Listen to this article

Date: August 7, 1991

Title: Top 20/ Hann & DePalmer

Landis Hann calls traditional mass-mailings “marketing with a shotgun.” What Hann, along with partner Robert DePalmer, do for dozens of blue-chip clients is high-powered marketing marksmanship, or, as Hann refers to it, “marketing support service.”

Perhaps an even better description of Hann & DePalmer would simply be successful. The firm logged 42% growth last year in a recession that was not kind to its industry.

Hann & DePalmer brings together two related industries under one huge warehouse roof on Engelhard Drive in Cranbury: materials distribution and database-management. The company uses the one to train the sights of the other. For the Holland-America Cruise Line, for example, Hann & DePalmer targeted a mailing of brochures to 35,000 travel agents nationwide. The company kept track of which travel agents booked cruises and kept them in the database, while agents who did not were dropped. Eventually, through this continual honing of the list, only what Hann calls “influencers” remain, and Holland-American can now target information or provide perks only to those most likely to respond.

For the Sony Corporation of America, Hann & DePalmer keeps a database on what sales literature each of its 9,000 dealers need. Says DePalmer, “If someone is a car stereo dealer and doesn”t deal with televisions, we would only send him detailed information on car stereos.”

Hann & DePalmer makes a total of 6,000 to 7,000 shipments a day from its office-warehouse in the Centerpoint complex. That office-warehouse itself is a major advantage to Hann & DePalmer. According to DePalmer, many of their competitors were originally in the printing business and are saddled with inefficient multi-story buildings.

Both Hann and DePalmer were senior vice presidents at Trenton”s Hibbert Group, another marketing support services firm, before resigning in a corporate shake-up in 1988. “Neither of us had thought about building a business together,” says Hann. “But we sat together for three or four weeks and said, ”What else are we going to do?”.”

Since they brought the same skills–sales and marketing–to their new business, the pair hired outsiders to do much of the planning for the business side of the operation. Partnerships where the two partners bring the same skills to the venture tend to be unstable, since the corporate hierarchy becomes confused because the two bosses are sharing the same territory. But, somehow, Hann and DePalmer have avoided divisive in-fighting and have been able to make their company grow.

And grow it has. The firm, just three years old, now employs 86 people. To keep those employees happy, healthy and learning, Hann & Depalmer has instituted both a wellness program and a mandatory two hours a week of training during the workday, either technical–to learn a work-place skill–or remedial–to help with reading, writing or math skills.

Many of Hann & DePalmer”s employees have no shortage of skills, though. Three retirement communities, including Rossmoor, are located nearby, and the company was savvy enough to tap gray-power for dozens of employees. Hann says his older workers display a work ethic that is seldom seen in younger people.

Hann attributes his company”s success during the economic downturn to several factors. The first is the cutting-edge level of technical support that it offers. The second is the sheer size of the company”s clients. Hann & DePalmer serves Fortune-500 firms from Seattle to London, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sony, Johnson & Johnson, Avis, Holland-America, Intercontinental Hotels, US Health Care and BMW. Even in hard times,such blue-chip companies are less likely to cut back on their marketing programs than smaller firms.

Service has been another key to success. “Everybody believes in quality service,” says Hann. “But it”s how well you practice it that counts.” Hann and DePalmer calls its treatment of clients “tender, loving care,” and customers seem to appreciate it. Says Lauren Taber, manager of clients at Sony: “They”re incredibly well organized.” That is a vital asset for Sony since Hann & DePalmer mails up to 325,000 copies of some documents. Taber has been especially impressed by the relationship between Hann & DePalmer and her own company. “We have an account person there with whom we”ve worked for years who knows our business inside and out.”

Hann & DePalmer”s goal when they founded their company was to build the best marketing support services firm in the Northeast. Now their horizon is expanding, and Hann admits he and his partner are considering expanding to Florida or California. “Whatever we do,” he promises, “we won”t coast.” z