Vertis, Inc.

People On the Move Coldwater Creek: Dennis Pence, who cofounded this multichannel women’s apparel cataloger 23 years ago, retired as CEO on Oct. 30. He’ll retain his role as chairman, however. President/COO Daniel Griesemer was promoted to president/CEO and will serve on the company’s board of directors. Griesemer joined Coldwater Creek six years ago. dELiA*s: The multichannel teen/tween apparel company has named Chris DiChiaro as the divisional merchandise manager of its Alloy division. Prior to joining dELiA*s, DiChiaro spent seven years as the vice president of merch-andising of intimate apparel for Victoria’s Secret Direct. dELiA*s also announced the hiring of Lee Bissonnette as senior director of

NEMOA at 60: ‘Small’ Event Yields Big Ideas This month’s NEMOA conference in Portland, Maine, Sept. 19-21, marks the 60th anniversary for what started — and remains — a small specialized trade group. For many long-time members, NEMOA is all about conferences. The group holds semiannual conferences each March and September designed for catalog/multichannel marketers. “The main value of NEMOA is being able to get together and network,” says 20-year member Dan Walter, president and founder of Eagle America, a woodworking tools and accessories catalog. “You learn tricks of the trade from the people you meet, whether it be from a high-powered speaker

Marketers are facing the mounting challenge of consumers feeling they’re bombarded with messages they didn’t ask for, don’t need and find disruptive. This so-called “clutter” has led to decreasing response rates. A new whitepaper prepared by the Winterberry Group with data supplied by Mintel Comperemedia, Responsys and Vertis Communications finds that timing, relevance and personalization are three keys to cutting through that “clutter” and driving consumer response. Here are some tips taken from the report to help catalogers and other direct marketers achieve those goals: 1. Make timing count. Coordinate offers with life events, such as marriages, births, new moves. Consumers are also more open to

Forty-four percent of marketers include an element of personalization in every e-mail campaign they develop, according to research released jointly last week by Mintel International Group, Responsys, Vertis Communications and Winterberry Group. However, 80 percent of those marketers modify only the salutation and a few basic content elements, the report revealed. The firms, which represent the direct mail, e-mail, integrated communication, market research and consulting sectors, also offered the following data: * 66 percent of direct mail is personalized, which remains relatively unchanged over the past three years; * 71 percent of consumers read direct mail from retailers, more than any other vertical market; and * 21

The average American’s trip to the mailbox isn’t as impersonal as it once was. It’s no longer status-quo to get mail addressed to “occupant.” Direct mailers have long been in tune with the benefits of one-to-one marketing, and some catalogers are following suit. Victoria’s Secret is versioning mailings to best suit customers. For example, the company monitors buying habits, and when a customer hasn’t bought in a set amount of time, she gets a catalog version that offers discounts. Other catalogers use their front and/or back covers to send personalized messages to customers, while still others produce titles with versioned inserts that introduce