Thanks to the Bucks County Herald for featuring Sagefrog Marketing Group in today’s paper!
Success Helps Sagefrog Leap into a Larger Office in Doylestown
by Joe Ferry
Some marketing firms like to spend their clients’ money like drunken sailors on leave, splurging on the newest fads and glitzy trends in hopes of hitting a homerun that justifies their sizeable bills. Others stick to the safe, traditional tactics that work but rarely produce a discernible buzz. And then there is the Sagefrog Marketing Group, where owners Mark Schmukler and Suzanne Morris satisfy their passion for integrated marketing (him) and graphic design (her) for a variety of healthcare, technology and business-to-business clients in the Greater Philadelphia and New Jersey area. Sagefrog is now in its 12th year.
“Brains over budget,” says Schmukler, explaining the firm’s philosophy while sitting in the conference room of his office on East Oakland Avenue in Doylestown. “We make sure everything we do produces a measurable ROI for our clients.”
It is a philosophy that has worked remarkably well since 2002, when Schmukler merged his strategic marketing firm, Doyle Consulting, with Morris’ Much More Creative Design Studio. Working as a two-person team out of a Solebury barn, they quickly developed a reputation in the industry as both wise (sage) and adaptable to changing conditions (like a frog).
Even during the Great Recession, Sagefrog managed steady growth, says Schmukler, because the firm could demonstrate results to clients of all sizes, including ARAMARK, CFS Clinical, GlaxoSmithKline, IMS Health, SAP Software, and United Healthcare. “We work closely with our clients, treating their money like it is ours,” says Schmukler.
While Sagefrog has now grown to become a multi-million dollar business, perhaps the most tangible evidence of Sagefrog’s sustained success was the decision last year to purchase the circa 1885 office building at 62 East Oakland Avenue to serve as the company’s Pennsylvania headquarters (It also has a presence in Princeton, Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley). Sagefrog started out as a “virtual agency” with employees working in different locations but chose to follow a more traditional business model as the company grew.
Featuring amazing brickwork, slate and copper roofs, and enclosed front and back porches, the large, converted house provides an environment conducive to creativity and collaboration, says Schmukler. The building will accommodate the company’s 14 current employees as well as Sagefrog’s expected continued expansion as a leading marketing agency that uses strategy, creativity and process to move businesses to the next level. “We wouldn’t have made this investment if we didn’t believe we will continue to grow,” says Morris.
Schmukler and Morris met during the summer of 2001. Schmukler and his wife-to-be, Kaitlin, wanted custom invitations for their wedding. They stumbled across Morris, and were so happy working with her that they invited her to their wedding. At about the same time, Schmukler had started his own strategic marketing firm after leaving VerticalNet, the Horsham-based business-to-business website that enjoyed meteoric success before fizzling in the dotcom bust.
As he worked with clients on their marketing plans, Schmukler noticed they were interested in tactics such as brochures and websites and that they would benefit from Suzanne’s award-winning design skills. That’s when they decided to form Sagefrog in March 2002.
Before teaming with Morris to form Sagefrog, Schmukler managed global marketing in the Kodak Business Imaging Systems Division, a $2.5 billion operation, then Kodak and Konica-Minolta in Europe. In the late 1990s, he was recruited by VerticalNet to lead its global business development and establish global joint ventures that dramatically increased the company stock price and market value.
Earlier in his career, Mark co-founded Desktop Graphics, one of the first software companies for the Apple Macintosh and makers of DrawArt™ and MacForms™ desktop publishing software.
As founder of the Much More Creative design studio, Morris worked with many of the major pharmaceutical companies, some of the area’s leading technology and industrial companies, and several international clients. Suzanne started her career as a designer and art director for a Doylestown-based marketing communications firm.
Schmukler, a Bucks County native with broad formal education in Engineering, Computer Science, Business and Pharmaceutical Marketing, is a perfect complement to Morris, a Jersey girl with a flair of creativity. “Our clients have ambitious business and marketing objectives,” says Schmukler, “we provide the services to help them achieve their goals.”
For all your full-service marketing, branding, interactive, public relations and advertising needs please call 215-230-9024 or visit sagefrog.com.
