Catalog Doctor: Avoid the ‘Lazy Syndrome’ Epidemic
Through our long boom, I watched many catalog/multichannel merchants get lazy. They fell away from cataloging fundamentals and adopted the approach, “Put it on paper, they’ll buy.” In a boom period, that may be enough. During a bust, it’s not.
In a bust period, you — and your whole catalog team — must think more and work harder on catalog fundamentals; you’ll be surprised at the gains. This month, let’s look at sales fundamentals.
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
