Catalog Doctor: Break Out of the Catalog Mold
Collect All Your Junk Mail
Most catalog marketers save all the catalogs in their mailboxes, but throw out the rest of their ad mail. Start saving those unwanted direct mail envelopes, postcards and self-mailers; then study them. Look at copy, design and offers to stimulate new thinking for your covers and intro spreads. Study formats, too. There might be great ideas to spice up your contact strategy between catalog mailings.
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.
