Abacus

This month, we bring you the second in our exclusive quarterly reporting of Abacus Consumer Co-op data, the Quarterly Catalog Success/Abacus Consumer Co-op Data Report.

An interview with Jason Blake, founder and president of The Pond Guy, a catalog/multichannel marketer of supplies for the maintenance of ponds, lakes and water features.

It’s no secret that there are far fewer list management and brokerage firms vying for our business. Many of the smaller, more entrepreneurial list firms have been absorbed by a few large corporations. As a result, some catalogers believe there are fewer opportunities to negotiate pricing and fewer choices in general. The same concerns exist about firms that rent out cooperative prospect lists. But in reality, the contrary is true.

Below is the first in a quarterly series of charts featuring purchase data compiled from Abacus Consumer Co-op members. Abacus is making this data available exclusively to Catalog Success. The first one contains data from Sept. 1, 2006, through Aug. 31, 2008. This analysis is limited to co-op members who were active through the entire time frame and includes only catalog, online and retail transactions. Consumer sales growth was solid for the first two months of 2008, before falling off at the end of the first quarter, according to a subset of Abacus Consumer Cooperative members with catalog, online or retail transactions from Sept.

By now, we’re all feeling the pain caused by our faltering economy. Between Wall Street, Main Street and the seemingly never-ending election process, most people I know are freaked out; totally stressed; and terrified of losing their jobs, homes and more.
I haven’t seen this much fear in the eyes of catalog marketers since right after Sept. 11 and the anthrax scare.
But all isn’t bad. I swear!
There’s an amazing opportunity in all of this chaos to streamline your business, strip away the dead wood in your budgets (like our presidential candidates promise they’ll do) and be a rock star in your company.<br

In the second installment of this two-part series that takes a look at the financial and industry pressures catalogers are under, and what they can do to survive and prosper, this week I outline three factors pressuring catalog response rates and profitability. I’ll also provide a few tips to help you maintain profitability in this difficult environment. (For part 1, click here.) The catalog business is coping with the following factors, which are putting pressure on circulation response rates and profitability: * An economic downturn that has slowed discretionary spending. * The cost squeeze caused by major increases in postage and paper. These costs

In the first part of this two-part series examining the financial and industry pressures catalogers are currently under, and what they can do to survive and prosper, this week I look at several trends and factors that have led to the shaky ground that catalogers now stand on. Catalogers’ profits are under severe pressure. And the reason isn’t just because of the slowdown in the economy. In its 2008 Trend Report, Abacus, a division of the marketing services firm Epsilon, points to a profit squeeze. The trend for direct mail circ shows that “despite the postal increase in 2007,

A quick note: Our June issue was already at the printer while the 25th Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) was taking place on May 19-22 in Kissimmee, Fla. So belatedly, here’s my postconference recap. This was my 22nd consecutive tour of duty at what was once known as the National Catalog Conference, and the Annual Catalog Conference after that. But rest assured, I’m not going to give you one of these old-fogey reflections on how “it ain’t like it used to be.” Instead, let’s track back just a few years to Boston, June 2001. That was probably the most apprehensive

With mailing costs rising and the economy slumping, will catalog co-op databases remain relevant in tomorrow’s multichannel direct-marketing environment? The pool of hot names is certainly drying up as the number of catalog mailers is thinning. Witness the passing — or likely scaled-down futures — of the Lillian Vernon, BlueSky Brands, Bloomingdale’s by Mail and The Sharper Image catalogs. Likewise, the number of co-op databases fell to seven over the past year, with American List Counsel pulling the plug on its PerformanceLink database after two years. This year’s report, with each co-op listed in alphabetical order, recaps what each of them has

Editor’s Note: Jim Coogan, a catalog consultant since 1993 and former VP of marketing at Woodworker’s Supply, among other catalog and retail positions, has been a regular contributor for Catalog Success and the Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips e-newsletter for the past year. He attended the May 19-22 ACCM conference in Kissimmee, Fla., and filed the following recap on the event. I’ll file my own personal reflections on the conference in the July print edition. — Paul Miller, editor-in-chief There’s nothing like an economic downturn to get people’s attention. And the state of the economy and how it would affect catalogers was topic A