When Jeff and Nonette Saville
started Direct Impression Business Services out of their garage
about five years ago, the steady use of the copy machines heated
their "office."
But the Savilles' direct mail company has expanded far beyond
them wondering how they'll keep their employees warm. Keeping up
with Direct Impression's growing clientele has proved the biggest
challenge.
In order to keep up with their growth, the Savilles last week
sold Direct Impression to Flagstaff Publishing Co., which produces
the Arizona Daily Sun and azdailysun.com Web site, Flagstaff Live!
and Mountain Living publications. Terms of the acquisition were not
disclosed, though Jeff Saville signed a three-year agreement to
continue as DIBS general manager.
"Our expansion and growth is going beyond our capital, we're
broadening much further beyond Flagstaff. We decided to sell to keep
up with the technology and the ability to better serve our clients,"
he said.
Direct Impression, with its e-commerce subsidiary DirectReps.com,
serves more than 300 businesses in northern Arizona, Prescott,
Tucson and Telluride, Colo. The company's focus is improving
customer service, mainly by targeting specific demographics for
customer direct-mail lists, speeding up customer transactions and
tracking company inventories.
Direct Impression has the capability of producing 30,000 pieces
of mail per hour, targeted very specific demographics. Under
Flagstaff Publishing, Saville hopes to develop "point of sale"
technology for DIBS clients, which would allow the client to
instantaneously track what type of customer is buying their product
from where.
Direct Impression's ability to track product placement and
purchases will streamline Flagstaff Publishing's client advertising
through its local publications, said Steve Saville, sales and
marketing director.
"What Jeff's company is going to be able to provide us is the
information behind the customers. Then we will be able to package
that in a way that we can go to an auto dealer, real estate, grocery
store/retail chain and say, 'Here is exactly who is receiving your
advertising materials, and this is how they're receiving it,'" said
Steve Saville, Jeff's brother.
This is the first acquisition of a direct mail business by
Flagstaff Publishing's parent company, Pulitzer Inc. of St. Louis.
"This is something that is pretty much thinking outside the box
as far as daily newspapers go. If this is successful over the next
year, they're gong to look at acquiring direct mail companies in
other markets to support what's going on in the daily newspapers and
the rest of their marketing efforts," Steve Saville said.
Some of Direct Impression's most notable clients include Cliff
Castle Casino, Teva Sport Sandals, Citizens Utilities, Lowell
Observatory, Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, Grand Canyon Association
and Grand Canyon Trust
Besides the Arizona Daily Sun, Pulitzer Inc.'s newspaper
operations include two major metropolitan dailies, the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, and 11 other
dailies.
