and people. We must execute with speed and accuracy, assuring that shipments arrive undamaged at their destinations.
Cost pressure is a very real part of the fulfillment equation, too. Our work is not an end but a means - to improving ongoing relationships or dialogue between companies and customers, thereby increasing sales, enhancing loyalty, and furthering corporate stability, profitability, and growth.
Before going any further, I should explain what our company, Budco, does and why we believe it is so important. Budco operates in the marketing services sector. Working in both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) arenas, we offer a suite of interrelated marketing competencies, ranging from creative and call center, through information technologies and digital print, to warehousing and fulfillment. The company originated twenty-five years ago in the latter category, and has evolved into a technology-driven, customer-focused fulfillment solutions provider. And while Budco certainly operates in the cyber world, our focus in this discussion is on the physical, and why, even in our increasingly digital era, fulfillment still matters as a marketing technique.
As a fulfillment agency, Budco assists clients in their communication, information, and promotional endeavors. Clients deliver marketing and promotional materials to us; we warehouse these items and then ship them out, usually within very narrow timelines. The types of things we handle differ by client industry and target audience. B2B materials include product catalogs, special offer flyers, brochures on...