THE CHALLENGE

A national telecommunications company launching a major marketing campaign to promote their newly developed Internet services.

THE SOLUTION: Media Replication & Assembly

Q•Media replicated promotional CD-ROMs and diskettes, and then assembled the final point-of-purchase retail packages using customer-supplied print materials. The final packages were then shipped to the customer’s centralized warehouse, which distributed the product to company-owned retail outlets along with other collateral material and accessories.

GROWTH AND CHANGE: Inventory Management

With the success of this initial promotion, our customer’s Internet services began to gain market traction, requiring a broader distribution program that included traditional wholesale/retail channels and additional national retailing outlets.

To achieve this goal, the product would have to better target various buyer segments by incorporating stronger merchandising elements including:

• Eye-catching packaging designed for the highly competitive retail shelf environment;
• Flexible systems and packaging that allowed for the rapid addition and customization of marketing and promotional material such as toys, software and accessories.

This product would also be expected to accommodate cross-promotional activities, thereby allowing the customer to piggyback sales of other accessories. This presented several challenges, since the product profile and delivery model would require significant reconfiguration. The SKU (stock keeping unit) became more complex and the speed of change intensified, while effective inventory management became a critical function for both efficient delivery and cost containment.

Meanwhile, distribution grew increasingly complex with more channels and multiple SKUs. The result was an increasingly complex product and expanding distribution channels that was beyond the customer’s internal infrastructure and business model.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT TO FULFILLMENT

Leveraging Q•Media’s expertise in preparing technology products for market, the company contracted Q•Media to manage the production of the entire retail box, including the:

• Planning and procurement of all raw materials and accessory parts related to special promotions internal production of printed materials and media replication;
• Inventory management of raw materials and finished products;
• Distribution and fulfillment of those products to the client’s internal distribution points, third party wholesalers, and major retail chains.

Relying on Q•Media’s comprehensive order-fulfillment program, this national telecommunications company would now have product to market within 10 days of sign-off on final product design. In addition, the customer eliminated the need to commit internal management resources to this non-core activity.

As an additional benefit, Q•Media identified significant delays in the design and print production process, streamlining the preprint film process and eliminating another 8 days from the product launch cycle.

COMPLETE PRODUCT: Integrated Supply Chain Services

Following further market success, the customer decided to evolve the product to provide a complete "out-of-box" Internet services solution for the consumer. By incorporating the required modem hardware, consumers would be able to install the internet service by themselves.

Initially, Q•Media was asked only to provide the retail box. However, further investigation revealed that by also assembling the retail box and modem, we could shorten delivery time by 5 days, which represented a 30% improvement in the cycle. Working directly with the modem supplier to manage the hardware inventory, we assembled the modem and operating manual with retail software packages for delivery to the wholesale channel.

For most technology or publishing companies, focusing on core competencies means leaving the procurement, printing, replication, fulfillment and inventory management to the specialists. Q•Media’s supply chain services enabled this national telecommunications company to control costs, streamline production and deliver the goods.