When you hear how McMurry first started, it’s easy to understand how they have maintained a customer-centric view for almost 20 years. McMurry began as a marketing department within a large company – the same group that they now serve. This is where Preston V. McMurry Jr. created Vim & Vigor, a custom marketing magazine for his health-system employer, in 1984. The magazine didn’t make money for the company, but McMurry decided to buy the magazine. This led to the formation of his own company in 1989. McMurry is now a full service marketing communications firm with multiple locations. They used to be the clients whom they serve, so they’re not full of it when they say “full service.”

Custom Publishing and More

When we heard about McMurry because they were named one of the 10 Best Small Companies to Work For in the U.S, we had to take a look at their home page to see what they were all about. It left us a bit confused. We understand that a full service marketing communications firm does a lot of things, but their home page has stuff about newsletters, job boards (separate from McMurry’s job listings), and case studies about magazines. We’d love to see a concise message that says what McMurry does in a sentence or two. Their tagline “A Better Place. A Better Way.” definitely doesn’t do that. From what we can gather, a major part of McMurry’s business is custom publishing. You know how every business seems to have its own magazine now? The grocery store. The hotel. The dive bar you went to in college (ok, they don’t have one yet). McMurry is behind many of these types of magazines. They also put out a number of industry newsletters for professionals. This seems to all be on top of what you’d expect a typical marketing communications firm to do.

McMurry also seems to have a unique culture. It’s based on eight values:

1. Do the right thing
2. Help one another
3. Deliver raving service
4. Produce quality always
5. Exceed expectations
6. Embrace change
7. Accept social responsibility
8. Earn a reasonable profit

Although the first two sound like kindergarten rules, everyone could stand to remember what they learned when they were five. The rest explain why McMurry is considered at top ten place to work.

Working at McMurry

When we were trying to put our finger on what it is that McMurry actually does, we looked at their Job Listings page. It didn’t help much, because they opportunities that all over the place. For instance, the three jobs at McMurry that are most likely to be good fits for new college grads are PHP Web Developer – Online Services (Scottsdale, AZ), Junior Accountant (Phoenix, AZ), and Multimedia Producer (Phoenix, AZ). Not exactly what you’d expect from a marketing firm. The jobs that require more experience offer an even more interesting mix. For example McMurry is looking for a Publisher for a Luxury Yachting Magazine and a Strategic Marketing Consultant. The job descriptions are fantastic (whoever writes them must have some copywriting experience), so you should definitely give them a look and keep an eye out for new entry-level job opportunities at McMurry.

If you want to know more about what it’s like to work at McMurry, you should be sure to check out their own company newsletter.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• McMurry.com
• Jobs at McMurry
• About McMurry
• McMurry’s History
• McMurry’s Culture
• McMurry’s Portfolio

Are we just dense? Or do you also find it somewhat difficult to get an idea of what McMurry does from their home page?

We've identified McMurry as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• accounting
• all employers
• Arizona
• communications
• design
• marketing
• publishing
• software development

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3 responses to “McMurry”

1. Katie says:

   July 21, 2008 at 4:21 pm

   I do McMurry’s PR and just wanted to take some time to explain the complexity of what we actually do for any who may be interested. First and foremost, McMurry specializes in helping a company market itself. It is four different business units rolled into one marketing communications firm-
   Custom Media, the Agency, the Center for Professional Excellence and Online Services. Below are quick and simple descriptions of each of the business units.

   Custom Media specializes in customized marketing products like magazines, e-newsletters and other multimedia elements that help companies market themselves in either the business to consumer world or the business to business world.

   The Agency develops traditional advertising for clients, like commercials, print ads and viral video.

   The Center for Professional Excellence creates subscription-based products like newsletters and audio conferences that help professionals excel.

   Online Services creates websites and specializes in Web 2.0 applications like SEO/SEM.

   Hopefully this quick explanation helps clear up McMurry’s specialities, and you can learn more online through the press releaseas and the “About McMurry” section. http://www.mcmurry.com

   Thanks!

   Reply
2. Willy Franzen says:

   July 21, 2008 at 4:23 pm

   Katie, that clears things up a lot! Thanks for dropping by and commenting.

   Reply
3. Chris McMurry says:

   March 25, 2009 at 10:34 pm

   Willy, I’d like to suggest that you and your readers check out the company’s new web site. It does a much better job than the prior one (which I think is the one you visited when your entry was first written) of explaining what our company does. Like they say, “you are your own worst customer,” and that was definitely our case with our old web site, which sorely needed to be updated after multiple acquisitions, around 150% revenue growth, and new service offerings since the time the old site was crafted around 2002-03.

   Reply