Cover Story: REI Treks Ahead

REI’s catalog is also a crucial part of the co-op membership experience that comes with being an REI member. “It’s still one of its best prospecting tools, largely because it has trimmed away much of the excess product baggage and made the book very efficient,” Millard’s LaPierre says.

Moving forward, although LaPierre believes REI will continue to need names to support its prospect catalog, “as more of REI’s purchase activity evolves online, like every other cataloger, REI needs to examine the role of e-mail prospecting lists. And as it continues to open more stores, it’ll need to build retail store prospecting models that evaluate prospects’ propensity to shop retail vs. online.”