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In the online battle for customer loyalty, catalogers have increasingly turned to e-mail marketing. However, an e-mail in-box—like the home telephone—is a communication channel that consumers rail against when it’s used to trick them into hearing a sales pitch. Unlike the postal mail box, consumers take personal umbrage at hearing “You’ve got mail!” for messages, not from friends, but from companies out to sell something unsolicited. Catalogers’ e-mails, then, must be user-friendly. Effective e-mail marketing campaigns can result in double-digit response rates, increased sales and exponential growth in e-mail address lists. On the other hand, impersonal bulk newsletters, excessive e-mailings and complicated opt-out systems

I must share an experience that I had while on vacation this summer in Maine. My family and I stopped by an antique shop specializing in wicker. Upon entering the store, we were greeted by a man who later turned out to be the proprietor, Mr. E.L. Higgins. Mr. Higgins looked to be around 80 years old and has been selling wicker for as long as he can remember. When we finished browsing, we commented to Mr. Higgins on his quality wicker selection. He thanked us and offered a postcard he had created to take with us. He said that his phone number and

Instead of just repurposing copy and images, rethink your Web catalog for more effective merchandising Personalization and variable data printing are making their marks on the print catalog world, but the place where customized merchandising techniques are likely to shine is the Web. While a print catalog is static, a Web catalog is dynamic and can be generated in order to meet the needs of the customer at hand. Explains Vahe Katros, director of retail applications at Blue Martini, a San Mateo, CA-based company that creates Web merchandising software: There’s two issues to versioning catalogs: how many different merchandise assortments you can

by Pat Friesen How much does a catalog copywriter need and want to know about your products before writing those five-lines-or-less blocks of copy that close thousands of dollars in sales? More than you may think. Catalog copy is deceiving. Just because it's short copy doesn't mean your writer doesn't need to know plenty about each product. Keep in mind a catalog copywriter is a salesperson—just not on commission. Here's a checklist based on my experience as an in-house and freelance writer for consumer and business catalogs selling everything from PVC piping to handmade sweaters. This is the basic information catalog copywriters need to

Co-op’er-a-tive, adj. 1. Involving cooperation 2. Willing to act with others The definition alone brings to mind families coming together to harvest their neighbor’s crop, a small town coordinating and executing the annual 4th of July celebration or business owners sharing ideas not only to increase their own profitability but to benefit their entire industry. Standing alone provides little shelter from the rain. Standing together provides the unity to build and strengthen a solid foundation to withstand any storm. —Direct Marketing Technology’s Brochure for Zero24 The concept of a cooperative database is at once seductive and scary as hell. Seductive, because you, the

With a single phone, an extra-long phone cord and a closet of nature-inspired products, the husband-and-wife team of Dennis and Ann Pence founded the brand known as Coldwater Creek in 1984. Transplants from the East Coast, the Pences fell in love with the slower pace, friendly atmosphere and lush scenery of the Northwest on a trip and later made Sandpoint, Idaho, the location of their home and new business. According to David Gunter, director of investor relations and corporate communications, the first catalog was an 18-page mailer featuring a hodge-podge of nature-themed merchandise, like bird feeders and binoculars. To build the house file, Gunter

The “house file” is the most valuable asset of any mail-order catalog company. It is a file containing the names of all previous mail-order buyers—that is, people who have actually made a purchase from your catalog. In maintaining your database, it is important to separate previous buyers from general inquiries, as each group requires a very different mailing strategy. It is also necessary to make a clear distinction between a buyer and a customer. I prefer to think of a buyer as a person who has made only one purchase and a customer as a person who has made repeat purchases. Obviously, customers must

IN SUMMERTIME, two activities that come to mind when the weather grows warm are taking a dip in the pool and heading out to the golf course. A surprising product found in seven (count ‘em!) catalogs this season that pairs these diverse pastimes is Aqua Golf. Aqua Golf consists of an artificial turf and foam island, a chipping mat, 12 velcro-covered, floatable plastic golf balls and a pin. Using their own clubs, golfers aim their shots to land Velcro wiffle balls onto the floating green. This game simulates the thrill of the challenging over-the-water shot on the golf course. These Catalogs

The recent enviable growth of The J. Jill Group (formerly DM Manage-ment) has been one of this year’s catalog success stories. Second-quarter results for 1999 showed that sales were up 31 percent over the prior year, while operating income was up 43 percent. With catalog sales going strong to the tally of $143 million for the first half of 1999, The J. Jill Group has planned new initiatives: an expansion into e-commerce in August 1999 and retail stores in 2000. The Tilton, NH-based specialty women’s apparel direct marketer has gotten much attention for the lifestyle marketing approach to its two catalogs, J. Jill and

In a world where anything more than a month old is in danger of being considered obsolete, rules of thumb are a happy exception—they take time to develop, and the best of them gain validity with age. In our last article we explored one of the oldest rules of thumb: the 1-percent response rate. In this column we’ll explore a rule that’s almost equally old: catalog hot spots. We often hear about catalog “hot spots”—those magical spots in our catalogs that can dramatically boost sales for almost any product we place there. But do such hot spots actually exist? Where are they, and why

JOHN MCMANUS is celebrating a birthday. Ten years ago this October, he and his wife Gloria released their first catalog: a 32-page, black-and-white collection of products to make travel easier. They called their creation Magellan’s. Today, McManus sounds like a proud father when he notes, “We’ve been on the Inc. magazine list of the 500 fastest-growing companies three years in a row (1995-1997). That’s a figure that we don’t mind sharing.” The cataloger’s annual revenue is up to $25 million and print runs vary between two and three million catalogs, with mailings scheduled four to five times a year. “We’ll be doing 100 pages,

Brides and catalogers turn to online registries National retail chains used to dominate the wedding gift registry market. Now the Web is cutting catalogers a bigger piece of the $35 billion wedding cake as online gift registries make registering and shopping for gifts easier for far-flung guests. Renowned gift catalogs, including Ross-Simons and Macys.com, have already put their popular real-world registries online. Now Web gift registry networks are making cross-catalog registrations possible so that a bride and groom with eclectic tastes can register for everything from fine china to outdoor recreation gear. These registries include Della & James (www.dellajames.com), which was

For makeup and jewelry catalogers, color management is undeniably a major production concern. Such is the case for Avon Products, New York, which recently turned to an innovative solution for the production of its internationally distributed print brochures. The International Challenge Avon has a presence in more than 135 countries, with printing services contracted in 32 nations, making consistent, across-the-globe color control a tricky endeavor for a core group of people, including the art-direction staff and Bob Jordan, Avon’s quality-control manager. Betsy Wordsman, Avon’s senior manager of global print production, explains, “For economic reasons—and the substantial growth of our company—Avon wanted to create

There are few catalogers who don't know what RFM stands for. It is the technique of capturing customer purchase history by the three most important variables: R = Recency -- date of customer's last purchase; F = Frequency of purchase -- number of times a customer bought; M = Monetary -- lifetime dollars spent on a catalog by a customer. RFM is the catalog industry standard for segmenting a catalog's customer or buyer file. RFM is not applicable to new-customer acquisition—only customer list marketing. A term that is less familiar is RFMP, in which the "P" stands for Product Category. While simple

Harley-Davidson dealers customize retail traffic-builders It's summer, and while most people troop around in shorts and tees, motorcyclists take to the roads in perforated leather and nylon mesh. In the motorcycling market, Harley-Davidson stands out with its Motorclothes line. Customer brand loyalty is strong, as the Web site (www.harley-davidson.com) reminds us: "It's one thing to have people buy your products. It's another for them to tattoo your name on their body." Harley-Davidson, headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, was incorporated in 1903 but started mailing catalogs only 10 years ago. This year Harley will mail an annual core book of over 100

by Jack Schmid My first formal introduction to Marks & Spencer, England's giant retailer, was to fly to London to have lunch with the chairman. M&S was considering expanding its direct selling efforts into an expansion of its home catalog and into an apparel catalog. The chairman asked all the preliminary questions about our company's credentials and why M&S should employ an American catalog consultant. Apparently those questions were answered to his satisfaction, and he then asked the big question: "Why should M&S be in catalo-ging, anyway?" My answer had little to do directly with cataloging, but a lot to do with the topic

Fingerhut’s catalog production burdens are eased by developing mutually beneficial partnerships With print runs between 10,000 and 5 million—and product images that number in the hundreds of thousands—it is no surprise that Fingerhut, a Minnetonka, MN-based general-merchandising cataloger, required additional production support. Two years ago, while analyzing its prepress needs, Fingerhut looked to Quad/Graphics’ Digital Imaging Division, Minneapolis, to support Fingerhut’s own prepress division and digital photography studio, both housed in nearby Minnesota locales. Initially, what made Quad’s digital division appealing was Fingerhut’s long-established relationship with Quad/Graphics, one of the cataloger’s print partners. Fingerhut’s prepress volume caused the catalog publisher to analyze how integral

For nearly 65 years, the Miles Kimball Company has provided consumers with gifts, gadgets and other novelty items designed to make everyday life a little easier and more enjoyable. Now, thanks to digital technology and workflow solutions implemented over the last two years, the Oshkosh, WI-based cataloger has eased its own daily burden by streamlining its production operations. Prepress services, such as scanning and color separations—which had been outsourced previously—are now performed in house. In addition, Miles Kimball has established its own on-site digital photography studio. Certainly each of these tasks required a great deal of effort; however, for the cataloger, the technology

Ever get the feeling you keep mailing to the same people over and over again? Don’t worry, you’re not alone—you’re just a catalog marketer at the end of the 20th century. The most profitable names out there have always been multi-buyers who are responsive to catalog offers. So you and your direct, as well as indirect, competitors are bumping into each other by mailing the same names. Uncovering new sources of names or putting a fresh spin on the less obvious prospects requires some elbow grease and creative thinking. Be willing to learn a lot about your current customers and to explore some unusual

For this inaugural article, no rule of thumb could be better to start with than the oldest, strangest, most puzzling and often the most frustrating rule of them all: the 1 percent response rate. Definition: 1 Percent Response Rule Most catalogers have at least heard of this rule, but I’ve never seen a really careful definition of it. So here’s my precise definition of the 1 percent response rule: The 1 Percent Response Rule: If you mail an average-size catalog, with merchandise of average desirability, at average-value price points, to an average selection of response lists, then your average response rate (number of orders