Assimilate or Die—CustomXM's Real-life Transformation Story

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Paul Strack, President of CustomXM, about how his company has dealt with the rapid transformations in the printing industry. CustomXM, formerly Custom Printing Company, is a family-owned operation in North Little Rock, Arkansas that has successfully transitioned from a traditional offset printing company to a provider of integrated printing and marketing services. Paul will be one of the speakers at the 2013 Integrated Print Forum in May, where he’ll share the story of his company’s successful transition.

When and why did the company change its name? Do you still consider yourself a "printer" today?

The name change occurred in 2007/2008. Our company had been evolving over the years and we wanted to highlight more of our new capabilities. Based on where we thought the industry and our work was going, we felt that we needed to communicate our ability to provide cross-media marketing. Print is still the main engine driving our company and it makes up probably 30-40% of our revenue. However, we are seeing significant growth in other areas like fulfillment and marketing services.

How did your existing customers react to the name change? Did the new name help in attracting new customers?

It’s funny because existing customers were somewhat confused when they received their invoices and the company name and logo had changed. In hindsight, perhaps we could have provided more advance communication about the change. But in a way the change was a door opening opportunity, because it gave us a chance to explain to existing customers that we could do more than they thought.

I think new customers started to become aware of our marketing services when we got involved in social media. Whether it was Twitter or Facebook, it opened us up to a whole new audience who didn’t know us from our “print-only” days. At first, I handled most of the social media outreach. But recently one of our newer hires (a sales rep) has gotten involved on Twitter and Facebook.