A Chat with October’s Profile, Bill Boatman, Founder and Owner of Bill Boatman and Company

Catalog Success: How was the catalog established?

Bill Boatman: Prior to printing my first catalog in 1955, I owned a small grocery store. While running the grocery store I was buying space ads in specialty hunting magazines advertising accessories for dog hunters. I decided to buy an inexpensive mail-order course to start learning the catalog business. I started by collecting and processing the names and addresses of the customers at the grocery store. When I’d collected about 3,000 names and addresses, I mailed my first catalog.

I realized the need for a direct catalog for hunters. I felt that with direct response from a catalog my competitors were going to be lost.

CS: What was your biggest initial challenge(s)?

BB: I didn’t see a challenge that I didn’t think I could handle. Looking back today, learning the most effective way to place products. I also had a hard time with pricing, trying to keep an eye on the competition at the same time keeping an eye on the bottom line.

CS: How did you deal with them?

BB: Reading the mail-order books and writings of some of the experts in the field, like David Ogilvy, Max Sacheim, Vic Schwab, I learned to put merchandise on the front and back cover, which many catalogs don’t do. Everything I’ve read says that pages two and three are the most effective pages to sell. The books and articles acted as a reference guide when I had a problem/question. I also began to stress the benefits of owning the product, rather than the individual features. Everyone’s selfish to some degree.

CS: What have been your keys to success?

BB: I realized as the years rolled by how much the electronic dog field was growing. We started to incorporate the electronic products into our catalog, buying from the electronic manufacturers. We were able to integrate the products by analyzing all the available products and only offering the best. Our number one line of collar offers a lifetime warranty.

CS: What is your current challenge?

BB: The postal rates. We saw a 40 percent hike in our postal costs. The good thing with our catalog is that it has an extremely long life. Within the last year we’ve had orders from catalogs that are 15 years old.

CS: How are you dealing with that challenge?

BB: We’ve started to do a lot of co-mailing. We print slim-jims and have for about ten years now, which helps cut down on some of the cost. We’re doing a costs vs. revenue analysis to determine how we can become most efficient, how many times a year to drop the catalog. We’re still undecided on how many times a year to mail.

CS: What was your biggest mistake and how did you recover from it?

BB: It took us a while to learn that the seasons of the year played seriously into our response rates. We attempted to mail too heavy and during the off-season when we started. Hunting is primarily a fall and winter activity. We began to stagger our mail drops, increasing drops in the fall and winter months while lessening drops during the off-season, spring and summer. We also use data analytics, particularly RFM, to keep the catalog running at peak efficiency. The basics haven’t changed, it’s just that today we have instant access to response rates.

CS: What sets your company apart from the others?

BB: We’re working for a limited audience and we’ve chosen to stay in our niche. Most of the competition has disappeared in our niche. Only two to three percent of our business is from walk-ins, but these people pass us along to their family and friends. We’ve become a tradition amongst some families. I’ve been dealing with many of the same customers for decades, some of whom I’ve become good friends with. A lot of times a guy will come into the store and will say ‘my father used to buy from you’ and then you remember his family.

CS: What about the business appeals to you?

BB: Early on the appeal was as a sales tool. I found it to be more profitable than taking out space ads in the magazine journals. Now I enjoy the customers. A cross section of our mailing lists would be very interesting. We have doctors, lawyers, as well as everyday people like farmers, mechanics. They all know one another. Hunting dog people form a loose, strategic alliance, with one central point in common — they were all born in a rural area. The rural audience has been good to us even through the economic downturns.

CS: How do you keep things fun at the company?

BB: Interaction with my staff. We have semi-monthly to monthly dinners, a Christmas party. We also go out bird hunting together. We even have a 25-year old female that works for us that goes out hunting with the rest of us. Most of us are just plain country folks. I also have to give credit to my wife, Caroline. She takes care of most of the day-to-day operations, supervision. I couldn’t do it without her.

CS: Have you had any mentors? Have you been a mentor to anyone?

BB: David Ogilvy, Max Sacheim, Vic Schwab — all of these people were influential in helping me start the publication. I don’t mentor competitors. No, I shouldn’t say that, it’s not nice. I’ve mentored friends in the business as allies and tried to help people. But it was more a strategic alliance. I was learning as much from them as much as they were learning from me. Some people I kept in contact with were Jim Roy of McFeeley’s and Ruth Boyce of Cats, Cats and More Cats.

CS: What are your hobbies?

BB: Well hunting of course! I just enjoy country living. I cut my own firewood here at the house. We live about 30 miles from the airport and we have as much noise and traffic from the planes as we do with cars on the street. We’ve just come to enjoy the simple things in life.