Quarry (company)

Quarry (formerly Quarry Integrated Communications) is a privately held marketing communications and advertising agency headquartered in St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada. Quarry employs approximately 100 people in its headquarters and its locations in Durham, North Carolina and San Jose, California, USA.^[1]

Bruce Bendinger (Editor, Advertising: The Business of Brands) identified Quarry as an early adopter of the practice of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).^[2] Quarry has also been cited as a leading practitioner of IMC in a marketing textbook by Philip Kotler.^[3] Quarry’s offering includes BrandErgonomics customer experience^[4] marketing, and it has been cited as a leader in the field of personas development by Forrester Research.^[5] Quarry’s services include strategic insight and research, branding, advertising, public relations, marketing automation, sales force support and Web and digital media.^[6]

History

Robert M. Quarry founded the company in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1973. In 1988, his son Alan Quarry became the company’s major shareholder and the company relocated to nearby Waterloo, Ontario the following year.^[1] The company expanded through growth and mergers to include companies that specialized in advertising (R.M. Quarry Advertising), visual design (Accelerate Design, Ratchford Design), database marketing (dBasics), interactive design (Interchange) and technical documentation (Quintext).^[7] In 1998, the company opened its first office in the United States,^[8] a year that also saw the separate operating companies merge into one.^[9]

In 2008, Quarry celebrated its 35th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the organization hosted the annual E3 European Agency Network conference, the first such event held outside of Europe. Quarry is also a member of the Trans-Canada Advertising Agency Network and a certified agency-partner of Eloqua, the marketing automation company.

In July 2010, Quarry relocated its headquarters from Waterloo to St. Jacobs, Ontario.^[10] In 2012, Quarry received the Innovation Award from the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce for its involvement in establishing and housing the Felt Lab,^[11] a joint project with the University of Waterloo to foster digital media research.^[12]

In 2013, Quarry was named B2B Agency of the Year in MarketingProfs' Bright Bulb B2B Awards.^[13]

Quarry is currently led by a four-person partnership with Alan Quarry serving as Chairman and CEO and Ken Whyte as President and COO.

The Quarry Builder System

Quarry uses its trademarked Demand Builder process to develop marketing campaigns for its clients.

The four-step methodology that underpins the Demand Builder harnesses insight into the customer to create has also been adapted for use in 1) online traffic generation, 2) customer-relationship nurturing, 3) sales-force readiness and 4) digital product design. These methodologies are called the Traffic Builder, Relationship Builder, Sales Builder and Design Builder, respectively, and collectively constitute the Builder System.^[6]

Clients

Quarry's clients market highly engineered products, typically in the agribusiness, healthcare, financial services and technology sectors.

References

1. 1 2 Ormston, Jennifer (June 4, 2008). "Quarry Integrated Communications celebrates its 35th year with tree planting" Waterloo Chronicle.
2. ↑ Bendinger, Bruce H.; Maxwell, Ann; Barnes, Beth et al.; Tucker, Elizabeth (Ed.) (1999). Advertising & The Business of Brands (Class-Testing Version). The Copy Workshop. p 569. ISBN 1-887229-05-1
3. ↑ Kotler, Philip; Armstrong, Gary; & Cunningham, Peggy H. (2007). Principles of Marketing (Seventh Canadian Edition). Pearson Education Canada. pp 548–9. ISBN 0-13-202001-7
4. ↑ Chilton, Susan (July 26, 2001). "Where you come to experience your customers' experience". KW Record, p. E.06.
5. ↑ Manning, Harley (2005). Where to Get Help with Persona Projects Forrester Research.
6. 1 2 Quarry Website
7. ↑ Clement, John (February 1993). Exchange Magazine for Business. 10(5), 22-25, 39-46.
8. ↑ Chilton article from KW Record. June 13, 1998.
9. ↑ Daw article from Marketing Magazine, March 2, 1998, pp 17–18
10. ↑ Miya, Chelsea (Sept./Oct. 2010). Grand Magazine. pp 60–63
11. ↑ Record Staff (Feb 17, 2012). "Desire2Learn named business of year at chamber awards" Waterloo Record.
12. ↑ Rose Simone (Oct 29, 2011). "Felt Lab is a digital display playground" Waterloo Record.
13. ↑ "Quarry Wins MarketingProfs B2B Agency of the Year Award" PR Newswire, Oct 27, 2013.