Dive Into a New Product Category

Says Minix, “Give them a heads up if you’re testing new product categories. Response might be boosted simply because a new item worked well on a test list segment. But what if it sold well to only that particular list? The next time the product could bomb if you don’t rent that list again.”

In a similar vein, Revello shares this story: “At Good Catalog, we tried to add some apparel to the mix. It didn’t do well. It wasn’t that the merchandise was no good. We didn’t go to an apparel catalog customer. We weren’t mailing to apparel lists. It would’ve been a very expensive test — a major commitment — to not only be testing a new product category but also a new list segment.”