A Chat with Frank Glaser, president/owner, James’ and Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy

CS: You also said that when you started the catalog in 1999, you lacked experience. What specifically did you struggle with in those first two years?
FG: The biggest thing is that we didn’t understand the basic concepts of how to market to customers in the mail order industry. And the actual construction of that catalog... we worked with a local advertising agency/marketing firm that really wasn’t a catalog marketing firm. That really wasn’t a catalog company or specializing in catalogs. Our success was very limited. Whereas once we went to people who knew did this all the time and understood how to present something in a catalog, then success started to happen. We were trying to fly blind, or rather, we were running things like a retailer. Just put the product out there and people will buy it. But that’s not how this works.