Chapman University College

Needs

• Put a viewbook in prospective students' hands within 72 hours
• Incorporate personalization to reach a segmented market
• Develop an improved system for managing inventory 
and outsource fulfillment
• Control brand identity

Chapman University College (CUC), one of eight colleges within Chapman University, is dedicated to adult learners. At its 25 campuses located throughout Washington and California, CUC offers a comprehensive selection of education credentials, undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees. With such large quantities of campuses and educational offerings, CUC faced multiple challenges in trying to personalize and fulfill its nearly 20,000 yearly information requests. Data entry and fulfillment varied from campus to campus, causing delays in prospects receiving information, inconsistent branding and ongoing inventory issues. All of which led to material shortages and expensive reprints.

In an effort to overcome these challenges, CUC wanted to find a way to outsource and centralize fulfillment while being able to personalize materials based on campus and academic program. After reading about Darwill's personalization capabilities in CMO magazine and speaking with them further, executives at CUC knew this was the partner to help them reach their goals.

Ideas

• Use a combination of pre-printed and print-on-demand components to create prospect-specific marketing communications
• Combine all elements into one easy-to-read viewbook of college information
• Develop a simple technology integration to manage a complex fulfillment process

Darwill met with CUC to get a detailed understanding of their goals and to figure out the best ways to reach them. They began by exploring the possibility of one personalized viewbook rather than sending a standard piece with a variety of supplemental materials. Once the plan was formulated, Darwill developed a number of preprinted elements—static content pages and variable campus and program information pages—as well as blank envelopes and applications that could be laser printed with personalized data. To reduce costs and allow Chapman's brand to shine through, Darwill recommended using a clear plastic outer envelope. Darwill also used a combination of simple file transfer technology and sophisticated document composition software to create a seamless fulfillment process. Each day Chapman compiles their prospect requests and sends the data to Darwill who then fulfills the requests the following day to ensure the viewbooks arrive in the hands of the prospects within 72 hours of the request.

Outcomes

• Daily fulfillment of viewbook requests
• Reduced costs
• Efficient tracking and simplifed inventory managment
• Expanded application of efficient processes to other communication vehicles

Darwill fulfills about 100 viewbook requests per day and continues to make the lives of Chapman's small marketing staff much easier. The entire process has reduced CUC's costs, minimized their inventory and saved their staff a lot of time and hassle. CUC was extremely pleased with Darwill's can-do attitude, responsive service and results-oriented approach. Darwill and CUC continue to work together on a variety of projects, including postcards and other promotional communications that rely not only on Darwill's data expertise, but also their collaborative approach.