Database: Spoils for the Loyal

Bill Dean, president of the catalog consulting firm W.A. Dean & Associates, thinks the average cataloger feels he or she doesn’t get enough repeat purchases to support such a program, which can be expensive to start and maintain.

“Most catalogers don’t really know their mix of customers,” Dean contends, “nor do they know what percentage of their 12-month buyers have made more than three purchases. For all the talk about RFM [recency, frequency, monetary value],” Dean continues, “most catalogers don’t move past recency and frequency. They select 90-day multibuyers.”