Victoria's Secret

If you're going to dominate a category, introduce frivolous items from time to time. They may even get you some extra publicity. -Cynthia Fields, former president and CEO, Victoria's Secret

By Alicia Orr With all of the excitement of the Internet in the past few years, some catalogers have forgotten the most basic rule of direct marketing; that it must first focus on providing customer satisfaction. One company that has not forgotten this is The Mark Group, the Boca Raton, FL-based company that publishes the Boston Proper, Charles Keath and Mark, Fore & Strike catalogs. As company CEO Michael Tiernan projected a year and a half ago: "As e-commerce evolves... ultimately success is not dependent on Web traffic, click-through rates or market capitalization, but on earning customer trust on every single transaction." Today, a

by Jack Schmid My first formal introduction to Marks & Spencer, England's giant retailer, was to fly to London to have lunch with the chairman. M&S was considering expanding its direct selling efforts into an expansion of its home catalog and into an apparel catalog. The chairman asked all the preliminary questions about our company's credentials and why M&S should employ an American catalog consultant. Apparently those questions were answered to his satisfaction, and he then asked the big question: "Why should M&S be in catalo-ging, anyway?" My answer had little to do directly with cataloging, but a lot to do with the topic