Employment Firm Starts Ad Campaign : San Clemente Company to Expand, Aiming for National Market
After 20 years of relying mainly on word-of-mouth to boost sales, Remedy Temporary Services Inc. has scheduled a $200,000 advertising campaign to help boost the San Clemente company into the national market.
The privately held employment company, which launched the ad program on Monday, supplies other businesses with temporary employees, including secretaries, accountants and assembly workers, said founder and Chairman Robert E. McDonough. Remedy Health and Homemaker Services, a separate corporation also owned by McDonough, supplies nurses, therapists and a variety of other health care workers. McDonough estimated that 20% of the companies’ business comes from personal referrals.
“It’s nice to have 20% in personal referrals but it sure would be nicer to have a lot more than that. We’d like to make an even stronger impact on the marketplace,” McDonough said.
McDonough’s goals for 1986 are to set the stage for making Remedy a national firm by expanding into Florida and Texas. He said he wants the advertising campaign--created by Santa Ana-based Hawkins Advertising & Public Relations--to improve the name identification of his companies and spur business in Southern California.
Remedy’s business increased 103% from fiscal year 1983 to 1985, totaling $53 million last year. McDonough estimates that 82% of that total--about $43.5 million--was paid to temporary workers in salaries.
Last year, through its 47 branch offices (18 within the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area), McDonough’s two companies placed 24,350 workers in temporary jobs in California and Arizona. McDonough said he expects a 25% increase in placements in 1986 because of the increasing trend of employers to rely on temporary workers to cover upswings or downturns in business.
When Apple Computer operated a plant in Garden Grove, Remedy supplied the computer firm with more than 1,000 skilled temporary employees, which enabled the company to meet production schedules while remaining flexible enough to reduce its work force quickly once there was a slackening of demand--an event that occurred last summer.
Now, McDonough said, Remedy’s goal is to use advertising to “touch those people we can’t touch through direct contact.” The company’s radio ads, which begin airing Monday, tout workers obtained from Remedy as “the intelligent temporary.” Remedy will spend $100,000 to air the radio ads and an additional $100,000 on direct mail and other promotions.
“There’s too many people who don’t know about us and this is a way to get to them faster. We hope the advertising will have a very material effect on our Southern California offices,” McDonough said.
