Lands' End - Taking On Content (1,379 words)
Think about this: The Direct Marketing Association estimates the average household receives 1.7 catalogs per week. The direct marketing shopper is probably not in your average household, so that number jumps dramatically for the direct mail-responsive.
Now consider that there are roughly 100 million households in the United States. At the rate of 1.7 catalogs a week, it's safe to say the average consumer mailbox receives 88.4 books per year for an annual 8.84 billion in circulation.
From a marketer's point of view, explains Susan McIntyre, president of McIntyre Direct, if you're sending out 20 catalogs a year, you'll need to do something to make those efforts stand out—especially at peak mailing times.
That's the monstrous challenge Lands' End (which mailed 211 million catalogs in 1996) has been taking on since the rise of the mature catalog market. What seems to work in this giant's case is the addition of editorial copy that isn't always linked to products or a sales pitch. In fact, the concept's strength depends on the one reason anything gets done at Lands' End: the customer.
The Lands' End Way
Besides its flagship, the direct marketer puts out seven other catalogs: Beyond Buttondowns, Coming Home, Lands' End Corporate Sales, First Person Singular, Lands' End Kids, Lands' End Kids School Uniforms and Willis & Geiger.
What Lands' End knows the most about is its housefile. In particular, the company is aware that roughly 83 percent of its customers have college educations and are more likely to have post-graduate education. It also knows the average order size is two to three items totalling $95 to $100, a pretty good haul.
The company's customer focus can be seen in the ample copy it devotes to product descriptions. To raise customers' comfort level with buying direct, the catalog aims to provide everything customers could want to know about the garments and their construction.
There's a "truism" in direct marketing, says Marketing Systems Analysis President Ernie Schell, that copy sells —and the better the copy, the better the sales. For Lands' End, that truism is at work in the special editorial pages dedicated to non-sales content. The firm's objectives are clear-cut: What's best for the customer is best for the catalog, and right now that means lively stories, photo essays and enhanced product descriptions.
General Philosophy
It all began in 1985, reports Jack Reeves, executive creative director. That's the year the company started adding editorial-style content to the catalog. Over the years, the catalog has adopted a few other magazine elements such as cover headlines and blurbs on the products inside. At some point, a table of contents was positioned on the inside front cover to provide directions to categories of merchandise and to highlight editorial features.
In fact, the staff around Lands' End have come to refer to the catalog as a magalog now, says Reeves. In their eyes, the editorial content is a product in addition to the other products shown.
"It's actually not a new concept, the 'catazine' or 'magalog', but a practice that's been around for years," explains Schell. Including this extra content is useful to keeping customers involved in the catalog even if they're not buying something every time they get it.
Customer involvement is exactly what Reeves and his team strive to obtain with every editorial element added. The knowledge of customers and their habits led Lands' End to recognize that the people who buy from them are avid readers who appreciate the catalog for its entertaining and descriptive copy, as well as the product mix.
Therefore, the creative team develops content that will be "relished and looked forward to" from month to month, says Reeves.
Schell adds that getting customers used to the idea of something new and interesting, whether it's a puzzle or a story, in every catalog increases the likelihood that the effort will be noticed and possibly saved.
"Sussing" Out Content
In keeping with its customer focus, Lands' End doesn't wrangle up just any kind of features to run in the catalog. You won't find rock-and-roll star exposés or political diatribes.
No, the content matches the interests and enthusiasms of the consumers destined to read it. The style is also reflective of the company image Lands' End has worked hard to build for the past 33 years.
Previous efforts have run the gamut from a David Mamet short story to a three-part fiction series to a journalistic piece on growing cotton to product-based crossword puzzles.
According to Reeves, his team tries to find what has meaning for the customer, but they also like to keep it "eclectic" to mirror the customer's appreciation for the written word.
The main focus usually revolves around entertaining and educating the consumer on the quality of the products and the care put into selecting the best fibers and crafting the best garments possible.
"Lands' End travels around the world to find products to market," explains Reeves, "so that's a natural subject to bring to the customers. For example, the company uses Inner Mongolia as a source of cashmere, so editorial on the fibers, flora & fauna of the region and other cultural aspects can be incorporated into the catalog."
Seasonality also may impact the content or product references. In one instance, Lands' End used a non-product-oriented cover (i.e., a Fourth of July fireworks display) as an interesting visual element and then followed it up with an equally entertaining story inside. Even though there's no product connection, it fits with the summer mailing.
As mentioned before, the catalog commissions pieces from outside contributors, like Garrison Keiller and Mamet, who are encouraged to use their own style. However, Lands' End wants to be as informative and involving with all its content, so these writers are selected for their affinity with the catalog's market.
The other catalog spin-offs (Coming Home, Lands' End Kids, etc.) are a bit smaller in size, explains Reeves, so the main catalog provides the most room for extra content; all catalogs, however, offer some type of commitment to editorial-like copy and reader-friendliness.
According to McIntyre, Lands' End has positioned itself in its marketplace as a provider of quality merchandise at reasonable prices. It needs to tell this story over and over again in a believable way. Every extra step it can take, such as including appropriate non-sales content, just adds to this believable image. In fact, customers don't even have to read these extra pieces to still understand the warm, customer-focused company with which they interact.
Fitting It All In
Placement of editorial items within the catalog also demands attention. Just as stores design selling areas based on consumer behavior, so do catalog firms when they fill prime locations with the best-selling or brand-new merchandise.
So as not to compete with the sales design, Reeves works to juxtapose editorial content with related products, where possible and meaningful. For example, a story on cotton harvesting was positioned near 100% cotton V-neck sweaters and combed cotton sheets. To carry the theme throughout the catalog, spreads of cotton garments were highlighted with facts about cotton and pictures of cotton, while parts of cotton plants were photographed with the merchandise.
Reeves adds that if a longer feature jumps within the catalog layout, it's done with the natural connections between products and story line, providing continuity throughout.
As for content unrelated to specific product categories, such as what's new at Lands' End or a fun item like a crossword puzzle, the creative team likes to focus on the element of surprise to keep customers stimulated.
"We don't have a real formula for determining exactly what kind of stories or the placement in each catalog; it's just part of Lands' End's heritage and philosophy to keep the catalog interesting," he says.
The amount of content varies from issue to issue, but the company believes in the importance of stories about the products and their origin and manufacture—all contribute to informing the customer of the quality of the Lands' End brand and the benefits of each item so customers can determine what fits into their lifestyle.
Reeves explains that they look at the overall size of the catalog and view it holistically—product, pages and the enjoyment and education of the customer all go together for a complete package.
