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By Scott Shrake A Curriculum for School Specialty Inc.'s operations integration begins with a course in digital content management for print and Web catalog production Nationwide, teachers and school systems must equip classrooms with educational tools from globes and glue sticks to building blocks and Bunsen burners. These educators might tip a collective cap to companies such as School Specialty Inc. (SSI), an Appleton, WI-based distributor of non-textbook school supplies and furniture for pre-kindergarten through secondary education. SSI offers more than 66,000 products to schools throughout the country using print and online catalogs. Having grown considerably through acquisition, the company currently comprises

By Susan McIntyre Wouldn't it be nice if there was a rule of thumb that could tell you exactly how to increase your catalog's response rates and sales? Well there is. I call it the rule of "More Pages, Higher Sales." As always, I'll start with a precise definition: The Rule of More Pages, Higher Sales If you add pages that sell product to a consumer catalog, you'll get higher response rates and sales in rough proportion to the number of pages added. "What makes this rule work?" This rule works because adding pages usually means adding more products. For example,

CALIFORNIA LAW recently defined three types of acceptable e-mail use. Companies can send e-mail to: 1. Consumers provided that the marketer identifies the message as commercial e-mail by beginning the subject line with “ADV.” 2. Consumers who have given permission via an opt-in. 3. Consumers with whom they have a prior business relationship. While these rules aren’t overly restrictive, similar legislation is coming down the pike nationally, and companies that choose to prospect or communicate with existing customers should be prepared to comply, now. Which of these three methods should they use? It depends on the goal of the campaign, but mostly success relies

by Alicia Orr Where is the list business heading for catalogers as they look into the future? Increased list rental revenues and more efficient marketing will result from the knowledge and use of technology and advanced database marketing applications, says Peter Candito, president of Database Marketing Concepts, a list brokerage and management house in Bohemia, NY. Here is Candito's take on what catalogers should look for in 2000 and beyond—particularly in the areas of the Internet and enhanced data/cooperative databases. The Growing Availability of Data Enhanced data is the name of the game today in catalog list rentals, says

Your catalog photography, and particularly your cover shot, must brand and sell. Where to shoot is a crucial choice, but it is not as simple as A or B, "studio vs. location." Studio options themselves are many: • Daylight studio. With windows or skylights, this option offers the beauty of natural lighting with the relative ease of a studio shoot. • Studio shoot with backdrops. Results vary from simple silhouettes to the beautifully dramatic shots seen in books like The Sharper Image. • Studio shoot with constructed sets. Create an environment to closely control every aspect of set and lighting.

Created on an island known for its leisurely, laid back attitude, the Black Dog Holiday Catalog is obviously an organic product of its surroundings and customers. It sells the wares of the 30-year-old Black Dog tavern and bakery of Martha’s Vineyard. The 56-page holiday catalog doubles as a monthly calendar for year-round use. Inside is Black Dog paraphernalia displayed through illustrations and customers’ personal snap shots. The book is laid out in seemingly incongruous themes, such as dogs, kids, outdoor activities and events, but is unified by the island lifestyle. Much effort goes into differentiating the 12-year-old catalog from others, but the

Figuring out How To use Outbound Telemarketing to Get and Keep Customers can be a Costly Trial, Often Ending in Error By Melissa Sepos Outbound telemarketing sales representatives often face more obstacles in their jobs than inbound TSRs. Following these five suggestions can make outbound calling yield higher customer satisfaction, increase sales and keep your employees happy. TSR Training Andrew Wetzler, catalog consultant with Andrew Wetzler and Associates in Boca Raton, FL, says training TSRs is often where companies lose ground. "For the most part, inside sales [departments] and telemarketing companies do a horrendous job of training their team," says

Dom Perignon, on tasting the first glass of champagne ever poured, is said to have proclaimed, “I’m drinking stars.” Ever since that moment, bubbly has been on hand for most celebrations, and heaven knows it needs to be served in the proper vessel: a champagne flute. While glassware is often marked with brand names or other messages, this New Year a special opportunity presented itself. What better, and rarer, occasion than a millennium-flip to toast with champagne? Put the two together and you get Year 2000 flutes. This spotlight shows a representative sampling of the positioning strategies for flutes featuring the year

Come 2002, 65.2 percent of Internet users will live outside the United States. Have you considered foreign markets when designing your Web site? "If you're going to be selling on the Web, you have to think about what it means to be selling in other markets," points out Don DePalma, vice president of corporate strategy for Idiom Inc., a provider of Web globalization solutions, who says he has seen companies try to get away with as little adaptation as simply translating the top levels of their sites. The first hurdle associated with a global Web site is replicating the U.S. site in

Few rules of thumb are so deeply embedded in our thoughts that we’re surprised to recall that they’re really just rules of thumb, not scientifically proven facts. And for many, that’s the case for this month’s rule of thumb: the rule of recency, frequency, monetary value (shortened to RFM). As catalogers we use RFM constantly, almost without thinking about it, not because psychologists have proved to us that it should work, but because as marketers we know that it simply does work, day in and day out, and has been working since the earliest days of cataloging. As with most everyday things though, a

Any discussion of catalog circulation and analysis requires a look at three very important topics: 1. Determining your break-even point on an incremental and fully absorbed basis; 2. Calculating how much you can afford to spend for a new buyer; and 3. Determining key ratios and the best format for your profit and loss statement. Finding Your Break-Even Point Break-even points are either incremental or fully absorbed. It is important to make a distinction between the two because not all mailings can be measured, as is commonly thought, strictly on an incremental basis. The incremental break-even point includes direct costs only, and

SciTech International, an early Internet convert, now has fully integrated e-commerce Since SciTech International’s software products are aimed at the scientific, engineering and technical end-user from Boeing to the National Institutes of Health, it was a natural for the company to be an early convert to selling on the Web. “It was a natural fit since our target customers—scientists and engineers—were the first users of the Internet for research,” says Barry Moltz, president of the 6-year-old firm which sells software and other technical computing tools. Moltz, a former IBM employee who co-founded the Chicago-based company in 1993 with another former IBMer, explains that traffic

Sixty-four percent of online consumers are unlikely to trust a Web site—even if the site prominently features a privacy policy. A report from Jupiter Communications released in August found that consumers have confused the concepts of privacy and security; they identify security of credit card information, which is their primary concern, as a privacy issue. So what can you do to establish trust on your Web site? Another study from Greenwich, CT-based NFO Interactive asked online consumers who haven't bought on the Web to prioritize attributes that would entice them to make the plunge into e-commerce. The top responses follow. 1. The

Marketing Computers by Catalog "Prospects want quarter-inch holes, not quarter-inch drills." —MBA Magazine I learned to touch type on an old office Remington in the summer of 1954 at Browne's Business School in Rockville Cen-tre, NY. Today, I can operate a computer keyboard—the very same QWERTY keyboard on which I learned to touch type—at somewhere around 60 w.p.m., maybe 70 w.p.m. if I'm fresh. When I interview people for articles, I use a laptop and can ask questions, maintain eye contact with my subject and my fingers fly over the keyboard. I don't use a

The genesis of a catalog can follow several creative paths. Some catalogs begin as concepts, springing forth full-grown from an entrepreneur’s forehead. Some spin off from retail stores or other catalogs. Others grow organically, often from space ads or a single product offering. Design Toscano took the last approach. For founder Michael Stopka, “alternative media” isn’t really alternative at all; it’s part of a core strategy for finding prospects for a niche market and converting them into loyal buyers. Since placing its first space ad in 1990, Design Toscano has grown its revenues to $25 million per year, its house file of buyers

Last year was a tough one for magazine circulation. Direct mail response rates, stampsheet performance and newsstand sales were down in 1998, according to the 1999 CircTrack industry survey published in August by Capell-Jones. Yet CircTrack deals mostly with established magazines. How does a new magazine gain a foothold in this tough environment? E. Daniel Capell, editor of the report, says, "There are really two ways to launch these days: Try it on the newsstand or do acquisition mailings." In June 1998, publisher Steven Brill (of The American Lawyer magazine and Court TV fame) launched Brill's Content. Its start-up strategy comprised many

Six Steps to Selecting the Right Fulfillment Software By Ernie Schell More than three dozen software applications are on the market for managing order entry and fulfillment for catalog companies. With that kind of variety, choosing the catalog management system that is best for your company can be confusing unless you approach the challenge with a structured plan. Try these six steps: 1. Establish systems objectives and priorities. There are lots of reasons for acquiring a new system: managing increased capacity, improving customer service, introducing new business methods (such as continuity shipments), lowering processing costs, improving inventory efficiency, reducing paperwork, supporting better e-commerce

Three, as the Schoolhouse Rock song goes, is a magic number. But there’s no such thing as magic when it comes to cutting postage costs. You can save money in only one of three ways: cut your catalog’s weight; qualify for automation and presort discounts; and get your mailing as close to its final destination as possible. Slimming Down You can reduce the weight of your catalog by attacking two dimensions: paper and size, says Dave Riebe, vice president of distribution at Quad/Graphics, a printing company in Pewaukee, WI. For the most dramatic impact, streamline the trim size of your catalog. Depending on your

Although Peruvian Connection didn’t launch its first international catalog until 1994, CEO and Co-founder Annie Hurlbut maintains the cataloger was an international company long before its first foray into the global market. As its name suggests, the Peruvian Connection has shared its history with the country and mountain people of Peru. Peruvian Connection began as a “happenstance” when Annie Hurlbut came home for her mother Biddy’s 50th birthday at Christmastime in 1976. At the time she was conducting research in Peru in pursuit of a doctoral degree in anthropology. As a gift she gave her mother an alpaca sweater she found in a Peruvian

One of cataloging’s hottest buzz phrases this past year has been alternative media. List brokers hate the trend, but most savvy catalogers are not only embracing alternative media, they are having enough success with it to build on. Historically catalogers have relied on list rentals to build their customer files. And it worked. Lists proved to be productive and had excellent persistency or lifetime value over time. So why complain or switch from something that’s working? The answer is an economic one. The winning lists of yesteryear are just not responding as well as they did in the past. When I started in