Catalog Doctor: Stop Wasting Resources
Wow, your team is supercharged. But it’s also stretched thin. Soon balls start dropping: The schedule slips on the regular catalog, a mailing is late, the new products aren’t on the Web site yet and three e-mail offers are blasted without key codes.
What a waste. New ideas are great — keep ’em coming. But also keep your eye on the ball. Have priority meetings to review available resources. Who “owns” each project? Can they handle that and their regular work? What are the relative costs? Which projects are likely to deliver the best return?
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
