Spend to Grow

Catalogers tell me they don’t want to prospect below the incremental break-even point. That’s a nice goal, but it’s not realistic. Today’s economics, such as postage costs, paper prices, etc., combined with lower response (an ongoing trend that results mostly from list fatigue), are the main reasons catalog companies can’t break even on the initial order mailing to outside rented lists — and that includes the co-op databases.