Ronald and Barbara Occhino, both 57, have witnessed the media tsunami from the catbird seat as principals of Vertex Marketing Communications in Stamford, which handles marketing, advertising and direct mail. Their first project ”” 33 years ago, printed on heavy-stock yellow paper for less than $100 and called The Phone Card ”” predated 911 emergency calling and became a fixture taped beside the phones of countless regional homes with listings like police, fire and poison control.
“For the convenience of Westport citizens,” read one phone card, preserved in a plastic sheath like the relic of a distant age in the company”™s 992 High Ridge Road offices.
Today, a typical contract for the firm is a bilingual transportation or health campaign for the state”™s Department of Health or Department of Transportation, both of which are clients.
- Ronald and Barbara Occhino, principals of Vertex Marketing Communications. Photo by Bill Fallon
The company employs 26, but that number includes three spun-off businesses: two driving schools and a junk-removal service. Ronald Occhino is CEO and account director managing the sales and business aspects of the agency, developing marketing concepts and budgets, managing accounts and billings, implementing direct mail and advertising campaigns and consulting clients. Barbara Occhino is president and creative director, developing and managing campaigns from concept to implementation. She also conducts and moderates focus groups.
Vertex client sectors include government, automotive, medical, educational, Fortune 500, retail, startups, transportation and entertainment. Its success has been helped by a business ethos that features basic tenets like burning shoe leather, answering the phone and ”” a point that Ronald said is increasingly lost ”” knowing the business.
A marketing major at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where the couple met, Ronald began in corporate sales, boosting his territory for a national food company at a rate the company, American Frozen Foods, had not seen in years. But, he said, seated in a bright office rich with horse-racing memorabilia, “I did not like the corporate politics.
“I always knew I had an affinity for marketing and for economics,” he said. His reading interests gravitated toward success-themed business titles that begin, “How to … .”
“I read every book I could get my hands on,” he said. Darrin, the husband on the TV show “Bewitched” who worked in an ad agency, proved an offbeat influence. A college professor mentioned the TV show, noting the advertising angle. “Darrin was my introduction to ad agencies,” he said. “Before Darrin, I never really thought about them.”
Barbara said, “When I was starting out, it was: be a teacher.” In fact, she had already opted for something bolder ”” pre-med studies at Rutgers ”” when a friend convinced her to go with her inherent creative side. “So, after a chance meeting in a pub at Rutgers, I said, ”˜What the heck,”™ and switched to advertising and marketing.”
Ronald said the basics of advertising and marketing remain the same across Vertex”™s three-plus decades. “Write a good headline. Make an offer. Use second-grade language. Don”™t be a Ph.D. The delivery methods differ, but the pillars remain the same.”
“Be conversational,” Barbara said. “One problem today is that egos are getting in the way and those who create want credit. They don”™t know marketing.”
“Because of the Internet, too many are practicing the craft who have no experience,” Ronald said. “The result is plumbers and the lawyers hire these people and then get a poor product. They get no results and they say marketing is a waste.”
In tandem, the Occhinos said Vertex emphasizes its homework, focused on a client”™s “unique selling proposition.” It is, they said, “imperative” to determine a USP before launching a marketing campaign.
“What”™s important is to choose a USP that distinguishes you from your competitors,” Ronald said. “It is more important to focus on one segment and not try to be all things to all people.”
The Phone Card, their first project, fit that bill. “There was nothing like it,” Ronald said. “It was heavy on sweat equity.” In 1982, they charged $42 per listing, $52 for the listing in bold. “We offered noncompetitive listings; that was the deal,” Ronald said. “Only one accountant, etc.” The Phone Card relied on sponsors for distribution of the bundled product. The Occhinos later added a public relations angle: a $25 drawing for sponsors who wrote a testimonial praising the card”™s results.
Barbara said for specific challenges, the ad company subcontracts work.
From the “what”™s old is new” file, Ron said direct mail has returned. He writes all the direct mail copy. “It”™s back,” he said. “With all the electronic communications, now the mailbox is empty, presenting the opportunity for effective communication.”
“Every detail is accounted for,” Barbara said of direct mail. “The envelope, its size, how it”™s folded, what words go on it.”
Commenting on the state of advertising, Ronald said, “Too many companies want to see their own names before they engage the customer.” He told of examining the websites of one particular sales-driven industry. “I saw names, names and more names. I did not see what was in it for me.”
The comment buttressed an hourlong conversation that repeatedly touched upon the company”™s “basics” approach: to marketing, to civility and to results.
“If you”™re in the advertising business, what you see, for lack of a better word, is arrogance,” Barbara said. “We”™ll take a small project, take pride in it, and the next thing doors open.”
“We return phone calls,” Ronald said. “Pick up the phone. In 30 seconds you can accomplish what you need multiple emails to accomplish and with the emails the message is often mixed up.”
Barbara ”” who came from a family of Cuban entrepreneurs and who speaks Spanish to the degree she is familiar with the 10 dialects of Puerto Rico ”“ pointed out the couple does not share the same office. Hers is several doors away. He owns two thoroughbreds (dozens across the years and all responsibly retired); she sings jazz and American standards (and has a website: Barbarasings.com). Their daughters, Christine and Lisa Occhino, are entrepreneurs. Lisa is a music editor and principal of SongwriterLink.com (“the new, more efficient way to collaborate”). Christine runs The Pop Music Academy in Stamford (“the new, trendy performing-arts school in Stamford”).
Vertex is interested in launching new business ventures and offers a 30-question form on its website ”” Vertexmarketing.com ”” for those who might be interested.
