The 50 Best Tips

— Stephen R. Lett, Lett Direct, Strategy column, “Circulation Planning: How the Rules Have Changed,” May, Catalog Success

✱ Set specific goals.

If you set concrete goals, you get concrete results from your competitor analysis. And you’ll avoid the risk of investing time and effort in a study that just gets filed away and forgotten. Launch five new catalog initiatives. Make them action-oriented. Avoid goals like, “Come up with five new ideas.” Ideas tend to get loved, filed and forgotten.