Portrait of a Pioneer

While in the library doing research for a graduate course in marketing, I analyzed some catalogs such as Spiegel, Lands’ End, and Smith & Noble. Then I came across two old Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs published in 1897 and 1908.

At first, I read the Sears books only out of curiosity. The catalogs ran to almost 1,200 pages and included a seemingly endless selection of food, clothing and machines. The company sold more than 100,000 items at the time, consistent with its tag line, “We Sell Everything.”

Indeed, the cataloger even sold kit homes, and customers could furnish those homes with kitchen sinks, lumber and even coal sold directly from the pages of the Sears catalog. By 1925, Sears was the largest mail order operation in the United States.

That accomplishment didn’t come easily, however. General Robert Wood, former Sears chairman and the engineering and management genius who built the Panama Canal, once said: “[At Sears,] we had a 100-percent record of mistakes. We hadn’t overlooked a single mistake. We made them all.”

But they obviously learned a lot along the way. The more I read the old turn-of-the-century Sears catalog

the more I discovered important strategies and sales techniques that contemporary catalogers still are using today, such as money-back guarantees, free trial offers and free catalog offers.

More importantly, I came away with a better understanding of what today’s catalogers could learn from the old Sears initiatives. This was a chance to review the strategies and success factors of the catalog from my own viewpoint as someone who lives in the era of customer relationship management.

Strategies, Tactics and Offers

• Money-back guarantee: A quote from one of these early Sears catalogs promises: “If the goods we send you are not found to be perfectly satisfactory, they can be returned to us at our expense, and the money sent us, together any freight or express charges paid, will be immediately refunded.”

Even items such as pianos and sewing machines were guaranteed for more than 20 years!

Lesson learned: Sears’ merchants selected products in which they had supreme confidence regarding quality and customer satisfaction.

• Lower price and higher quality guarantee: Sears not only sold its products for less, but also accepted returned goods at its own expense (including transportation charges) from any customer who later found a similar product elsewhere at a lower price or a higher-quality product at the same price.

Lesson learned: Because of the faith required on the shopper’s part for a transaction by mail, Sears used these types of guarantees to enhance trust levels. Obviously, customer trust was important to this cataloger.

• Loss leaders: In the last eight pages of the catalog—the bargain pages—Sears offered about 300 small items such as spoons and fans, priced at just 2 cents or 6 cents each.

Lesson learned: Clearly, customer loyalty was important to Sears. The company wanted its shoppers to enjoy the Sears catalog experience and then continue buying more products up and down the price-point scale.

• Free trial and free sample offers: Sears used free trial offers for items such as cream separators and horse clipping machines to help assure wary customers that the products truly would match the descriptions and drawings in the catalog. Sears also offered free swatches for apparel, wallpaper and carpets.

Lesson learned: Sears knew then that people sometimes can be hesitant to buy from a book. Company executives designed offers specifically meant to alleviate customers’ concerns about purchasing products sight unseen.

• Other strategies included discounts for club orders (a primitive form of a customer-loyalty program), quantity price offers (e.g., 3 for $1), special offers for customers who referred other customers, and free requested catalogs. Sears even published in its catalog a bank letter from the First National Bank of Chicago, apparently designed to boost the company’s credibility among shoppers.

Then there was the shrewd policy of accepting orders written in various languages (e.g., German, Swedish) and offering testimonials in the native tongues. This practice demonstrated genuine concern for recent immigrants whom Sears officials undoubtedly saw as valued customers with special needs.

The fundamentals underlying all of these features were simple enough: take a customer-centric approach to ensure customer satisfaction and maintain shoppers’ loyalty.

Importance of Customer Satisfaction

Sears understood its shoppers and sought to maximize customer satisfaction, not just sales. Indeed, all of the catalog’s elements were designed to give first consideration to the customer.

For example, there were features such as thoughtful articles offering practical guidance on how to order, return items and save money. Additionally, the catalog featured an easy literary style and detailed, straightforward instructions about the characteristics and benefits of its product offerings.

The catalog devoted the first 13 pages to valuable tips for customers, including an explanation of the ordering process that’s the kindest one I’ve ever seen: “Don’t be afraid you will make a mistake. We are accustomed to handling all kinds of orders.”

In addition, Sears sold its products at low prices, and then diligently maintained those prices. In time customers came to realize that Sears could be trusted to deliver the best prices around. Most of the testimonials in these old catalogs were related to money saved, thanks for the wide variety of items sold and appreciation for the low prices.

A couple of key tactics to maintain its low prices also stand out. For example, Sears employed direct transactions between customers and manufacturers. During the 19th century, most rural Americans bought their goods from middlemen such as traveling salesmen, peddlers and local stores. Direct transactions between customers and manufacturers brought about a revolution in low prices.

Moreover, Sears bought large quantities of merchandise, which enabled the company to pass on its discounts to customers. As today’s merchants can attest, maintaining competitive pricing still is crucial to catalog success.

Sears also established and enhanced its credibility in particular, and mail order in general. One way it did this was by including in its catalogs illustrations of its buildings and warehouses to show that there was a real company behind the catalog pages. And it added reassuring guarantees and personal testimonials.

Finally, the catalog’s copy and illustrations focused on sales, but did so without being heavy-handed and thereby risking the loss of customer satisfaction. There was a light touch to it all.

Although this catalog isn’t highly polished like most present-day catalogs, it doesn’t miss the chance to sell products through the use of teaser copy, loss leaders and headlines touting low prices.

Conclusion

Although about 100 years have passed since these catalogs were published, Sears’ successful approach—from its acute understanding of what customers want to the smallest details in copy and illustration—remains instructive for today’s catalogers.

Indeed, many of the cataloging tactics that Sears pioneered have been adapted to present-day titles.

Of course, there are many more success factors than the ones mentioned here, but the most important—and most basic—is customer satisfaction based on understanding the shopper.

Sears at the turn of the last century made every effort to take care of its customers in excellent ways—even without the use of computers or the Internet.

Through the long lens of history, we can see that Sears didn’t just sell products—it also tried to achieve overall customer satisfaction, a good lesson for catalogers of any era.

Sang-Youb Lee is vice president of KODMA, the first direct marketing agency in South Korea, and a graduate student in the Direct and Interactive Marketing Program at New York University. He can be reached via e-mail at sangyoublee@naver.com or SYL239@nyu.edu.