Millard Group Inc.

We may be quite far removed from the, “We all wanna change the world” 1960s, but a group of former Lands’ End executives and employees last year did set out to change the world — the world of multichannel apparel sourcing. A year since its formal launch, Fair Indigo, a marketer of casual apparel, has stuck to its passion of complying with the rules of fair trade in apparel manufacturing. Headed by former Lands’ End senior vice president of international and e-commerce, Bill Bass, the Middleton, Wis.-based cataloger/multichannel merchant’s raison d’être is to only use apparel manufacturers that pay more than the

An impromptu trip from Denmark to England started it all. It was the summer of 1973, and while traveling in Denmark, Grant Dowse and Pegge Kirschner decided to take a road trip to England. To make the car comfortable enough to camp in, they bought, among other things, a cotton flannel sheet. They eventually brought the sheet home with them, and later ordered a similar item from an American mail order company. But it wound up being a synthetic version of the English flannel sheet they’d purchased in Europe. That transaction inspired them to launch their own mail order business. Married three years

Sur La Table 163,680 56,295 191 $85 cookware Mokrynskidirect 12/06 9/05 Dog.com 139,829 51,031 174 $115 pet supplies List Locators 9/06 5/05 & Managers Knit Picks 73,502 27,347 169 $60 crafts Walter Karl 6/06 6/05 Cutter & Buck 70,938 30,555 132 $147 men’s apparel Mokrynskidirect 1/07 1/06 Kinsman Co. 27,090 12,695 113 $83 gardening supplies D-J Associates 12/06 9/05 Fannie May Confections 72,173 34,794 107 $36 candy, chocolates Millard Group 11/06 10/05 Leichtung Workshops 20,312 9,958 104 $52 woodworking tools Names & 9/06 7/05 Addresses Orion Telescopes 33,445 16,849 99 $175 telescopes Millard Group and Binoculars 7/06 7/05 Time for Me 141,411 71,958 97 $95 women’s apparel Mokrynskidirect 1/07 10/05 Siegel Display Products 33,569 17,474 92 $300 promotional display products Direct Media 10/06 10/05 Smith & Hawken 140,722 74,971 88 $125 gardening supplies Belardi/Ostroy ALC 11/06 10/05 Redding Medical 13,689 7,642 79 $95 nursing supplies Fasano and 12/06 8/05 Associates Penn Herb Co. Ltd. 26,459 14,837 78 $54 natural remedies Walter Karl 4/06 5/05 MidWest Edwin Watts Golf 328,416 185,448 77 $250 golf equipment Venture Direct 8/06 5/05 Worldwide Staples 3,843,101 2,183,681 76 $250 office products Direct Media 12/06 11/05 Sporty’s Men’s Collection 12,926 7,368 75.4 N/A men’s recreational products Millard Group 1/07 5/05 New England Business 1,114,626 636,766 75 $120 office products MeritDirect Service (NEBS) 12/06 9/05

There’s a very thin line that ties together the two catalogs produced out of 132 Robin Hill Road in Santa Barbara, Calif. Founded in 1994 as Surf to Summit, a B-to-B catalog of kayakin g equipment, the company in 2001 spun off After 5, a consumer catalog of quirky — often wacky — products for wine and martini parties. After 5 came to life after the company found that its customers were responding briskly to the cocktail party-related novelties that it first offered almost as an afterthought in Surf to Summit. But that’s where any similarities between the two catalogs end. Although the

In the 10 months I’ve been with Catalog Success, I’ve made it my business to ensure that virtually every article in this magazine, on our Web site, and in our weekly e-newsletter is consistent with our name: It’s all about success in the catalog/multichannel business and how to get there. Same goes for “your partner in multichannel commerce,” our wonderful tagline I wish I could claim to have coined myself (but, my predecessors did, darnit). Bottom line: We want to help you make money by showing and telling you how successful companies and people do it. In this issue, however, for at least one story

What better way for a tips-oriented business magazine to wind down 2006 than with the top 50 tips of the year? My staff and I spent the past several weeks going through every article that’s run so far in Catalog Success and the Catalog Success Idea Factory e-newsletter this year to bring you the ultimate how-to “cheat sheet.” Throughout these pages, we’ve synthesized the year’s best tips, summarizing, and in some cases quoting directly, from stories and/or the sources themselves, where noted. Below each, you’ll see the industry expert who offered the tip. We reference the issue from which the tips originate so

CONSUMER Motley Fool Champion Funds The Motley Fool Champion Funds file is comprised of 5,336 investors looking for information and guidance on mutual fund investing. They’ve paid an annual average of $149 to read up on building long-term wealth. The base list price is $200/M. MetaResponse Group, (954) 360-0644, www.metaresponse.com. KooKoo Bear Kids KooKoo Bear Kids offers its 26,500 12-month buyers a fanciful assortment of children’s furniture, bedding and accessories designed as if from a child’s point of view. These catalog buyers primarily are women. They have an average age of 37 and an average household income of $175,000. The base

Fifty-six percent of consumers say it’s important to them that online retail sites save the contents of their shopping carts when they leave e-commerce sites, according to a survey released by the Decision Direct Research division of list firm Millard Group. That’s up from 48 percent in last year’s survey. Additionally, 24 percent of shoppers want to receive an e-mail reminder that they still have items in their shopping carts, up 2 percent from 2005. Other insights revealed by the survey: * 53 percent of shoppers find multi-angle product views important, up from 48 percent last year; * 42 percent of respondents said they

The latest wave of consolidation in the catalog/multichannel business is quite different than consolidations past. That's always easy for us media folk to say, but if you're not among those doing the buying or selling, here's why this matters to you. The recent flurry of acquisitions has been driven by the need to secure large economies of scale. And like most things in our lives, all signs lead to one key factor: oil. Skyrocketing fuel costs are driving up freight costs. Many smaller and medium-sized catalogers can't — or soon won't be able to — afford rising shipping rates and

By Carolyn Heinze In recent years, managers and brokers have been playing a larger role in catalogers' success. List brokers and managers have been offering value-added consulting services to catalogers for several years. But as competition intensifies and catalogers' budgets continue to tighten, list firms have had to step up to the plate to give mailers more services than ever before. Help for Smaller Catalogers Take, for example, Garrett Wade Co. The seller of high-end woodworking tools and accessories signed on with Millard Group last fall, and its senior vice president, Pete Segal, notes that Millard offers a more hands-on approach than other services