Fifth Gear Direct Commerce Services

The other day I received a box via FedEx from Fifth Gear, formerly Sigma Micro, which now specializes in order fulfillment, call center, and eCommerce and Creative Services. Inside the box, along with a half dozen smart-looking 8"x9.5" corporate brochures in full rich color hot off the press and a cover letter was a 5x7 digital frame. Nice gift. But it gets better: loaded onto the frame's memory chip was a brief slide show with an overview of Fifth Gear's services.

Campaigns like this are not cheap, and the primary objective is usually to generate buzz and create awareness. Fifth Gear's efforts scored highly on both counts, as far as I'm concerned. It was a "class act." I spent about 15 minutes unpacking and setting up the frame, then watched the short slide show, getting much deeper into Fifth Gear's message than I would have with any other type of promotion. So kudos to them. And I learned something I hadn't known before, namely that they now offer an array of Web site design services, SEO, Pay-per-click campaigns, E-mail marketing, and social media services, supported by a Creative Services team in-house to assist clients in all aspects of brand marketing. If this promotion is an indication of their level of expertise, it is impressively high.

I contacted Jesse Kurth, Director of Marketing Communications at Fifth Gear, for background information. "These packages are being sent to very intimate numbers of people, about 25 at a time, with whom we want to deepen our business relationship," Jesse told me. "The current group includes only reputable industry consultants and our goal is to either introduce or further educate on our full breadth of services.

"Of course, we have nearly 30 years of expertise across order fulfillment, call center operations, and order management systems, but the Fifth Gear name is new in the industry. We want to reach out very personally to key individuals like yourself, build on the strength of our history, and communicate the tremendous value now represented by the Fifth Gear name.

"As for our newer creative services, we've developed considerable in-house marketing expertise by advising retailers through multiple sales channels for so long. Those creative services are largely focused on eCommerce and online marketing, leveraging our deep experience in technology development, Website design and usability.

"Your readers can view brief listings of our ecommerce and creative marketing services at http://www.infifthgear.com/ecommerce/, and http://www.infifthgear.com/marketing-services/, but the best way for anyone to learn more about the depth of our offerings is to simply give us a call (800-383-4421)."

If you are in need of such services, I suggest you give them a call. That's not an "endorsement." It's just makes sense to include them on your short list of possible providers.