I’ve been saying since I joined the company as CEO, and it’s never been more true: it’s an exciting time at IWCO. I’ve spent the majority of the last few months meeting with teams across our platform to discover what’s working, where we can improve performance for our clients, and how we can continue to grow by transforming IWCO.
For marketers who want to get serious about results, our award-winning organization optimizes performance across a range of one-to-one channels. Our proprietary data-driven processes lower cost per acquisition and improve performance by an average of 47%. With data, strategy, creative, execution, media, analysis, and the most sophisticated postal logistics strategy available, we drive better performance. Our state-of-the-art digital production platform allows a best-in-class level of personalization in direct mail and companion channels.
Good is Never Good Enough
As Marcus Johnson stated in a previous blog, “Good is never good enough.” By the end of this year, you will see significant changes across the company as we continue to transform IWCO. We’re relentlessly dedicated to delivering innovative, creative, and optimized solutions that improve results, and soon we will have completed the modernization of our production facilities, giving us the capability to provide a wider array of products than ever before.
As excited as we are about modernizing our facilities, we are even more excited about strengthening our Marketing and Creative Services team to enhance the insight and analysis we bring to our clients’ marketing programs leveraging data, modeling, and testing to achieve superior response.
A Strategic Focus on the Future
While there are several initiatives that our team is working on, they all fall under our updated business strategy, or as we call it, “Strategic Plan – Phase 1,” which focuses on these three areas:
- Growth – Our plans to strengthen our already robust suite of marketing and creative services, while increasing our capacity and capabilities with new and legacy equipment, will bring on new clients and expand our relationships with existing ones.
- Performance Improvement – Our team is making great strides utilizing Lean Manufacturing, coming together to conduct Kaizens, and finding ways to improve processes across the board. There’s been strong employee participation throughout our company, ensuring that no stone is left unturned, and all aspects of the business are being considered.
- Operating Excellence – We have examined our internal processes to streamline workflows and create opportunities to move toward even better world-class reporting and accountability.
Transforming IWCO Brings More Opportunities for Creativity and Personalization
One exciting development that encompasses all three of these areas is the installation of our new Epic® inserters. After months of designing, building, and testing with our vendor partner BlueCrest, IWCO is installing our first custom-built Epic inserter in our Chanhassen facility. By September of this year, we will have eight of these high-speed, multi-functional machines up and running across our platform.
These multi-function inserters are impressive on many levels, but one thing we’re particularly excited about is their ability to more fully leverage our new HP digital presses so we can create exciting new designs that allow our clients’ mailpieces to stand out in the mailbox and grab the attention of their prospects and customers.
The combined strength of our production ingenuity, data-driven insights, and creative best practices will maximize return on marketing investment (ROMI) across all marketing channels.
This is Just the Beginning
We’re very excited by the progress we’ve made in transforming IWCO to date, but this is just the beginning of a multi-initiative strategic plan that will offer highly innovative and efficient direct marketing solutions to our clients while accelerating the speed from data to delivery. Watch for more announcements on how we’re elevating marketing performance and expanding products and services for our clients. Like I said, exciting times!
