Boston Proper Billion-Dollar Opportunity

By Donna Loyle

Unique merchandise, exceptional visual branding and a textbook e-commerce strategy give Boston Proper a leg up on its competition.

Boston Proper CEO Michael Tiernan calls it "The Billion-Dollar Opportunity."

His vision encompasses a multichannel strategy targeting affluent, self-assured, baby boomer women — a generation notorious for its conviction that it will stay vibrant and sexy long into old age.

Tiernan's Boston Proper catalog and e-commerce site offer unique, fashion-forward and sexy apparel, shoes and accessories to well-educated and busy women primarily in the 35-to-55 age range. They may have children, husbands and extended families, but they buy from Boston Proper for themselves, says Margaret Moraskie, e-commerce director for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based marketer.

"They tell us they like the fresh merchandise," she says. "Our unique merchandise is the big driver of our customers' satisfaction. They particularly love that they don't see themselves everywhere."

Delivering that unique selling proposition via a solid direct marketing strategy that encompasses an eye-popping print catalog and a cutting-edge Web site is Tiernan's "billion-dollar" primary focus and strength.

Visual Branding

Boston Proper officials hang their hats on their ability to stay focused on customer needs and on their high-quality visual branding. To meet customers' demands for fresh looks, most merchandise is proprietary or branded. Sometimes, Boston Proper buyers even will help develop product lines. They shop both domestically and in Europe to find fashion curves, and 60 percent to 70 percent of merchandise is produced overseas, Moraskie says.

To help its busy customers edit their shopping choices, Boston Proper organizes entire outfits. "We heard customers say they don't like to pack too many pairs of shoes [when they travel], says the company's executive vice president and chief creative and Internet officer, Skip Hartzell."We picture one pair of shoes with several outfits. We talk in the copy about our shoe line's versatility."

Moraskie adds that customers "want the total look. We show them everything from hats to shoes, presented together," she says. "For example, accessories and shoes pop up on every page online. This takes the thinking out of shopping."

And that, she says, is what Boston Proper's self-defined busy and active customers say they want.

To be sure, the Boston Proper shopper shuns conservative apparel. Likewise, skimpy junior fashions prompt her to turn the page. "Our customers want to feel sexy, but not like a 19-year-old," Hartzell says. "So the clothes need just enough coverage for the maturing body. We look for fashions that are subtly sexy and yet still age appropriate."

During photo shoots, which usually take place in sunny locales, the creative team has license from the merchants to "kick it up a notch," Hartzell describes. "We do this by selecting accessories that bring a fresh look to the clothes, or we'll layer or button the clothes in a unique way."

In short, to achieve Boston Proper's distinct visual branding, Tiernan empowers his creative and merchandising teams to "drive the bus," Moraskie says.

Lessons in E-commerce

In 2000, just 12 percent of Boston Proper's sales came in via its Web site. And it's no wonder: While attractive, the site was slow and difficult to shop from and navigate. "It couldn't deliver the sales we wanted," Hartzell says. Moreover, the site could only barely handle the large volume of visitors after a catalog drop.

Last year, Boston Proper partnered with MarketLive, an e-commerce solutions provider, and relaunched its site. Ken Burke and his team at MarketLive helped Boston Proper improve its navigation and ability to upsell and cross-sell via the Web. "We're now using some best practices, templating engines and more graphics," Moraskie says. "We're such a visual brand that those things are important to us."

In addition, the checkout process has been markedly improved. And Moraskie says she now has more control over the site, so she's better able to quickly post products and offerings as she deems appropriate. Indeed, Moraskie and her team refresh the site before each catalog drop, generally every three to four weeks. To help advertise the site, Boston Proper sends e-mails to its customer list touting a sneak peak at the new merchandise before the catalog arrives in their homes.

Both Moraskie and Hartzell laud their work with MarketLive "We've been using them for about a year now," Moraskie says, "and so far we've had two really good strategy reviews with them. We analyzed the site, did audits, and they made good recommendations. It's good to have another pair of eyes on the site besides ours. They give us objective recommendations."

The company also gets recommendations and feedback from its own customers. It uses BizRate for after-purchase surveys, and it pops up a query box when customers abandon their shopping carts. "We've learned so much from these feedback mechanisms," Hartzell says. "Our customers are the type that definitely will tell us what they liked and didn't like."

Such tactics of trusting experienced e-commerce partners and listening to and responding to customers' thoughts appear to be working for Boston Proper. Internet sales accounted for 45 percent of overall sales last year, having grown 75 percent.

When asked what other catalogers should beware of when shopping for e-commerce partners and solutions, Hartzell advises, "Keep it simple. There are technology people out there who will sell you products that will take you off your focus. They'll sell you all the bells and whistles, but our customers generally don't want all of that. They want to get onto our site, shop easily and go on their way. As we said, they're busy women."

Moraskie agrees, adding, "The lesson is: Beware of the new big thing. It's OK not to adopt it if it doesn't meet your needs. You can make some things your edit points. For example, if it's something that's too hard for customers to figure out, that's an edit point right there."

At Boston Proper, e-commerce is now integrated into all aspects of the company, from weekly merchandise meetings to gatherings of operations personnel — even photo shoots. Photographers are told ahead of time which merchandise must be shot separately and differently to make it more appealing to online shoppers.

Multititle and Multichannel

Since 2003, the company has spun off two catalogs, both of which are mailed annually. Boston Proper Sport, first mailed in 2003, was developed in response to the large number of customers who had bought sporting apparel from the cataloger. Sales for the book have been above plan every mailing, Hartzell claims.

And last year, the company launched Boston Proper Travel, which offers travel apparel and accessories. Again, the large number of customers buying such items from the main catalog prompted company executives to devise a spin-off. For this title as well, sales were above plan.

To garner more prospects for all three Boston Proper titles, the company rents mailing lists and participates in two cooperative databases: Abacus and Z24. Moreover, it's launching an online affiliate-marketing program this year with LinkShare, and it has a search engine marketing program.

"We're hoping affiliate marketing will bring us new customers, those who shop mostly online and may not get our print catalogs," Hartzell notes. "And of course, all of our Internet shoppers will get a catalog from us."

Throughout the catalogs, Boston Proper touts its Web site. In fact, the Travel book's opening spread focused on the Web site, reiterating to customers that many more items were available online.

To keep the multichannel message pertinent, Moraskie says Boston Proper has developed strong and consistent internal communications between creative, marketing, contact center, distribution center and all other departments. This way, she notes, everyone is on the same page, no matter which channel they focus on.

Four Future Challenges

Would Michael Tiernan, who once owned 19 retail stores, ever again venture into the brick-and-mortar world? "We have no formal retail strategy at this time," Hartzell says. "But retail is part of that billion-dollar opportunity that Michael talks about. When we open stores, they will be special and reflect the brand."

A second challenge, he says, is to grow both the top line and bottom line at the same pace. "Growing the top line is easy. You just mail more catalogs, but that may not give us exactly the profits we expect," he says.

Finding the right staff members, and then recognizing and rewarding their hard work, is another cited challenge.

Finally, the company will need to devise a methodology to effectively change the business as the primary customer demographic ages. "We can't just grow old with them," Hartzell says. "We have to change, too, and yet remain relevant and pertinent in their lives."

In the end, however, Hartzell notes that the Boston Proper business is now well defined. "We simply want to continue to grow that response, to grow what we have." That is, to leverage Tiernan's billion-dollar opportunity.

Donna Loyle is the former chief editor of Catalog Success.