Management

I just read an interesting article on the National Mail Order Association Web site that focused on some good news and bad news regarding hiring practices in the direct marketing industry. The article, based on a survey put out by direct marketing recruitment firm Bernhart Associates, states that hiring in our industry is expected to remain steady.

That’s some good news for DM job seekers, but the bad news is that many direct marketing companies are having difficulties finding talented direct marketers to add to their staff.

Some survey results:

* 24 percent of survey respondents were having a “very difficult” time finding qualified candidates

* 53

This is my 21st go-round attending ACCM, the Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (did I get that whole thing right?), being held May 21-23 in Boston. For my first 18, I was part of the assorted parent companies that co-sponsored the event with the DMA. But for the past two, as a press attendee and not a part-host, I’ve picked up a different perspective on this event as well as on some other conferences. Actually, I take that back: This year, I’m sort of a part-host again on the other side of the partnership since I was recently named chairman/editor of the

The fate of Wal-Mart, Target and other big retailers often represents a benchmark for how smaller multichannel marketers will perform, sales-wise. But if their sales performance in April was any indication, then it’s not a good time right now for anyone. Below are highlights of several key big retailers’ April sales totals. * Overall, the UBS-International Council of Shopping Centers’ sales totals of 53 retailers showed a 2.4 percent decrease, the largest decline since 1970 * Wal-Mart’s same-store sales fell 3.5 percent * Target Corp.’s same-store sales decreased by 6.1 percent * Federated Department Stores’ (Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s) same-store sales dropped 2.2 percent * Gap Inc.’s same-store sales sunk by

Catalogers’ Updates Metrostyle: This unit of New York-based Redcats USA, is emblazoning the cycle two winner of “America’s Next Top Model” TV show, Yoanna House, on the cover of its spring catalog in an attempt to showcase the catalog as a women’s apparel fashion authority. Selecting the contest winner comes after Redcats changed the name of this value-priced book from Lerner. Harry & David Holdings: In April, this multichannel marketer agreed to sell its Jackson & Perkins catalog/ wholesale plants and gardening tools business to an investment group led by Donald and Glenda Hachenberger for $49 million. In a separate deal, Harry & David also agreed to

BACKGROUND: A trained CPA Liz Plotnick-Snay will soon enter her 12th holiday season with the Delaware, Ohio-based Gooseberry Patch catalog, a company started in 1984 by her next-door neighbors JoAnn Martin and Vickie Hutchins. The two working moms — JoAnn was a teacher, Vickie a flight attendant — shared a love of collecting antiques, gardening and country decorating. As their children grew, so did Gooseberry Patch and they eventually moved the business to a building large enough to house their kitchen and home décor products, gourmet foods, cookbooks, calendars and organizers. The Gooseberry Patch catalog is filled with hand-illustrations of its products. It also

It’s perhaps surprising to see people so attentive to their work at a company known for emptying out when there’s good surf to be found at a Southern Californian beach not five minutes away. But a walk through the Ventura, Calif.-based headquarters of Patagonia reveals a close-knit staff readily engaged in designing, testing and marketing this outdoor cataloger’s apparel and gear. Then again, perhaps it’s not all that surprising, given that the catalog’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, in his book “Let My People Go Surfing,” (The Penguin Press, 2005) wrote: “Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis. We all had to

Sometimes after a meeting or a difficult interaction we think, “What a disaster!” Sadly, there have been many recent disasters, real ones, that have put families, businesses and communities at risk or out of commission. Most people avoid the topic of disaster planning like the plague — but it’s the plague that might be coming. An AT&T survey on disaster planning found that, on average, more than 30 percent of U.S. companies have no disaster recovery plan at all. What’s more, of the companies surveyed, more than 20 percent have neither updated nor tested their plans during the previous year, and more than

The Boston Proper catalog has come a long way since it was liquidated back in 1991. So, too, has the company that bought its name and list for a song at that time ($100,000) and propelled it to greater heights ever since. That firm — once known as The Mark Group, so named after its former flagship catalog, Mark, Fore & Strike — renamed itself Boston Proper three years ago, based on the success of the catalog and divestiture of the country club apparel title, Mark, Fore & Strike, as well as the gifts and home furnishings catalog, Charles Keith. Through it all has been

TORONTO — For a good many years, I’ve periodically covered the Canadian catalog/direct/multichannel market — all, of course, from a U.S. perspective. Dating back to the early 1990s, I reported on catalogers’ experiences in expanding into Canada, usually focusing on brand-new efforts. More often than not, the results looked encouraging, the outlook appeared great. Most surveys showed that Canada was the number 1 logical choice for international expansion among catalogers. Yet, here we are in 2007, and finding catalogers that do any sort of truly significant business in Canada is just about as challenging as getting a ticket to a Stanley Cup playoff hockey

Earlier this month, research firm Leadership IQ released a survey of 7,209 executives, managers and employees to assess trust in the workplace. The survey sought to uncover whether trust matters in the workplace, how much trust exists today and which aspects of trust are most critical for improving organizational performance. The survey uncovered three key findings: 1. trust drives results 2. trust significantly predicts employee loyalty, and 3. there’s not enough trust. Among the statistical findings, *32 percent of workers’ desire to remain with a company or seek employment elsewhere relates to their level of trust towards their bosses *20 percent of employees strongly trust top management *36 percent moderately trust