A local CD duplication and replication firm is leveraging its knowledge of technology and media to enable businesses large and small to streamline their communications, provide added value to customers and promote quality products through cutting edge digital media. Great Lakes Media Technology Inc. (GLMT), based in Mequon, has more than 10 years of experience in creating audio and video presentations for clients on CDs and DVDs. In the past few years, GLMT account managers, product developers and programmers have worked to inspire clients to do more with their initial ideas.
“Using digital media is affordable and is a great driver to a company Web site and sales,” said Tim Schoonenberg, regional account manager for GLMT. “We can get 10,000 discs in a customer’s hands for $1 a piece.”
GLMT is also one of the only firms like it that operates in-house manufacturing of CDs and DVDs, Schoonenberg said.
Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton Corp. utilized GLMT’s production expertise a few years ago to transfer sales pitch books previously housed in four-inch thick three-ring binders to a CD with a customizable slide presentation and video clips.
The CD pitch books were produced for the 70 salespeople located across the country who meet with 40 to 50 dealers within each of their territories. The books were used for annual presentations that salespeople make to dealers regarding the upcoming lines of tractors, mowers and accessories for Simplicity Manufacturing Inc. and Snapper, divisions of Briggs & Stratton.
The meetings normally last about three hours, and a lot of information is communicated, said Dick Marcellus, vice president of marketing for the yard power products group at Briggs & Stratton.
GLMT created an application on the CD to enable salespeople to customize a presentation for each dealer by changing the order of the slides or withholding certain slides. Because Briggs & Stratton created the slides, the company ensures control and consistency with its brand identification while allowing salespeople to create presentations unique to the individual dealer.
“The salespeople work with the dealers to plan yearly business with us, walk through the ordering process, setting goals and objectives on what the dealers will do with our products during the coming year,” Marcellus said. “With the computer, the presentation is slick. The salesperson can just go to the menu to find a slide instead of shuffling through a bunch of papers.”
GLMT started working with Milwaukee-based 800-CEO-READ, about six months ago to provide an added value to both the books that the company sells to corporations and as an incentive to those who have attended a speaker series.
GLMT creates CDs with the aid of 800-CEO-READ and the authors of the business-related books. The CDs are either inserted into the book and sold in bulk as a special edition or sent to attendees of an 800-CEO-READ speaker series with clips from the presentation, said Jon Mueller, who works in product development for GLMT.
The CDs are custom-made and include essays from authors, a note from Jack Covert, founder of 800-CEO-READ, a few video clips of the author speaking and possibly a podcast with an author interview or other accompanying material the recipient would find useful, Mueller said.
Because 800-CEO-READ focuses on buying books from publishers and selling them to businesses in bulk, making customized copies is not a new concept for the firm, Todd Sattersten, vice president of 800-CEO-REA said.
Prior to working with GLMT, the customization was from the purchasing company side and included tipping on pages in the book with a note from a business owner to employees or including a sticker of an event sponsor or business on the book. But 800-CEO-READ had never customized books by collaborating with the author before working with GLMT. It is the kind of special addition that the niche market is looking for, Sattersten said.
“I use the analogy that what happens in business books is the same as the music industry,” Sattersten said. “People get excited hearing the message directly and seeing the person live. For some people, the audio and visual message works well and some people want to read the whole book. It is about working to the medium that works best in terms of how people learn.”
800-CEO-READ has already had success from including a customized CD with “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and “Citizen Marketers,” by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, Mueller said.
“Attendees of an event get an ongoing benefit from it because they can hear the speaker, get a copy of the book and they are kept connected when they receive the CD,” Mueller said. “It gives 800-CEO-READ a way to stay in front of their customers.”
Elizabeth Hockerman is a reporter for Small Business Times. Send technology news to her at elizabeth.hockerman@biz-times.com or by calling her at (414) 277-8181, ext. 121. Technology news can also be sent to: Elizabeth Hockerman, Small Business Times, 1123 N. Water St., Milwaukee, WI 53202.
