A Grand Plan in Action

The metamorphosis of Rob and Diane O’Connor from wide-eyed idealists to razor sharp, gimlet-eyed catalogers who are on top of every facet of a $17 million merchandising operation is as inspiring as it is fascinating.

Now in their early 60s, the O’Connors are at the top of their game and supremely fit. How fit? Rob O’Connor recently ran a 150-mile marathon across the Sahara in 100-degree heat carrying on his back bedding, an eight-day supply of food and a small stove. In the process, he raised $17,000 for cancer research at the Cleveland Clinic as a thank you for his successful prostate surgery.

Rob’s trek for charity is but the tip of the iceberg in this Ohio couple’s mission to make the world a better place. Their catalog, Creative Irish Gifts, was set up specifically to generate revenues meant to help bridge the gap between Christian and Protestant children in Northern Ireland.

Catalog Revenues Fund Charitable Program

Dublin-born Rob O’Connor came to New York after college to see the world. He met Diane on a blind date in 1965, and they married soon thereafter, making their home in a tiny rented flat over Gleason’s Bar in lower Manhattan.

With a merchandising degree from the renowned Fashion Institute of Technology, Diane was working as an assistant buyer for Sears, while Rob began to make his way up the ladder in corporate America. Diane became pregnant with their first child, and Rob got a job with a Chicago company, where they lived for the next 17 years.

It was while in Chicago that they read an article about an organization that made it possible for foreign children — many of them under-privileged — to come to the United States in the summer and live with host families. Being devout Christians with a deep sense that they were put on this earth to do something more than simply earn a living, the O’Connors started the Irish Children’s Fund, and later, the Northern Ireland Children’s Fund. They felt it was their calling to do something to ameliorate the cruel segregation between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, specifically in the inner cities. There the neighborhoods are walled off with separate schools, shopping areas and parks.

The original premise of the nonprofit Irish Children’s Fund was to bring 150 12-year-olds — equal numbers of Protestants and Catholics, boys and girls, many of them poor and from single-parent homes — from these divided communities to America for five weeks in the summer to live with host families and provide them with shared experiences that could change their lives. Chicago, with its heavily Irish population, was a logical venue to find host families and financing.

With just $2,000 in the bank and operations functioning on a wing and a prayer, the O’Connors announced their grand scheme. A series of favorable newspaper articles prompted generous families in Chicago and northern Indiana to volunteer to host one or two children and help raise money. Somehow, through bake sales, tag sales, raffle tickets and the sale of a cookbook, they raised the $70,000 to bring over the first 150 children and 10 chaperones (teachers with the summer off).

In the minds of the O’Connors, the entire project was a series of minor miracles. “Things flowed and doors opened,” Rob O’Connor says. “Then some doors closed and others opened until it began to have a momentum of its own.”

Catholic Charities had a foster-care division, and the director was so moved by the proposition, he volunteered to send his field people to interview the prospective host families.

“In all the years we’ve been doing this,” Diane O’Connor says, “only a handful of families were judged as not being right to take on the responsibility.” Overall, the host families are “simply wonderful people,” she notes.

However, the seat-of-pants, grass-roots funding was leaving the O’Connors wildly overextended. A system had to be instituted to guarantee regular and long-term financing. In 1986, the O’Connors got it into their heads to launch a catalog, Creative Irish Gifts.

Today, the catalog is a wholly owned subsidiary of, and a revenue-generator for, the Irish Children’s Fund.

In the Beginning

To the O’Connors, starting a catalog was a logical step, especially given Diane’s background in merchandising. Rob continued working to pay the household expenses while Diane went to the Chicago Gift Show and ordered merchandise to be shipped to their home, which doubled as the catalog’s headquarters.

Shelving was built in the basement. Phone lines were installed and manned by volunteers. The company was open for business 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Diane assigned herself the role of company president. (For the first nine years, she took no salary.) In the beginning, many people donated their services, including a photographer friend who set up shop in the house for a marathon picture-taking session that lasted until dawn. And the printer was so touched by the proposition that he didn’t charge for his services.

The result was their first catalog, an eight-pager with 60 SKUs that broke every rule in the book (e.g., black pages with reversed-out, white, sans-serif type). It was mailed to a donated list of 17,000 individuals who had an interest in things Irish. The O’Connors personally affixed all 17,000 stamps and carted the finished books to the post office for mailing.

They were in business.

Building a Housefile

The first lesson they learned was that donated lists are not great. Sometimes neophyte direct marketers jump at the chance of saving list-rental charges by mailing to names for which they don’t have to pay. In this case the list was so old that 50 percent of the people had moved or were dead. At 50 cents per book in the mail, undelivered catalogs in this case would represent a waste of $4,250.

Plus, of course, one has to factor in the revenue and lost customers those mis-sent catalogs would’ve brought in had they gone to live names who were potential buyers. (The damage was not quite that severe, however, since the printing was donated.)

The catalog was run on a shoestring with some part-time help, and, given the low to non-existent overhead, broke even in its first two years. The O’Connors were helped enormously by the generosity of the Ireland of the Welcomes magazine that donated its list, enabling them to mail 100,000 really good names with a true affinity.

The Miracles Continue

In time, however, the O’Connors had to move. Not only was the catalog outgrowing the house, but they were operating a business in a residential zone with everything from FedEx trucks to giant semis rolling up to disgorge merchandise.

Rob got a call from an entrepreneur in Akron named Joe Kanfer, founder of GOJO, a manufacturer and distributor of soaps and cosmetics. He asked if the O’Connors would move to Akron. Rob said, “No, the Irish Children’s Fund was a Chicago institution and belonged there.”

But Kanfer made an offer the O’Connors couldn’t refuse. He made available a free building, warehouse space, shelving, furnishings, computers and all utilities for the catalog operation. The O’Connors moved to Hudson, OH, some 30 minutes from Rob’s new job in Akron.

More miracles came their way. The proprietor of the What on Earth catalog, Jared Florian, became their mentor and gave the O’Connors a piece of breakthrough advice: Mail more often than once a year. Says Rob, “We considered that to be a miracle!”

In addition, Florian put them in touch with Mokrynski & Associates who acted as list brokers and managed their fledgling list.

They were on their way to cataloging success.

Fast Forward

Eight years ago, when the catalog was generating about $1 million annually, Diane went to the Irish Children’s Fund board and suggested it was time she started taking a salary. The board agreed.

After that, board members decided the company needed someone who was comfortable with Excel spreadsheets, and could bring corporate expertise in the areas of marketing, circulation, forecasting and accounting. The logical choice was Rob who’d been living with the catalog since 1986. He signed on as vice president.

Today, Creative Irish Gifts is a moderately sized catalog that stocks about 860 SKUs acquired from 181 vendors. It has a 12-month buyer file of roughly 150,000 names, and is growing with a projected $17 million in revenue this year, up $2 million from 2002.

In terms of efficiency and sophistication, however, it’s a world-class operation. For starters, the O’Connors are involved in a highly complex personnel juggling act, with a cadre of about 20 employees that balloons to 100 — a veritable army of part-timers — during the late fall and holiday season when they can expect about 60 percent of their annual revenue. Their large, spotlessly neat warehouse ships out anywhere from 350 orders a day in the summer to 3,500 a day in the high season.

Merchandise Hits and Misses

Creative Irish Gifts is essentially Diane O’Connor’s baby. To acquire merchandise, she attends gift shows in Chicago, New York and Dublin. She continually monitors competing catalogs (e.g., Cash’s, Shannon, Blarney) to see what they’re offering and at what price.

“If we offer a Belleek piece for $110,” she says, “and one of our customers sees it in Shannon for $90, she isn’t happy.”

The most popular catalog items are clothes, jewelry and anything with a claddagh design (an ancient Irish design featuring hands, heart and crown that symbolize friendship, love, and loyalty.) For years at one of the merchandise shows, a vendor urged the O’Connors to carry a T-shirt decorated with potatoes and pasta for Irish-Italian families. Diane finally relented, and it went off the charts.

Another hot-selling item around St. Patrick’s Day is the leprechaun outfit for adults. But the very best-selling item of all time is a simple Irish Angel Pin for $5.98. It’s estimated they’ve sold 170,000 of them during the years.

Their biggest flop was a small, $100 woolen rug with a low relief design. Rob loved it because the design was cut into the wool by the sheep-shearing champion of Ireland. The item was ordered by all of three customers.

Catalog Creative

To create the catalog, Diane journeys to Santa Barbara, CA, where she works with a freelance creative team consisting of art director Brian Hirakami, photographer Richard Salas and moonlighting copywriter Cathy Pollock who works for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

“Imagine,” Diane says, “an Irish catalog created by a Japanese-Hawaiian, a Mexican-American and me, a Ukrainian!”

She says she is very hands-on during the creative sessions. “I listen to what the others say, but the final decisions are always mine.”

Her design philosophy: It’s imperative to give as much information as possible — especially in clothing sizes — so customers don’t have to waste time and money calling with questions. And throughout the catalog there is copy urging customers to visit the company’s Web site (shopirish.com).

Interestingly, the catalog’s cover is never used for selling. Instead, the O’Connors put there a highly evocative photograph of Ireland to set the mood. Every few years their son Rory goes back to the Old Country on a photographic expedition, resulting in a massive photo bank that now has more than 8,000 images from which to choose. Diane designs the covers herself, and the cover photos are made available to customers for framing.

Circulation and Surveys

Rob’s bailiwick includes the catalog’s circulation, operations and fulfillment. Catalogs go out 13 times a year for a total quantity of about 8 million. The fall catalog is 56 pages, with eight more pages added for an early holiday drop. Three holiday books of 72 pages go out in October, November and early December.

The O’Connors also pay close attention to numbers. A couple of years ago Rob sensed a trend that, while customers were buying the same number of items on each order, the average sale was less. That is, they were selling more items at lower price points. So the O’Connors have skewed the catalog slightly to reflect the wants of their customers.

Because the O’Connors care passionately about giving their customers the very best service, they use BizRate.com, an Internet survey system. Whenever customers order from the Web site, they’re asked to complete a simple survey. Many do, and the replies are forwarded to Creative Irish Gifts daily with comments — good and occasionally bad — that the O’Connors slavishly read and, if required, take action.

Why This Catalog Operation is So Special

As noted previously, the catalog was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Irish Children’s Fund, which it still is today. The only difference is that it has since changed from a nonprofit to a for-profit enterprise, and as such, the catalog is mailed at full postal rates.

Although the O’Connors are the visionaries and responsible for every facet of the operation, they’re salaried employees with no equity. The entire purpose of the operation is to benefit the children of Northern Ireland through the Irish Children’s Fund.

And because of the O’Connors, and their vision, the world is indeed a better place.

At a Glance:
Creative Irish Gifts
12-month housefile: 146,401
Demographics: family- and home-centered individuals; age 45+; average HH income, $72,000; 84 percent own their own homes; 76 percent are women
List rental cost: $105/M
List manager: Mokrynski & Assoc., (201) 488-5656

About Creative Irish Gifts
Headquarters: Streetsboro, OH
Merchandise: Irish-made and -inspired gifts, apparel, home furnishings and jewelry
2003 annual revenue: $17 million (estimated)
Company mission: To benefit children in Northern Ireland through the Irish Children’s Fund, of which the catalog is a wholly owned subsidiary
Rank on the Catalog Success Top 200 List: 107 (as measured by housefile-growth rates)
Average order value: $67 (Internet $70)
Number of catalogs mailed annually: 8 million
Printer: Quad Graphics

Denny Hatch, contributing editor, consultant and freelance copywriter, is the author of the books “Method Marketing” and “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success.” He can be reached at dennyhatch@aol.com or via his Web site: www.methodmarketing.com.