The Editor's Take: What's It Really All About Now?

In tough times like these, companies often look for Band-Aids to slap over problems so they can get by. This year we all have problems, and the catalog business isn’t immune to them. In many respects, namely the losing battle they continue to fight with the USPS (although at press time, there was a glimmer of hope for postage to be adjusted downward for larger-volume mailers), catalogers are hurting worse than others.

Since the beginning of this year, my colleagues and I have taken a long, hard look at what’s going on in the general economy and within this business — as well as our own business. I’ve talked to many readers. Our sales team has spoken with many advertisers. We’ve sought to gauge what your needs and concerns are, not just now, but for the next several years. At the recent NEMOA Conference in Boston, I also got an earful on the current and future state of this business as we know it.

Bottom line? A change is gonna come. It simply has to. Bill LaPierre of list firm Millard Group perhaps summed it best up during his NEMOA presentation: “We are sticking to our ink and paper roots, our protective list strategies, and our perception of our brand’s importance. And we are becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the consumer — particularly the consumer buying online.”

In a nutshell, if you think of yours as a catalog or even a multichannel company, you could get left behind. In today’s Web-centric environment, consumers have access to so much information that you can’t go on doing business the way you always have.

The manner in which you sell depends on how your customers want to transact with you. It’s all about the integration of your selling methods so customers will remain your customers for a long time.

Something New From Us
That’s where we come in. Starting with our June issue, we’ll do our part to guide you through the current rough waters and well beyond the post-recession environment. We’re going to broaden our focus to not only help catalog merchants redefine and reinvent themselves so they can thrive going forward, but also to help online and brick-and-mortar retailers, all with the same common goal: integration.

Watch your mailbox for our new look, broadened focus and, yes, a new name. We’ll be introducing All About ROI: Retail/catalog Online Integration. (You can see our new logo below.) We’ll continue to come out monthly, have richer content on our Web site and a better e-newsletter.

It’s our intent to be a one-stop read to help you grow your business in ways you wouldn’t have imagined just 10 or even five years ago. If you take a macro view of it, you can see that the retail business has become one big melting pot. Store retailers, catalogers, online merchants, B-to-B sellers, even brand marketers all can learn from one another unlike ever before.

Moving forward, it’s going to be all about the integration of your selling methods, regardless of what your primary sales mode is. As you can see from our new tagline, the “ROI” has a double entendre, and everything you do will need to show some sort of payoff. That’s not to say testing will go away, of course. But we’ll all have to watch our bottom lines a lot closer; a maximum ROI strategy will be crucial.

Historically, catalog, store, online and B-to-B merchants, despite all being diverse forms of retailers, haven’t had very much in common. Today and beyond, that won’t be the case. The Internet changed all that, making consumers and business buyers more savvy. Promoting your brand and selling your product line in the manner your customers want to shop will rely on how well you can integrate your efforts and make them seamless.

That’s what we’re going to represent with All About ROI, and I’m excited about this evolution. Over time, it’s going to make you — and us — more successful.

Enjoy this month’s issue of Catalog Success, as it’s packed with our usual assortment of money-making ideas. Then starting with our June issue, I not only assure you of more profitable ideas coming along in our patented, economical how-to format, but I can also guarantee that these will be the kinds of ideas you’ll need in order to thrive in the future.

Catalog Success isn’t going away — it’s progressing into All About ROI. This ain’t no Band-Aid, and I hope you and your business will evolve and grow with us for years to come.