December 2007 Issue
2007 Article Index
Below is a comprehensive list of all the articles published in Catalog Success magazine in 2007. If you would like to view stories by issue date, click here. You can also use the Article Archive to search by keyword or topic. CATALOGER PROFILES Cover Stories Chinaberry: “Reinventing the Wheel” by Paul Miller, January After 5/Surf to Summit: “Kayaking and Cocktails” by Paul Miller, February Patagonia: “Shiny Happy People” by Matt Griffin, May Garnet Hill: “A Natural Issue” by Carolyn Heinze, June Fair Indigo: “Playing Fair” by Paul Miller, August The Nailco Group: “More Than Skin Deep” by Carolyn
2008 Resource Guide
I’m excited to welcome you to our fifth annual Catalog Success Resource Guide. On that page, you can find all the key facts, contact numbers, you name it, for product and service providers to catalog/multichannel marketers. Over the past nine months, we’ve invited all industry vendors to provide us with their information for free inclusion in this guide. Those suppliers whose company name links to additional product, service and company information have paid to have their profiles enhanced. The other listings we provide as a free service. Use This Guide All Year Long This resource guide contains two sections: an alphabetical listing and a category listing.
Become a Virtual Spy
Your phone buzzes just after lunch. Your boss is shouting, “Some new Web site appeared today out of nowhere and it’s advertising heavily against us! Who is it? Find out everything you can about it and report back by day’s end!” Today’s Web provides easy tools for competitive research. This month’s column provides a road map for sleuthing a competitor in a few of hours, at no cost, using just a Web browser. This is a link-heavy article. Once you finish reading this, you can go to the CatalogSuccess.com Web site and find a sidebar containing all the links mentioned. First, ready your browser.
Editor’s Take: Aggression & Restraint
This month, I'll focus on one major trend and one major non-trend, both of which could impact significantly many multichannel merchants. One of these — the tumbling housing market — could enable catalogers to feed positively off its effects. The other one, however — the state of the corporate apparel market — needs a close look. Recent reports from the National Association of Realtors show sales of existing homes have plunged to their lowest level in nearly a decade. And Bloomberg News reported that new home sales fell to their lowest level in more than a decade. In such times, homeowners invest in their existing
Headline
People On the Move Neiman Marcus: The multichannel apparel marketer has promoted its retail division president/CEO Karen Katz to executive vice president of the parent company, Neiman Marcus Group. The company has also promoted the Group’s senior vice president and CFO James Skinner to executive vice president and CFO. Sears: The multichannel retailer has hired Louis Ramery as its new senior vice president, customer relationship marketing. Ramery, who’ll have overall responsibilities for developing and executing the Sears Holdings’ relationship marketing strategies and programs, will report to Maureen McGuire, Sears Holdings’ chief marketing officer. He was previously with Digitas, a marketing agency network. J.C. Penney: The multichannel
Lists & Media
CONSUMER Epsilon TargetSource Travel The more than 19 million people on this file have identified themselves as avid travelers and vacation enthusiasts, and have shared information about the types of travel they enjoy. Selects include type of travel (e.g., business, golf, frequent flyers, family vacations), gender, geography, age, income, marital status, ethnicity, mail order buyers and more. The base list price is $75/M. The Catamount Group, (203) 778-4110, www.catamountgroup.net. Ailment, Disease & Illness Sufferers This database comprises 171 million individuals and households suffering from a wide variety of ailments, diseases, illnesses and medical conditions. The head of household or the person with the
Making a Plan: How to Develop Three-year Projections
It’s only a matter of time before your CFO figures out that you have more influence over his financial plan than he does. But when that moment arrives, your CFO will ask you for a plan that projects sales for the next three years or so. Smart catalog companies handle financial planning as a partnership between the marketing and financial staffs. Mailing is your key revenue-generating activity. Mail quantity, frequency, response rate and average order value (AOV) are the essential numbers for projecting sales. Consider each factor: ◆ Your mail quantity determines marketing expense; ◆ Your sales level helps project the company’s cost of goods; and ◆ Your
Special Report: More Web, More Print or Both?
While technology makes many things easier, it also can complicate your job. And as the Internet — and all that goes with it — has evolved over the past dozen years or so, catalogers’ jobs have become a lot more complex. Beyond merely becoming e-commerce and multichannel marketing experts, catalogers must pay closer attention to analytics and constantly reconsider how they allocate their marketing budgets. Ask any multichannel merchant and you’ll hear the same thing: The rubber stamp has no role in making marketing plans these days. The ongoing changes in e-commerce force catalogers to constantly reinvent the wheel. Add the killer postage increase
You Still Don’t Rent Out Your List?
To those catalogers who won’t rent out their buyer file, I have a question for you: It’s nearly 2008, who are you kidding? While most do rent out their files, some catalogers still feel they’re keeping others from mailing “their” customers by not renting out their buyer files. Oh yeah? This may have been true 15 or 20 years ago, prior to the introduction of cooperative databases, but certainly not today. Those who continue not to rent their housefile are missing out on the opportunity to mail “good” names themselves while gaining additional list rental income. This month, I want to discuss best practices
