Epsilon

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,

In ancient times — say 10 years ago — catalogers prided themselves on having a precisely measurable medium. They were the scientists of the marketing world. Most catalogers took the majority of their orders by phone and spent a great deal of effort capturing source codes and order IDs from every call. As computer technology and database expertise became cheaper and more widely available, we were not only able to measure precisely which customers responded to our mailings, but also what they bought and from which editions of our catalogs. We measured the performance of every square inch of every edition and smugly thought

Take a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard today and you’ll find it’s not as sleazy or creepy as it once was. Urban renewal has been in full force with the rise of the Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards) and the Hollywood & Highland Center shopping complex adjacent to the reinvigorated and timeless tourist attraction, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Like the boulevard it resides on, Frederick’s of Hollywood has been undergoing a makeover of sorts. But for the 61-year-old cataloger/retailer of racy women’s lingerie, the past decade has been a rough ride. It began in 2000, with a two-and-a-half-year reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy

As promised, I did some research regarding Abacus and exactly who owns its data after I was challenged when a reader submitted a question (and my lack of a serious answer in a subsequent column). The question was,
Abacus was bought by Epsilon who in turn is owned by Alliance Data Solutions. Alliance Data Solutions was recently bought by a private equity firm, The Blackstone Group. The Chinese government then bought a $3 billion position in The Blackstone Group.
My question was: Who has my data?
What I found out is this: At least for now, your data is safe and not in the

Seventy percent of marketing decision makers report that their organizations currently practice integrated marketing, a marketing plan that coordinates online and offline marketing efforts, according to the “B-to-B eMarketing Survey” released last month by marketing services provider Epsilon. The survey of 175 U.S.-based marketing executives also revealed the following: * 70 percent of companies report that the same person controls both traditional and interactive marketing budgets. * 46 percent allocate marketing budgets by channel using rough estimates based on past experience. * 23 percent allocate marketing budgets by channel using modeling and planning techniques. * 19 percent give each channel a fixed allocation. *

E-mail marketing is effective only if it reaches its intended recipient’s inbox. The Direct Marketing Association and e-mail marketing firm Bigfoot Interactive, in their white paper,”Authentication, Accreditation and Reputation--for Marketers,” offer three keys to ensure your e-mail marketing efforts arrive at the intended destination. 1. Maintain good e-mail list hygiene. E-mail address providers often blacklist entities that send e-mail to too many non-existent addresses, the white paper’s authors state. Spammers often randomly generate e-mail addresses to send to, resulting in many addresses that aren’t real. Address providers do acknowledge there is a lot of churn in terms of consumers changing e-mail addresses, but it’s generally

Always ask to be added to your customers’ online address books to help ensure that your e-mail campaigns are delivered, note the authors of the white paper “Authentication, Accreditation tion — for Marketers!” Use registration pages on your Web site and in all e-mail communications to remind consumers to add your URL and e-mail address(es) to their address books. By being “white listed” in this way, you could realize several benefits: full image content and links will be rendered as you intend them to be; your e-mails will bypass personal adaptive filters; and you’re guaranteed placement in customers’ e-mail folders, according to the white

Internet service providers (ISPs) and legitimate e-mailers should develop a comprehensive e-mail authentication and reputation strategy, noted several speakers at the E-mail Authentication Implementation Summit held last week in New York. The need for such a strategy is illustrated by statistics revealed by Craig Spiezle, director of technology care and strategy for Microsoft, in his session”Authentication Identity Crisis.” Spam now represents 75 percent of all e-mail, and 95 percent of all phishing attacks are made from spoofed or forged e-mail addresses, he said. Tips and trends revealed at the Summit included: * Marketers should implement some form of e-mail authentication in time for the holiday selling season.

If you're hunting for online acquisition bargains or new talent, read this By Tim Dolan For interactive marketers, the year 2000 came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. List and banner CPMs fell almost as fast as dot-com stocks, and many online retailers, list owners, and interactive marketing professionals awoke New Year's morn to the reality that the ride had ended. So what does this mean for catalogers in 2001? Two things: Buyers of interactive marketing services for new customer acquisition are in a great negotiating position and there's a lot of new talent in the marketplace. List

E-mail marketing is new for many catalogers, and most are now concentrating on growing an in-house e-mail file. Some have started weekly or monthly newsletters that contain specials, and others are sending promotions. While many are becoming comfortable with the process of creating e-mail marketing messages, the competition for customers’ attention is growing. In the near future, it will become important for catalogers to set themselves apart from other e-mail marketers. As with print catalogs, several response-boosting techniques are worth testing in e-mail. Looking for Lists Most catalogers are working with their own housefiles right now. They have e-mail registration on