Marketing the marketer
Josh Golden joined Quad two years ago as CMO. He said his first job was “figuring out what the story is and understanding what makes us special.” Quadracci says Golden’s job “is to yell [the Quad story] from the rooftops.”
After getting the word out at scale with the new “Built by Quad” campaign, Golden says the next step is to drill down, client by client.
“Creative agencies deliver great creative, but they don’t make anything. Consultancies provide great suggestions, but it’s sometimes very hard to execute,” said Golden, adding that Quad, as a marketing solutions company is “effectively, a third category.”
Golden says he’ll measure success with awareness tools, hoping to send the message that Quad is “an ideas company” that helps marketers “in multiple places in the journey.”
It’s the economy
Having weathered the great recession, Quadracci is keeping a close eye on current economic challenges.
“Never waste an uncomfortable economic environment, because that’s when our clients need the most help,” Quadracci says. “Marketers I talk to say, ‘okay, my budget’s being cut, but I have to be more effective.’ That plays right into both sides of our offering,” he says.
A consolidation of the legacy print business, what Quadracci calls “the non-sexy part of the business,” continues to help the bottom line and creates “a nice buffer for whatever’s happening,” says Quadracci, whose family maintains 80% voting control of the publicly-traded company, even though the family’s stake is now around 30%.
Culture is key
When Harry Quadracci created Quad in 1971 he did so with the goal of building a company “with a soul.” Joel Quadracci carries on that legacy.
“We’ve been very much about making sure we get the right talent. We have very low turnover at the high level,” he says. In addition to Golden, the company hired Julie Currie from Nielsen as CRO. “When they come hear the story, they’re like, ‘why didn’t we know about this place?’”
