'Smart Change' at ACCM
One of the best takeaways for me from the recent Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) in New Orleans was the need to be open to “smart change,” a term I “borrowed” from Sarah Fletcher, creative director of Catalog Design Studios, a catalog creative consulting firm. She said, “The big take-home for me from this year's conference was No. 1, don't panic, and No. 2, be open to smart changes.”
In a session I moderated at ACCM called “How to Survive and Succeed Despite Tough Times,” Fletcher gave the following example: “I heard a lot of talk about moving to slim jims, but, as Mary Ann pointed out in her roundtable discussion, they don't pull the same weight as a full-size catalog. There's a place for slim jims as a sale book or an off-season mailer, but saving a little bit on postage and getting a big drop in response is going the wrong direction. You'd do better to trim your circulation and stay with a full-size book. Don't panic, and test before you make any big changes.”
I couldn't agree more. The days of simplistic answers are as gone as the days of not targeting segments of customers or not being mindful of return on investment.
In fact, the discussion of slim-jim catalog formats was a popular one. Gina Valentino, president of Hemisphere Marketing, observed: “The Q&A after the panel session that I led was an arena for attendees to share their current challenges and discuss how best to manage budgets for the third and fourth quarters. The discussion about the potential changes to slim-jim (maximum letter rate) specifications led to a revealing opportunity to mail flats rather than slim jims. Identifying significant postage savings with co-mailing combined with the cost and less user-friendly three tabs pending on a slim jim are causing mailers to rethink their strategies."
So what are some more smart changes? Fletcher defined a few: “Smart changes are things like leveraging your best-sellers by making sure they're in the best positions and have the best page placements, as well as making sure that your catalog is well-organized and easy to shop. Use cover lines and promotions. If you need inspiration, now is not the time to go out on a limb. If you can't afford to take a risk, examine what worked in the past and see if there's something you can bring back.”
Throughout ACCM, I found other indications of “smart change.” There was a new willingness to talk much more openly about the challenges we're all facing. For example, in my session we discussed how sales for March 2009 and April 2009 seemed to be unlike previous years, one month greater than usual and one month less. Many folks spoke up because they'd observed the same unusual sales pattern, describing what they felt were the causes and how the pattern could be normalized for reporting.
“The matchback panel session that I led revealed four different ways to conduct a matchback and how to utilize the data,” Valentino said. “Attendees not only asked good questions, but several people in like industries spent time after the session talking about their specific issues and sharing ideas with each other. I noticed there was more time spent talking in groups and offering suggestions to help each other manage through these tough times. For me it was encouraging to hear them talk about the future.”
Ronda Anderson, marketing manager for American Time and Signal, a retailer of clocks and clock systems, said, “I find the actionable advice the most useful from attending ACCM. I enjoy and thoroughly use the advice from the catalog and Web site critiques. I return home with an extensive to-do list, prioritized by what I can implement right away, and then add the rest to my long-term plans.”
Whether these smart changes are strategic or tactical, immediate or long term, they need to be tested in a calm and controlled environment. David Gaudreau, senior vice president of B-to-B media and services at Direct Media, summed it up nicely: “My main ‘takeaways’ from the 2009 ACCM were that those marketers who continue to prospect aggressively typically increase market share and, as merchants, you need to be looking at and considering all of your marketing assets as potential sources of new revenue.”
Mary Ann Kleinfelter is vice president of marketing at L-com, a B-to-B marketer of cables, connectors and other connectivity devices (mkleinfelter@L-com.com).
