CASE STUDY: CHIRON CORPORATION
Building a marketing communications group
BACKGROUND:
I was the graphic designer for Pathogenesis, a small biopharmaceutical company in Seattle when it was acquired by a larger company, Chiron Corporation.
OPPORTUNITY:
Chiron did not have an internal graphics department. Product marketing materials for the two marketed products were being outsourced to multiple external creative agencies.
From Pathogenesis, Chiron inherited a graphic designer, a web designer and an event coordinator.
Chiron’s marketed products did not have cohesive brand materials.
Brand compliance accountability did not exist.
I saw the need for a cohesive group to administer brand guidelines, create marketing materials, act as brand guardians on behalf of corporate compliance and be a resource for brand and marketing information.
I saw this gap in capabilities as a career growth opportunity for myself within Chiron.
SOLUTION:
After researching how product managers interacted with the creative agencies, how marketing was structured within Chiron and how much budget was spent on creating collateral materials with outside agencies, I put together a proposal on the benefits of creating an in-house marketing communications group. Key benefits were:
savings to the bottom line
in-depth internal product knowledge
leverage existing in-house talent
In addition, I proposed bringing an initial project in-house guaranteeing to deliver it within faster timelines, at equal or better quality and less expensive than the external creative agency.
I was successful in delivering this project, meeting product marketers expectations and saving their budget $100,000. After this, a formal marketing communications group was formed with myself as design manager. Eventually the group grew to a staff of ten and supported marketed products as well as products coming to market, research collateral, and other corporate-wide marketing initiatives.