Securing the Future
It would have been difficult to come away uninspired by Patrick Connolly’s keynote speech at the Annual Catalog Conference in Chicago in May. The executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Williams-Sonoma offered some sage advice for his fellow catalogers.
First, don’t think of yourself as a cataloger but as a brand. And, he noted, people define your brand as much by what you sell as what you don’t sell. He shook his head at an example from one of his competitors in the kitchen marketplace: It’s begun to offer PDAs and personal groomers in its catalog.
That led to Connolly’s second insight: Quit whining, and fix the goods. “As an industry we have not done enough in merchandising as we should,” he said. Williams-Sonoma bought Pottery Barn in 1986 when it had 30 stores each averaging about $1 million in sales annually, Connolly noted. This year, Pottery Barn expects to generate $1.5 billion in sales. Connolly cited an expertly selected product assortment.
Third, focus not on customer service but on the customer experience. “As an industry we already do an excellent job of customer service,” he said. “Now we need to concentrate on the entire shopping experience, from creative to the knowledge of contact center reps.”
Fourth, he said, “The Net is not a threat; it is our future.” The catalog industry needs to own the Web, he said. “It took the catalog industry 100 years to reach 5 percent of total retail sales. Meanwhile, it took e-commerce only five years to reach 4 percent. We should have a larger share of Web sales than we do,” he said. “We have all of the infrastructure in place. We must become the experts in Web marketing.”
Finally, Connolly noted, individual catalogers must get involved in industry-wide initiatives. “Get to know your local legislators, so they know the jobs you generate and the taxes you pay.” He also advocated that catalogers get educated about the privacy-related issues facing legislators today, as well as what the industry can do to improve the environment.
“Challenge your paper and packaging suppliers to find post-consumer recycled products for you. Develop an environmental policy for your company and state it publicly,” Connolly suggested.
These strategies can help catalogers secure their future in a changing world. “There is no such thing as maintaining your position,” he said. “You’re either gaining ground or you’re losing it.”
