Top brokers describe today’s challenging catalog list market

Bogner: It hasn’t changed: The greatest challenge is that there just aren’t a lot of new lists coming along. But, on the positive side, you have newer tools to work with, more vehicles for making existing lists work—things like using Z-24 to make a magazine file work for a catalog mailing.

Maylander: The challenge has been finding fresh names from new catalog launches, new channels and new markets. Many mature catalogers are prospecting flat compared to last year and thus only targeting their most profitable lists and limiting testing to only sure bets. Unless a cataloger launches a new product line that targets a secondary market, we are left with targeting the same core lists with each mail campaign.