Making Work Fun and Meaningful

The database allows the catalog to explore a vast array of segmentation options and shed light on mistakes made with respect to circulation, says Morlee Griswold, Patagonia’s director of direct marketing. Early last year, following research that showed most of Patagonia’s direct customers bought via the Web, she cut catalog circ by one-third, thinking that the book wasn’t all that important to the buying process. Following the cut in circ, sales dropped immediately, even after increasing spending on search and e-mail, Griswold recalls. After some database analysis, she determined that it wasn’t simply that sales overall had decreased. The biggest drop in conversion happened with Patagonia’s very best customers, who were buying elsewhere when they didn’t receive catalogs as frequently.