Case Studies:

Occidental Petroleum Corporation Looks To Burdge For A Legal Re-Branding

Robin Carlson, Manager of Publications for Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), was tasked with the assignment of standardizing and consolidating brand use on business cards and other stationery throughout an organization that had undergone dramatic change following a series of acquisitions and divestitures.

In addition the use of the Oxy logo, associated graphics and data positioning on the cards was all over the map.

Burdge Inc, which had been printing for the corporate headquarters in Los Angeles for many years with an online ordering site, was contacted to lend assistance to standardize and streamline the new branding process. A third party to the project was Baker Design Communications of Santa Monica. 

Robin started the process with the Baker team, refining the new brand styles that would incorporate all of the needed data – company names, subsidiary tags, employee titles, address lines, phone fields, e-mail choices, etc.

When these style types were laid out in front of the Burdge team the challenge was apparent. Would it be possible to incorporate all of the variations and nuances into an online ordering engine so Oxy’s new brand rules would be “locked” in place for every possibility? In addition there were differences on the back-end procurement needs since OxyChem personnel were required to pay for orders using a purchase card.

Bill Schiller, Burdge corporate accounts manager remembers how the solution took shape. “In our next meeting Burdge presented an outline, or tree, of what the site architecture would need to look like to accomplish Oxy’s goals. We agreed that the solution required three separate sites to make everything go. Over the next several weeks Burdge worked with Baker to load the sites with the new graphical files for business cards, letterheads, envelopes and labels. Baker and Robin Carlson also gave us input on the overall look, feel and user experience.

“The result is a smashing functional and visual success,” Schiller concludes. “Now all three main entities of the Oxy family can combine their purchasing power and know that they are always within brand standards.”

“The online site insures that all of the work Robin Carlson and Baker Design Communications put into this project will not be unraveled in short order by buyers and printers around the country. She will retain central control over the brand with a single point of contact.”

 

Fluor Contracts with Burdge for Stationery Needs Worldwide

How do you improve the image of a brand as recognized as Fluor? If you’re Burdge, Inc., you apply the same strategy used in all its customer relationships.

“We’re rarely used as order takers,” Bill Schiller says of his customer experience. “Our expertise is sought to problem solve whether its applying new printing techniques or dealing with budget constraints.”

Jane Fletcher-Saginaw, director of corporate marketing communications for Fluor appreciated this approach and has contracted with Burdge for all of its corporate stationery needs on a worldwide basis.

Her decision was made after reviewing presentations made by three printing companies, all who offered online stationery ordering. Burdge demonstrated how the brand standards could be locked in globally.   There is even a way for the end user to select from multiple languages on the Burdge site to read their ordering instructions. Their choice of platforms gave us just what we needed to lock in our brand.

While the simplicity of the Burdge on-line program was clearly superior, Ms. Saginaw didn’t award the contract solely on that basis. 

“Burdge made a lot of recommendations that we didn’t ask for but were very welcomed,” she recalled.

Among the improvements implemented were the selection of a weightier paper with a different finish and engraving the familiar blue Fluor logo rather than having it lithographed on the new stock.

The latest wave of suggestions, currently under consideration, is a customized card for seasonal greetings at year-end.

Appraising her brief experience with Burdge, Ms. Saginaw concluded, “We’re very pleased with the level of service we continue to receive.”

 

Toyota on the Road to Savings Using Burdge Online Stationery Site

Since Burdge, Inc. implemented an online stationery-ordering site in 1998, its international clients like Toyota and Fluor have been able to control brand, consolidate spending and provide their satellite offices with faster service and greater accuracy on their orders.

In addition to multi-national companies, the online ordering service is being used by mid-sized organizations and businesses that have experienced trouble in maintaining brand or getting timely service.

Cara O’Connor, corporate accounts manager for Burdge says, "Most large corporate printers offer an online service.  “But for customers to realize the value triangle of reduced order time, increased accuracy and maximum savings, a specific system has to be created that is in tune with their individual business needs. Our staff has the expertise to provide this service as was recently done for Toyota and Fluor.”

Facilitating the process are various platforms that already exist in the Burdge stable. They offer features ranging from simple stationery ordering to combined stationery and static-item fulfillment, as well as modules for direct mail printing. “The future holds many additional opportunities for cost savings for Burdge online customers,” O’Connor promises.

Once in place, ordering online is reduced to just a few elementary steps.  Clients need only to choose the product they need, their location and enter their variable information like phone numbers and e-mail address. A proof is immediately produced for their approval and they then proceed to "check-out" and tell us where and how to ship the order.

"We were with a large national printer that promised quality and didn’t deliver, promised fast turnaround and delivered in 6 weeks, and promised an on-line solution that never worked.” According to Maria Tirado, Graphics Services Manager at Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc.  “ Since moving our business to Burdge, Inc. the quality of products has improved 100%, our turnaround is within a week, and their on-line procurement system has saved us over 700 hours of internal processing time."