mediaXchange 2011: Affinity Express Helps Newspapers Transform Their Business

March 30, 2011 by 2 Comments

I was at mediaXchange last week with President of Creative Services David Grant. The event could have easily been named, “It’s the Digital, Dummy,” because that’s about all that was discussed. Virtually every exhibitor and speaker focused on the predominance of online content—both editorial and advertising. At times, there was a tone of desperation (“Why haven’t newspapers figured this out yet?”) but it was tempered with optimistic sessions delivered by those who have found a way to capture and retain new online consumers and, perhaps most importantly, how to move online toward being the primary revenue stream for newspapers. Read more of this post

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The Future of Affinity Express: Business and Function Leaders Weigh In

March 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

As we continue to refine and expand upon our strategy for the next few years, I thought it’s a good time to touch base with our business and function leaders and ask them for their views about the company. Participating in this candid chat about the circumstances and future of Affinity Express are President of Advertising Services David McTarnaghan (McT), President of Pune Operations Sunil Garde (SG), Chief Technology Officer Frank Dickinson (FD), Chief Digital Officer David Kang (DK), Vice President of Global Human Resources Tinna Hall (TH) and Vice President of Pre-media Operations Mike Marinos (MM).

When you were first considering joining Affinity Express, what did you find inspiring or exciting about the company and its possibilities? Read more of this post

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Review Time? 6 Tips for Managers

March 25, 2011 by Leave a comment

Does Your Review Meeting Look Like This?It’s that time of year when we are going through the formal employee review process at Affinity Express. The employee review process is intended to let all personnel know the company’s business goals, link individual objectives to department and corporate objectives, provide detailed feedback on performance, communicate what is expected for the next year and encourage positive contributions to the company and to employees’ own career growth.

However, this can be a stressful time for many employees and managers. Here are some tips I have shared with team leaders and managers at Affinity Express, that might help you too, to ensure that your performance review process is less stressful and more effective for you and your team. Read more of this post

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Build Teamwork in Six Steps

March 23, 2011 by 1 Comment

No matter what business you are in or your specific role, you rely on teamwork. Do you want the telephone answered professionally and the proper information conveyed? Does your website need to be updated to reflect new pricing? Is your computer acting up? Are parts needed from an outside supplier to meet a client deadline? Should billing be sped up so you can collect accounts receivables faster each month?

Whatever the requirement, you can’t achieve the goals of your function or for your company without inspiring and reinforcing teamwork constantly.

In the case of Affinity Express, we have to keep more than nine hundred employees, who are scattered across several different offices in three continents, feeling like they are part of the same team and pulling in the same direction.

As our CEO Ken Swanson pointed out, building teamwork is no easy task. And it is one that never ends. Based on our experience, here are some ways you can improve teamwork in your environment. Read more of this post

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Using Design to Differentiate a Small Business

March 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

To a creative person, there is nothing like getting a new assignment: the possibilities, the potential and, of course, the deadline. While it is exciting, it is also finite. The deadline must be met and the message must be served. That’s why a creative brief is so crucial. I wanted to share with you a campaign I created and take you through the thought process.

The client is Sakura, a Japanese steak house located in Columbus, Ohio. For years they have been running ads featuring some sort of price and item special, just like everyone else in the category. When the sales rep came to me she explained she wanted to bring them something new, more of a branding campaign—a campaign that would separate Sakura from all the other Japanese steak houses, as well as other restaurants in their price point in the area. Read more of this post

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Pre-media Services Meet an Important Need for Retailers

March 18, 2011 by 3 Comments

Affinity Express is always evaluating new services and segments that can benefit from our solutions. In the past year, we engaged major retailers such as SuperValu and Ivie & Associates and print providers for retailers to deliver pagination and image editing for flyers, posters, in-store signage and aisle markers.

Pre-Media Services for Retailers

An in-store sign created by our team

We have been so successful to date because Affinity Express offers the best of both worlds, combining offshore and onshore resources. We also have a flexible and thorough approach to outsourcing; evaluating current client processes and workflows and facilitating the methodical transition of work to dedicated production resources.  Read more of this post

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

March 17, 2011 by Leave a comment

Embroidery Digitizing Sample: St. Patrick'sErin go Bragh and happy St. Patrick’s Day. As we enjoy some corned beef and cabbage and exchange our favorite recipes for Irish soda bread, we wanted to share some designs in the spirit of the holiday. What is the craziest green food or drink you’ve had on this occasion—green beer, green cookies, green bagels?

(And here are some designs from our embroidery digitizing, vector artwork and print advertising teams.) Read more of this post

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11 Tips for Managing Virtual Teams

March 16, 2011 by 10 Comments

Video Conferences are a great way to keep in touch with remote teams!It’s great to have a team reporting to you that is like one big family all working toward a common goal . . . but easier said than done, especially in this global economy. In fact, it’s been more than a decade since I was able to sit in the same room with my direct reports every day. Most recently, I’ve managed a department in upstate New York from Atlanta, one in New York City from Atlanta and, now, one in India and the Philippines from Elgin, Illinois!

The first thing to know is that, when building a virtual team, you have to search for different qualifications than you otherwise might. Employees must be more mature (in terms of work habits) and independent. Those that have to be micromanaged or are weak on problem-solving tend to flounder in this kind of environment.

But even if you have the best team members with all of the right traits and experience, a virtual team poses numerous challenges. Although you might have overseen outside agencies, technology providers and other companies, this is a different relationship. With internal personnel, you have the added challenge of building teamwork and enhancing employee satisfaction. If you don’t take proactive measures, your department will be a revolving door with people leaving faster than you can hire and train them.

With that in mind, here are few lessons I’ve learned that may help you oversee your virtual teams effectively, as well as improve relationships with employees right in your office. Read more of this post

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Ten Common Mistakes in Business Card Design

March 14, 2011 by 5 Comments

Affinity Express designs business cards for many small businesses. If you own or work with a small business, take a hard look at your card. If you don’t want your business card to convey how competent and professional you are, feel free to make any or all of these mistakes in designing your business card.

1.  Cram too much information into your card.

Sample Business Card With Too Much Text

This card incorporates #1 and #10

Want to cram everything anyone might ever want to know about your business onto that tiny rectangle of paper? Use a small font size so you can add more text and cover as much of the surface of the card as you can. Who cares about making it easy to read? Your business card should contain everything, even if you have to provide a map to find your phone number on it. Read more of this post

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Artwork and Digitizing Client Spotlight: Heritage Print Solutions

March 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

For Bob Patterson, High Volumes Caused New Problems

Sample Design: Ridge Club

Vector Design Created by Affinity Express for Heritage Print Solutions

Robert Patterson of Heritage Print Solutions has only been in the industry for about a year and a half. When he started with the company, he took a new approach and led sales with promotional products and apparel versus printing; providing value-added services in response to customer demand. Because of this approach, the volume of layouts and imprints increased significantly.

With only one person on the internal team who could work on these files, the company began to experience a backlog that slowed down revenue. Capacity was exceeded and it became labor-intensive to create vector files and/or request them from clients, who often had only jpgs.

On top of that, customers sometimes balked at the cost of having the files created. Heritage Print Solutions accounts expected their provider to do the art and absorb the extra cost. Read more of this post

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Happy Women’s Day

March 8, 2011 by 3 Comments

Sample Design: Woman in EmbroideryToday is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. To celebrate, we interviewed several executives at Affinity Express to find out what makes them successful and what advice they have for the rest of us. The participants are: Vice President of Global Finance and Accounting Andrea de Castro, Vice President of Operations Kristin Meidell, Vice President of Graphic Production and Support Services Joanna Grant, Vice President of Global Human Resources Tinna Hall, Vice President of Marketing Kelly Glass and Director of New Client Implementation Kellie Blaisdell.

It’s clear that, despite the variety of disciplines in which they work and the different backgrounds they bring to their roles at Affinity Express, these women share a common outlook.

They attribute their success to persistence and flexibility, while appreciating that their current environment allows them learn and exposes them to new opportunities. On a daily basis, they work so hard because they find contributing to larger goals and solving problems fulfilling. Their greatest accomplishments revolve around mentoring other team members; in essence, passing the torch onto others.

Whether you work for Affinity Express or not, I hope you’ll find their comments both insightful and helpful, regardless of where you might be in your career.

What is the one achievement in your career so far of which you are most proud? Read more of this post

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Tips for Business Emails: Sending the Email

March 4, 2011 by Leave a comment

(The previous two posts in this series: addressing the email and drafting the email)

Be careful before you hit send!This last post covers just four basic tips you can use to prevent an email you sent from coming back and hitting you with embarrassment.

Be prompt.

Many of us are connected most of the time. We check emails on our phone when we’re not attached to the computer. We want fast results. And with the volume of email everyone gets, issues can sometimes get buried under the pile. For all these reasons, it’s a good idea to reply to emails (that have you in the “To” box) promptly. If you will take some time to work on the issue mentioned in the email, say so, so that the other person knows when to expect a resolution.

Proofread before sending.

How basic, right? Yet you’d be surprised at how often people ignore this rule. I do too, sometimes, when I’m in a hurry—and almost always, when I’ve hit send before reading through what I’ve written, I look at that email later and cringe. Even when it’s a basic one-line email to your co-workers, it helps to spend a few seconds to read it through. And if it’s a message to a new client—read it over twice, and then ask your colleague who sits next to you to come over and take a look too. Read more of this post

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5 Tips for a Complex Sales Process

March 2, 2011 by 2 Comments

Sales meetingMy last post talked about the value of salespeople and how they help clients and their companies achieve important goals. This time I’ll focus on the role of salespeople in a relationship model, common to many business-to-business and outsourcing arrangements.

Salespeople must match the value of their product to the needs of their clients. This means all salespeople don’t perform the same activities or require exactly the same skills: it really depends on your industry and your company’s offerings and culture.

Most people are familiar with the transactional sales model. This is normally associated with low-priced, low-margin products in exchanges that require minimal effort by either side. The salesperson does little, if any, analysis on his or her clients and basically processes orders from those who are interested. There is no customer service after the sale (and sales and customer service are usually separate functions), nor is relationship-building required.

At the opposite end of the sales spectrum is the enterprise sale. This type of process is central to the creation and implementation of outsourcing partnerships and many other complex deals. It requires a high degree of effort from the salesperson to know their clients’ businesses and assess their needs. Decisions are typically made by teams versus individuals. Since a successful partnership is a long-term venture; trust, loyalty and confidence have to be established and maintained with all of the participants. And to forge a mutually-beneficial situation, the salesperson must be transparent in communications and execution so that all parties are comfortable and apprised on activities.

When entering into an enterprise-type sales process, there is potential for problems even if you are the best salesperson available to manage and facilitate the relationship.

Here is my advice. Read more of this post

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