The recession has produced some soft months for the owner of Penney and Company Marketing, but it's got him thinking hard about how he can keep his name out there by doing more for individual clients.
"What else can we give this client that shouldn't cost them anything?"
For a local real estate firm, that means preparing floor plans and photo services in a brochure to showcase properties. "It gives the buyer something to walk out with instead of a sell sheet with prices."
The 50-year North Bay businessman has dusted off and revived his old company name after a short-lived partnership as Penney Cooper Marketing Design.
Together with wife Linda, who handles the financials, and production artist/designer Katrina Violette, they run a full-service creative firm that will brand a client's message or logo in print, billboards, broadcast, trade show displays, promotional items, web design or multi-media presentations.
"What companies need in this climate is something extra to offer their customers."
The three-employee firm is run out of a renovated Main Street West brown brick home. The couple's living quarters are in an addition out back.
Brother Kevin, who was once on the payroll, runs his own marketing firm in Newfoundland, and handles the overflow.
The company name originated from his grandfather's dry goods business on the harbour docks of St. John's, Newfoundland where he sold wares to visiting sailors and fleets.
A 1980 graduate of Canadore College's graphic design program, Penney came west to North Bay in the late 1970s after working as a labourer at the Carol Lake iron mine in Labrador.
For a graphic designer, Penney admits he doesn't have a great artistic flair.
"I can't draw a bloody thing," said Penney, who considers himself a concept guy.
He worked 13 years for Fedeli Advertising, a "top notch" firm then headed by current Mayor Vic Fedeli and with a client base that included Nipissing University, Northern and Central Gas, and mining supplier J. S. Redpath.
Penney struck on his own in 1992 after the company was sold to new owners. The clients followed him.
"I was very fortunate those clients wanted to stick with me and without them I couldn't have survived."
After running Penney and Company for 15 years, he entered a short-lived merger with partner Marcus Cooper.
The business relationship dissolved last November, but their brief two-year run produced a couple of prestigious Summit International Awards, including one for a Canadore College recruiting campaign. Last fall, they also picked up a North Bay Chamber of Commerce Success Story Award.
These days, Penney is concentrating his attention on the bevy of local businesses and organizations in North Bay. Some are financial planning firms, public organizations like the Local Health Integration Network, area school boards and health units, and major manufacturers that export mining equipment.
Coming up with the right promo or marketing campaign to satisfy each client's objectives provides a constant invigorating challenge. There are always budget and creative constraints in finding ways to reach an intended market in the most effective way.
This year he really wants to focus on reaching out to small business to help them get their individual message out through direct mailing or promo items. He hopes to stage a few seminars to drum up business as a marketing consultant.
Back before there were personal computers, webcasts and such a thing as 'New Media,' organizing and laying out promotional campaigns was much more of a labour-intensive affair with typesetting and paste-up done by hand.
Today, with so many tools available to send information within a few mouse clicks, clients are more sophisticated in wanting "instant gratification" in the technology and the delivery.
But the creative process still begins with pencil and paper, and sitting down with a client. "That hasn't changed," said Penney. "It's all relationship-building."
