In an increasingly competitive climate, why has O’Neil Printing survived nearly a century in Phoenix? The shop’s longevity lies in giving back to the community, offering company ownership to employees and maintaining a technological industry edge, says O’Neil President, Tony Narducci.

“Our biggest constant factor is that our ownership and management has always been more than ready to give back to the community,” notes O’Neil. “The primary reason we work with organizations that help kids is that it’s something we can all get behind and it affects the future of our community. By helping the kids of Phoenix today, we’re looking at the bigger picture of a better Phoenix for the future.”

Aimed at attracting and retaining staff, O’Neil’s Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) also plays a critical role in the long life of O’Neil, which will be 100 next year. “We’ve seen the value of this benefit to our 90 employee-owners beyond the plan’s retirement benefits, in that ESOP is a daily incentive for employees to go above and beyond for our clients. Clients sense that there’s something pleasantly different about working with O’Neil.”

Another key durability contributor: Services like the option of ordering business cards online – reflecting the company’s “traditionally innovative” branding tagline. “Our Webbased ordering allows clients to easily manage the mundane task of ordering repetitive print products that would otherwise require additional personnel, or time away from more important tasks,” Narducci says.

O’Neil also offers a creative client solution geared toward generating more leads through the use of PURLs, which are personalized URLs. “This technology directs the recipient of a direct mail piece to a personal website where information is gathered about their buying preferences and contact data is updated,” Narducci explains. While typical direct-mail response rates are one to two percent, rates jump to more than 10 percent with PURLs, he reports.

“Without providing innovative solutions to our clients, we’re only as good as our history,” notes Narducci. “We’ve had to develop new products and processes to provide full-service solutions to our clients, tweaking things to continually satisfy those needs.”

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