Management

Every business manager such as yourself must balance the need to cut costs vs. invest for growth. Which way the scale tips depends on several things, including the general state of the economy, political events, your own bottom line, and your company’s merchandising and operational strategies. As a business editor, I’ve noticed many articles published in the last few years touting cost-cutting measures. But as the economy rebounds, more and more attention is being paid to business investment for revenue growth. This month we offer articles for both camps. Our cover story examines the growth plans of gourmet food cataloger Mackenzie Limited.

One of the keys to direct marketing success is to create a team of individuals who work well together for the common good without sacrificing individual integrity. The factors to consider when creating your dream team include the following: 1. Every member must bring a specialized skill set to the group, with an understanding that different skill sets may take priority at any given time. Unique talents strengthen the organization when they are used as needed. Continuous focus on a specific area will reduce the overall effectiveness of your company. 2. All team members must respect one another. Since respect has to be earned, it takes

In years past, automobiles were distinctive. Each model made a statement about itself and its owner. Today, many cars tend to look similar. The handful of exceptions include the Mini Cooper, PT Cruiser, VW Beetle, Bentley, Porsche and, of course, the Corvette. Since first introduced in 1953 by legendary designer Harley J. Earl (1893-1969), about 1.25 million Corvettes have been built, and more than 1 million are still on the road. Every year in late August more than 5,000 of these sleek muscle cars converge on the Carlisle, Pa., fairgrounds to be bought, sold, swapped and ogled by 60,000 enthusiasts, while more than

From the moment you pull into the 40-acre Golfsmith campus in Austin, Texas, you know you’re in a golfers’ mecca. But as it turns out, the company’s on-site driving range and golf academy are just the beginning. Inside the 92,000 square-foot corporate headquarters, there’s a putting green for employees, and a large retail store complete with indoor waterfall and Clubhouse Café. The clubmaking workshop not only crafts custom-made clubs, it also holds weeklong classes for those who want to learn the art. A research and development team is developing clubs and testing vendor-sourced products. Enlarged pictures capturing golf imagery hang over the

You need to do some concentrated market research, but your current staff is swamped with other work. Do you: A) wait for your marketing staff’s workload to get lighter? B) decide that the research was not all that crucial in the first place? C) hire an outside expert to conduct the all-important study? “There’s a general tendency in the catalog industry to use in-house staff only and to avoid hiring outside expertise,” says George Ittner, president of Executive Greetings catalog, a former industry consultant and long-time catalog veteran. “But I think you can gain immense benefits from hiring that expertise. Catalogers shouldn’t

Catalog Success and Marketing INFORMATION Network® present the Top 200 Catalogs: The Greatest Housefile-Growth Rates Among Catalogers The charts reflect our second-annual ranking of the top 200 North America-based catalogs as measured by recent housefile-growth rates. You’ll notice that catalogers selling apparel/shoes, home furnishings and food fared particularly well. But other consumer categories also had strong showings, most notably athletic and sporting goods and apparel (14 catalogs in the Top 200), children’s products (14) and gardening-related items (13). Moreover, 16 business-to-business catalogs made the list. Comparing and ranking catalogs based only on raw numbers is never a fool-proof methodology. For example,

Not many start-up catalogs can boast annual sales de-mand of more than $50 million, a one-year housefile-growth rate of a whopping 126 percent, and more than 300,000 12-month buyers. But that’s just what Crossing Pointe, the newest division of Blair Corp., has so far achieved during its first three and a half years in operation. Crossing Pointe’s mission has been to bring younger, more affluent customers to its 94-year-old parent company, Warren, PA-based Blair Corp. Officials at Blair, a veritable stalwart in the direct mail industry and the eighth largest consumer apparel cataloger in the United States, wanted to broaden their customer base, and

Open the front cover of its flagship catalog, and you’ll be greeted by a note that begins, “Who is School Specialty?” That’s a question this fast-growing $870 million company has no trouble answering. Having acquired upwards of 45 companies during the past 10 years, School Specialty now is a large and diverse organization with one common thread: to provide “everything but the textbooks” to the education marketplace, according to company CEO and President Dave Vander Zanden. Indeed, School Specialty sells desks and lockers; library and media room equipment; workbooks and supplemental education products; classroom decorations; art and gym supplies; awards and incentives; and

Are any of these titles on your business card: deviant, contrarian, barbarian, agent provocateur or radical boat-rocker? If not, perhaps they should be. You could be playing it a bit too safe, and that could be the biggest risk you take. You risk boring your customers, losing their attention and ultimately, their admiration and loyalty. In their book, “The Deviant’s Advantage” (Crown Publishers, 2002), authors Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker sing the praises of getting out of your comfort zone by being “positively deviant.” They define “positive deviance” as “a force for transformation — an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products

The storm surrounding the teen-apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) was kicked up a notch after 60 Minutes last month reported that the merchant is being accused of racial discrimination in its hiring practices of retail sales clerks, preferring whites over ethnic minorities. A&F officials refused to be interviewed on camera for the 60 Minutes spot, saying they couldn’t comment on the alleged discrimination since they’re currently in litigation. Of course, over the years other companies being sued have appeared on 60 Minutes, lawyers in tow. But I guess A&F wanted to — uncharacteristically — play it safe this one time. For those