Management

Rule of thumb: A catalog company can’t break even on the initial orders generated from prospects. Catalogers must be willing to invest to acquire new buyers to grow, or at least maintain, their 12-month buyer count. This month, I’ll cover the cost to acquire a new buyer, why it’s important to invest in prospecting and why you shouldn’t expect to break even on the initial order. Catalogers tell me they don’t want to prospect below the incremental break-even point. That’s a nice goal, but it’s not realistic. Today’s economics, such as postage costs, paper prices, etc., combined with lower response (an ongoing trend

BACKGROUND: Rob Johnston Jr. founded the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog on a farm in New Hampshire when he was 22. He spent most of his life on farms, and is now in his 34th year running the business as its chairman. BIGGEST INITIAL CHALLENGE: Unfamiliarity with the catalog business. “The biggest challenge was the day-to-day operations of running a business,” Johnston says. “The creativity or the energy to do the work was never an issue. Not having run a business beforehand was the biggest factor.” HOW HE OVERCAME THAT CHALLENGE: “I gradually grew the product line itself, which allowed me to hire people to run the

Back in the fall of 2005, Larry Gaynor enlisted the Gallup Organization to work with his company. The founder and president of B-to-B salon supplies cataloger The Nailco Group (TNG) had read about the firm’s extensive business consultancy, most notably The Gallup Path, a method that connects employee performance with a company’s bottom line. With annual sales of $85 million and a talent pool of 315 (at TNG, you’re not an “employee,” you’re “talent”), TNG is considerably smaller than most of the companies Gallup works with. Gaynor, however, believed that Gallup’s guidance on employee and customer engagement would benefit his team and, ultimately, the

NEMOA at 60: ‘Small’ Event Yields Big Ideas This month’s NEMOA conference in Portland, Maine, Sept. 19-21, marks the 60th anniversary for what started — and remains — a small specialized trade group. For many long-time members, NEMOA is all about conferences. The group holds semiannual conferences each March and September designed for catalog/multichannel marketers. “The main value of NEMOA is being able to get together and network,” says 20-year member Dan Walter, president and founder of Eagle America, a woodworking tools and accessories catalog. “You learn tricks of the trade from the people you meet, whether it be from a high-powered speaker

Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, September 2007 Interview by Joe Keenan Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Rob Johnston Jr.: The catalog was started in 1973. I was the original founder at the age of 22 when I started the catalog on a farm in New Hampshire. CS: What is your primary merchandise? Johnston Jr.: Seeds. From vegetables, flowers, herbs and farm seeds for covering crops. Vegetable seeds make up 70 percent of our business. CS: What was your biggest initial challenge? Johnston Jr.: The biggest challenge was the day-to-day operations of running a business. The creativity or the energy to do

I recently toured a long-standing B-to-B catalog company and was struck by the aura of its offices and people. As I walked through its call center, telephone reps were smiling and happy. They graciously said hello to me as a visitor (when they really had no clue who I was), and were courteous, polite and respectful of each other and themselves. Their body language spoke volumes.
Happy to be there, they worked productively with their friends, serving customers in the best way possible. They were eager to support, assist and compliment each other. The environment was professional and clean, and you could tell

Well into the second decade of the Internet, many of you reading this — if not all of you — have a pretty good recollection of the “Wild Wild West” days of the Internet early on. It actually still is the Wild West, but in a much different way. And, having sat in on a number of sessions at the e-Tail conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, I noticed the breadth of knowledge that’s permeated the catalog/multichannel community and helped give it an entirely different character than it had 10 years ago. For one, consider how the language has changed. In the mid-’90s, I

Whether they’re great CEOs from good companies, good CEOs from great companies or great CEOs from fantastic companies, these people often don’t want to let the rest of the world know what’s made them or their companies so great. So, it was a joy to sit in on a wonderful presentation by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh during the e-Tail conference in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8. He openly reeled off 10 truly fascinating ways Zappos has succeeded in its first eight years as a dot-com seller of shoes and apparel. What does your company have in common with the $800 million Zappos? For

People On the Move MCM Electronics: Phil Minix has been named president of Centerville, Ohio-based B-to-B catalog distributor MCM Electronics. A member of the Catalog Success editorial board, Minix is a 12-year veteran of the catalog/direct business. He most recently served as president of Astral Direct. Prior to that, he worked at Reiman Publications and J. Schmid & Assoc. Sharper Image: Andrew P. Reich has been named EVP of merchandising. James Sander has been named SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary. Eddie Bauer: Neil S. Fiske, the head of Limited Brands’ Bath and Body Works, has been appointed president and CEO. Fiske, 45,

BACKGROUND: In 2000, Kassie Rempel started her own financial planning business, working with five affluent families. In 2002, “One family asked me to work with it full time and help the spouse set up and run an exercise studio and day spa in the D.C. area,” she recalls. The next year, she transitioned out of financial planning and into cataloging. “The topic was always shoes,” says Rempel, who in ’04 founded the SimplySoles shoe catalog. “I found that I was doing more shopping personally through catalogs and via the Internet,” she says. “I decided that if that’s where I saw myself doing most of