NEMOA Notebook
For those of you who don’t ordinarily attend NEMOA events, they’re usually like minireunions of longtime catalog practitioners and typically have a big "Rah! Rah! Go Catalog!" flavor to them. But the mood and whole underlying tone at the Spring 2009 NEMOA Conference held a couple of weeks ago in Boston was different from any NEMOA event I’ve ever attended.
In a nutshell, the theme this go-round was, “Hello? Reality check.” Sure, many of the longtime catalog guard were in attendance, and there were plenty of hugs and kisses and much catching up to go around. The NEMOA board and its boundlessly energetic directors, Janie Downey and Terri Patashnik, chose a wonderful new location (Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel) after many years at the aging Royal Sonesta in Cambridge, Mass., and the facilities were just right for the seminars.
But in most of the sessions and receptions, I kept hearing the same thing: Catalogers must get out of the mode of thinking of themselves as catalogers or even multichannel merchants. As one speaker pointed out so matter-of-factly, “We’re all sellers of product, period. The channel we sell from is up to our customers, and we have to be there for them wherever they choose.”
In fact, in gazing beyond my laptop, I noticed perhaps the most extreme levels of attentiveness taking place during sessions delivered by Christopher Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen and Clark Scheffy of IDEO, neither of whom even sell anything through catalogs.
Bottom line is, if you don’t broaden your marketing efforts well beyond print catalogs soon and change your whole mind-set about who you are and what your business is, you’ll be left behind.
‘Stop Focusing on the Catalog’
Bill LaPierre, Millard Group’s senior vice president of list brokerage, who at many past NEMOA conferences has delivered his no-holds-barred critiques of bad catalog efforts in his “What Were They Thinking?” presentations, focused primarily on catalogers’ Web efforts this time, even poking fun at a number of blunders made by NEMOA board members’ companies. In fact, he advised the catalogers in attendance to focus on customers going online and to “stop focusing on the catalog.”
Below are some other noteworthy takeaways from the conference. Also, see my recap of Monica Smith’s presentation in a separate article.
From Lauren Freedman of online consultancy the etailing group, consider trying the following Web tactics:
- respond to the needs of customers with an intriguing assortment and right mix of best-in-class features and functionality;
- reinvigorate your brand in support of overarching objectives;
- refine and elevate search to optimize finding and purchasing products fast;
- retool your content for a robust and rich experience;
- rethink promotional strategies to combat challenging economic times;
- reinvest your community agenda to create an inclusive customer model; and
- respond to the needs of your customers and prioritize the right revenue-driving tactics.
Gauging Growth for 2009
Scheffy, who heads the consumer experience design practice for the global design consulting firm IDEO and was an editor of the “For Dummies” book series, offered these growth ideas for this year:
Map your growth plan, and target the following regions for growth, he said, by “having projects going on in all of these spaces, not just one.”
- Incremental — existing offers to existing customers.
- Evolutionary — listening to needs and giving new offerings.
- Revolutionary — new products for new markets. “Don’t just throw a dart and say, ‘We’ll do this,’” he said. “Find where you can gain traction.”
Also, tell an insight-driven business story. “Truth beats myth,” he said. “Let them in” on it.
Kimball: Focus on a Brand
Kimball, who turned America’s Test Kitchen into an iconic brand for recipes and cooking, pointed to several vital benefits to developing brands. They lower competition, increase your profile, encourage loyalty and customer value, yield iconic recognition, produce clear customer benefits, increase your margins, lead to brand extensions, and increase lifetime value.
What’s more, when building your brand, do what you can to make it a “3-D brand,” Kimball said. “With all the choices out there, stand out somewhere so the consumer can relate to that brand. My brand has emotion and personality attached to it. And particularly with the Internet, if you don’t have that, you won’t get share of mind.”
