ยฉ Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, August 2007 Interview by Gail Kalinoski Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Kassie Rempel: The first catalog was mailed in September 2004. It took about a year to educate myself enough to feel comfortable putting something in the mail. The first catalog was 36 pages and now they are always 36 pages. I started with two catalogs a year, one for fall and one for spring. It has since grown. In fact, this upcoming fall, we will have four drops this season. We are working our way to eight drops a year.
Management
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 Brandsโ Bath and Body Works, has been appointed president and CEO. Fiske, 45,
Last week, I got an e-mail from a former student of mine telling me he was starting a company with mail order as one of its distribution channels. He had a neat idea, and I thought the items he was about to sell had merit. Clearly he had his product line thought out well.
It pleases me to no end when this happens: a budding entrepreneur, about to stake his claim in the business world. Then I get the question that I dread: โHow do I buy a list so I can grow the business?โ How do I buy a list? Oh man, havenโt I
For some reason, I often feel the need to reflect back on my past experience in the catalog/multichannel business when I write these things. Is that typical for these kinds of columns and newsletters? Or at 47, am I just gettinโ old? Hopefully the former, because here I go again. These days, it seems like more and more โrulesโ of cataloging must be changed for myriad reasons: to account for unfair postal rates, to cater to consumersโ reduced attention spans and to accommodate catalogersโ increased reliance on other marketing channels, namely the Web and retail for consumer marketers and the Web, distribution advancements, telemarketing and
Mark Amtower, whoโs made a career of helping B-to-B catalogers and other direct marketers sell to federal government agencies successfully, was the keynote speaker at a luncheon during last weekโs MeritDirect Co-op in White Plains, N.Y., addressing the types of companies and people catalogers ought to steer clear of. In his presentation, โSix Habits of Highly Defective People โWho Just Donโt Get Itโ,โ Amtower humorously, but quite seriously, described these top six in reverse order. 6. A really big company with name recognition, but not built on customer satisfaction or client relationships โ instead, built on corporate acquisitions. Such companies โrarely have substance
As has been its annual custom, B-to-B list firm MeritDirectโs annual co-op event in White Plains, N.Y. on July 12 was kicked off by a provocative and entertaining presentation by catalog veteran and futurist Don Libey. Having heard Don speak plenty of times in the past (and despite his frequent speaking appearances, rarely does he repeat a single concept, strategy or idea), Iโve long since learned how to filter through his motivational pep talk and the meat of what he delivers. While always entertaining, his shtick is always chockfull of meat, but it often looks beyond tomorrow. And after all, we all want to
BACKGROUND: Howard Flax, CEO of FLAX art & design, comes from a long line of art supplies dealers, stretching all the way back to 1938. The first Flax art supplies business was a store in San Francisco founded by Herman Flax, Howardโs grandfather. Other family members followed suit, with stores popping up from New York to Phoenix to Los Angeles. After Herman passed away, his sons Philip and Jerry ran the business. Now, Philip is the chairman, and his sons Howard and Craig, vice president of marketing, run the only Flax store that boasts a catalog. Here, third-generation Flax businessman, Howard Flax,
Last fall, we launched a reader poll on our Web site, CatalogSuccess.com. If youโre a cataloger/multichannel marketer and youโve never seen it or voted (anonymously, of course), I encourage you to do so. Youโll find it on the top-right corner of our home page. As I thought about what to write in this edition of The Corner View, it dawned on me that weโre sitting on some pretty useful information. So I decided to take a look at some of our past poll results and offer my two cents on what they mean to you โ and how you might want to
In last weekโs blog, I discussed salary levels in the catalog/multichannel business as they relate to other industries. I got a pretty strong reaction from Wendy Weber, president of the direct marketing recruiting firm, Crandall Associates.
For those of you who have missed the blog the past few weeks Iโve been discussing hiring practices in direct marketing. (You can find them and all past posts on the CatalogSuccess.com Web site.) This thread started with a poll stating that the direct marketing industry was having a tough time finding strong talent. So for this week, I asked Wendy to weigh in with her thoughts
Itโs amazing how upbeat people can be at industry events regardless how well or poorly their businesses are doing, isnโt it? I just wrapped up a month in which I attended two major conferences (ACCM in Boston and Internet Retailer in San Jose, Calif.) and despite the striking difference among attendees, it seems that everybodyโs doing just grand. But are they? Having flagged as many of you down as I could to ask you how youโre doing, I came away from ACCM believing you truly are. And as we look ahead toward the second half of the year and make holiday season plans, my sense