Parker & Partners Marketing Resource

Sizzling steaks and distinguished wine cellars! State-of-the-art stereotactic radio surgery! World-renowned golf courses! Incentives to save on utilities! Awe-inspiring art and photography! With stellar hospitals, museums, vacation hot spots and restaurants, South Jersey certainly has a lot to scream about, but it takes a certain sales-savvy to give unique businesses a voice of their own.

Parker and Partners Marketing in Absecon knows how to define and promote the lifeblood of a business. From utilities to casinos to banks-small businesses and huge municipalities alike-they understand that with every new client comes a unique mission that needs to be advanced effectively. Strategically located between New York and Washington, they've been the home of some of the best marketing talent in the region for the past eighteen years.

Behind every great company there are great leaders with boundless energy and expertise. Before setting Parker and Partners into motion, Bill Parker worked as the art director in the advertising department of Resorts International Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. It was not long before he and wife Chris opened their own business, Inkworks Creative Design studio, and then later Inkworks Advertising. Co-owner and President Chris Parker is the dynamic behind her firm's success, as she oversees client account services and drives new business development. Chris acquired experience traveling throughout the tri-state area, working in sales and marketing for a computer company before marrying her talents with that of her husband, Bill. With mounting success came an expanded staff and more available services. Inkworks Advertising was renamed Parker and Partners Marketing Resources in order to better express the diversity of full services available, including media buying, public relations, event planning, direct mail campaigns, website design and management, storyboards for TV commercials, strategic relations, and other marketing resources.

"The agency's media brochure is an elaborative menu," explains Aimee Shultz, Public Relations Account Manager. "The menu is the key. Some clients are really hungry and choose to try a lot of services we provide. Others aren't quite sure what they'd like, so they order a la carte and just take a little of what they need."

The communication between the art department, the writers and the public relations managers withinParker and Partners ensures that clients promote exactly what is important to their businesses. "We all listen, we all research, we all communicate," said Bill Parker. Unlike some marketing firms that are stifled by the individual constraints of each department, every member of Parker and Parkers grows from their co-workers' innovative ideas and individual talents.

"Some clients simply say, 'Here's my budget. What should I do?" Chris explains. With clients who entrust all of their self-promotion needs to Parker and Partners, brainstorming sessions enable the whole company to "put their arms around the client." Within no time, scattered ideas written on scrap paper blossom into one cohesive campaign with a solid message. "To be able to sell it [the company], you have to understand it," said Chris. "We've had to become experts in many areas, sometimes in a very short period of time."

Despite working under the gun, Parker and Partners' expertise has won them a lengthy list of awards-from logos to creative marketing plans. The company received

well-deserved acclaim for their "Summit on the Shore" project last summer, and continued their work for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority with their marketing for the "Customer Service" workshops in Atlantic and Cape May Counties. The workshops were outstandingly well-received and attended by hundreds of business owners and employees seeking to broaden their perspective on customer service and hospitality at the shore.

Though Parker and Partners has perfected their aptitude to create and promote a strategic marketing position, the renaissance men and women of the firm are constantly searching for new "menu items" to offer clients. One of the latest dynamic marketing tools being offered is their Brand New, which helps clients craft a strategic position that will draw new customers. "They helped us identify the key tools and marketing methods needed to achieve our business goals," said Johanna R. Johnson, Ed.D. at Atlantic County Institute of Technology. "They gave us a very big bang for a limited marketing buck."

Working with a vast array of business genres-health care, hospitality, real estate development, banking, golf courses, restaurants, casinos, the NJ State Library and NJ Smart Start Clean Energy just to name a few-certainly keeps Parker and Partners on their toes, but Bill and Chris nonetheless take the time to give back to the community. Their pro-bono charity of choice is the Ronald McDonald House in Camden. In addition to its successful direct-mail campaign,Parker and Partners also extends its event-marketing skills to the Ronald McDonald House's annual charity, the Minimal Regatta.

"You have a choice to make," explains Chris. "Some businesses are lured into thinking that the big city is the only place you'll find the experience and talent you need. But, you don't want to be a small fish in a big pond." With Parker and Partners, there are no small fish. They take the time with every client to ensure that their inventive ideas, fresh artwork, catchy copy and event-planning savvy are the perfect fit for your business. If it's time to create or change the image (and ultimately the future) of your business, make a Brand New appointment today.

Parker and PartnersMarketing Resources serves Cape May and Atlantic Counties, as well as Camden and Philadelphia and are located in Absecon. If you would like to know what they can do for you, call Aimee Schultz at (609) 484-1859 to make an appointment. TM Session