A Chat With November’s Profile, Mark Desrochers, co-founder/marketing director, Classic Designs by Matthew Burak (Text & Audio)

CS: What about the catalog/direct marketing industry is most appealing to you?
MD: The people in the direct marketing industry that we’ve met have all been very kind and very generous to us. The people that we’re meeting at the trade shows and the conventions, and the consultants, they’re not … we don’t present any threat, so people have been very supportive and very generous with sharing information. And I think that must be true across the whole industry. Most everything we’ve learned, you’ve got a woodworker and you’ve got an offshore sailor, and most all of our success, in one way or another, can be attributed back to the kindness that’s been showed to us through the various trade associations over the years. Most everything we’ve learned, we’ve learned at the trade shows and conventions.
And one of the key things … we’re up here in the corner of northeastern Vermont, and the local economy isn’t all that vibrant. But direct marketing allows us to tap into the … it allows us to sell our products to furniture makers across the country. We have a much greater reach through direct marketing, both the catalog and the Internet. And that’s pretty powerful.