By Kay Wilt

Welcome to Johnson & Quin’s blog!  As the person who is responsible for publishing the blog and making sure we have interesting, educational, timely information. . .it’s great, but a bit scary to press ‘publish’ on this first post!  Now we’re committed to keeping the blog fresh and timely.  But hey, we’re going to do our best to keep this fun, as well as informative.

First a bit of information on the name of the blog – Quintessentials.   J&Q’s marketing has evolved over the past year, including –

• Ongoing updates to our website, www.j-quin.com
• Creating content in the form of white papers, videos and infographics to provide direct marketing information to our clients, potential new clients and industry partners
• Developing a communication plan to spread that knowledge.

Every one of our staff members are key to the success of the company, and I wanted to update them on our marketing activities.  We invited the entire company to a premier of our ‘Postal Myths’ video, provided the popcorn, and had a fun Marketing & Sales Update Meeting. A contest was announced to name our new blog, and many of our employees provided a wide range of creative ideas.

The winner was Brian Steck with “Johnson & Quintessential News”!  Brian is a member of the Account Management Department where he manages many of our client programs, working closely with clients to understand their program requirements and translating all those critical details into instructions to our IT and production staff.

Congratulations to Brian Steck for winning the “Name J&Q’s Blog Contest”!

The creative team updated Brian’s original name slightly by honing in on the key word – ‘Quintessentials’ which is an amazing word and fit our blog’s purpose perfectly.

The definition of quintessential is “the pure and essential essence of something or the most perfect type or example” or “the most typical example or representative”. 

I also loved this intriguing definition of quintessential – “the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies”. But this blog is about direct marketing, so the first definition won.

The goal of the blog is to provide J&Q’s perspective on the “essential essence” of all things direct marketing.  In other words, we plan to provide industry updates, as well as our thoughts and opinions, and occasionally other expert industry opinions on topics that will interest you and your colleagues.  Topics will include direct mail production tips, postal information, integrating direct mail with other online channels, print and the environment, data security, social media and more.

Look for more blog posts to come, and let me know if you have any topics that you would like to hear more about.  We look forward to hearing from you!