Bulldog Marketing Technologies (BMT) is a data-driven marketing firm based in the Midwest. BMT's broad client base includes some of the largest automotive dealer groups in the country, as well as over seventy-five car dealerships, and a national restaurant chain with over 150 franchises. Following is a short interview with Mike Staebell, Creative Director for BMT, discussing how DesignMerge has helped meet their unique challenges with a solution that has resulted in increased profits and expanding business opportunities.
Providing highly personalized communications is BMT's top priority. Our automotive product line features a wide range of variable print formats including brochures, postcards, self-mailers, and letters. DesignMerge makes it easy to tailor these formats for the intended recipient, resulting in customized vehicle proposals and trade information, personalized quotes, and even service reminders. These highly personalized communications help to familiarize the customer with automotive options before they even visit the dealership; and result in higher retention rates, and a faster, more efficient sales process for the dealer.

- What business challenges have you faced in the VDP market?
One of the biggest challenges we have faced is maintaining each client's brand identity in a single print run. Many dealers and auto manufacturers require custom imagery and specific color usage in their marketing materials. DesignMerge allows us to create swatches, logos, and other imagery specific to a given client, and apply them using the DesignMerge rules palette. By avoiding "hard-coded" images and colors in our InDesign templates, we're able to run a large number of records in a single print run, producing pieces for numerous manufacturers and dealerships while maintaining brand standards for each.
     
- Why did you choose DesignMerge for your VDP implementation?
BMT chose DesignMerge because it gives our creative department the ability to design attractive and effective print pieces that are personalized to each of our clients' customers. It also allows us to generate print-ready PPML files that can be sent to many different printers nationwide. This saves us turn-around time, postage, and production costs, and gives us an opportunity to shop around for the best pricing in a given region. For in-house print jobs, we've found that the DesignMerge cut/stack mode allows us to print address panels directly onto the postcards that we produce, saving us time, money and hassle.
     
- What were the results of your DesignMerge implementation?
Since we began implementing DesignMerge, we've thrown out our postage ink jetter and have enjoyed faster production, lower costs, and most importantly, more effective marketing materials for our clients. We are very pleased with our decision to choose DesignMerge for our variable data needs!