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Dennis Marlin, CEO
Dennis Marlin, CEO

2012 Rooks Winner: Marlin Network Inc.

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The philosophy for Marlin Network Inc. is simple: If a small group of people can come to work each day and focus on the clients instead of their own business, good marketing will come out, says Dennis Marlin, who launched his advertising-focused business ventures in 1985 as Marlin Co.

Marlin Network is an umbrella company for its affiliate companies, and like a parent, the network manages finances, employee insurance and other company nuts and bolts while the affiliates –Marlin Co., Deep, The Alchemedia Project, Food IQ and Star Awards – get down to the creative business of marketing in food and, increasingly, other industries.

“It’s been a model that’s definitely given us a tremendous amount of growth,” says Marlin, whose company generated $65 million in 2011 and counts Unilever, Starbucks Coffee and Nestlé among its clients.

Before striking out on his own, Marlin worked in food marketing and operations with several companies, including the English-Dutch company Reckitt Benckiser, which owns French’s Mustard.

“We do other things and are growing in other areas, but food has always been kind of our core focus,” Marlin says.

Most often, clients are interested in buyer-to-buyer sales, such as when a company wants to market to a restaurant chain. But even then, Marlin says, the customer is the end goal in Marlin Network’s approach.

“It doesn’t get consumed until you place that order,” he says, describing what he calls consumption-based marketing.

While all Marlin Network affiliates handle advertising and promotion, each also has a distinct niche and personality, Marlin says.

For example, Alchemedia focuses on the digital side of advertising, working with companies on their commercial image online, in social media and through search engines, and Food IQ works to translate consumer trends on the ground into food marketing in real time. The network sends potential clients to one affiliate or another based on their needs and capacity, Marlin says.  

The compartmentalized arrangement of its 115 employees allows Marlin Network to adjust to a rapidly growing, consolidating and globalizing food market while retaining the creative power of a few dozen employees working together on a project, Marlin says.

That approach started about seven years ago, when Nestlé expressed interest in working with the Marlin Co. Marlin was already working with Starbucks, which competed with Nestlé’s beverage division. As a solution, Marlin created Deep.

In addition to allowing the affiliates to split up their work – though they occasionally team up  – it also enables them to bring the financial resources of the entire network to bear, Marlin says. Today, the Marlin Co., Deep and The Alchemedia Project combined bring in about 80 percent of business, though the split between the affiliates ebbs and flows.

Marlin expects that model to hold true as the network looks to globalize its reach to follow the market, including branching outside of food.

“Proximity doesn’t seem to make as big of a difference,” Marlin says. “We’re starting to do more business on a global basis. Our real expertise would be taking (those skills) we’ve developed ... and be able to take those to other segments.”

Click here for full coverage of the 2012 Economic Impact Awards.


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