OnFulfillment Blog | Company Store

  During a recent interview, someone asked me if there was a time when I knew events and developments were changing the marketing fulfillment business forever.

Without hesitating, I said “Yes—1998.”

That was the year I was first exposed to the true power of the Internet. Of course I was aware that it existed; it was a place to browse and explore various topics or research businesses—nothing more than a novelty or online encyclopedia, really. Safe to say, up to that point, no one could say for certain where it was headed.

Sustainability has become a central theme in modern marketing. Consumers today expect the brands they interact with to minimize their environmental impact and demonstrate a meaningful commitment to “greener” practices.

At the same time, businesses are under pressure—both internally and externally—to report their progress on achieving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Marketing fulfillment vendors—who manage the production, storage, and distribution of various branded materials—sit at a critical junction in this movement, since their operations directly influence resource consumption, waste generation, and carbon emissions.

Over the past decade or two, it has become increasingly common for marketing organizations to outsource the bulk of their writing, design, and fulfillment services to outside vendors.

From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense. It’s typically more cost-effective to bring in outside help only when needed rather than hire—and pay for—full-time staff. It’s largely a transactional relationship that lasts only as long as the project in question, and it works well for both sides.

Managing those relationships so that they continue to benefit both sides, however, requires some work. It’s natural to grow comfortable with the vendors you’ve carefully groomed over the years, steeping them in your corporate culture. They know you; you trust them. It’s comfortable. It’s…easy.

That’s when it’s time to take a close and critical look at the relationship.

Since ChatGPT was publicly launched in late 2022, businesses across all industries have employed the site and other AI-driven tools to assist in everything from content creation to data analysis, decision making, workflow automation, even legal compliance.

The latest trend is to use AI to help them understand spreadsheet-based reports. ChatGPT for Excel, a powerful AI-powered add-on for the Microsoft Excel application, leverages OpenAI's ChatGPT to automate tasks, extract insights, and streamline data management with features like AI-powered tables, data translation, and formula generation.

Anyone who works in sales or marketing within the medical device industry understands that they must deal with numerous challenges and restrictions that impact their ability to do business effectively and efficiently.

Over the years, a number of regulations including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Anti-Kickback Statute have been imposed to protect patient privacy, ensure quality care, and prevent fraud within the healthcare system. While these regulations do a great job of achieving their goals, they also add several layers of bureaucracy and security to what used to be a fairly simple and straightforward sales process.

While this can be frustrating for marketers, there are ways to navigate around the system to overcome—or effectively avoid—many of these roadblocks. It requires a more “old school” approach that features a return to basics and a revival of old skillsets that will take many back to the early days of marketing fulfillment.