July 2006 Issue
A Chat With Nikhil Behldirector of sales centers, HP Home
director of sales centers, HP Home © Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, July 2006 Interview by Matt Griffin Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Nikhil Behl: It was established in November, 2002. CS: What is your primary merchandise? NB: HP's consumer direct business in the U.S., entire portfolio of consumer products. More than 4,000 HP home office and supplies, everything from made to order desktops and PCs, as well as inks and paper. Cameras, printers, fax machines. CS: Where did you grow up? NB: New Delhi, India. I went to high school there. I attended a small private
Contributions to Profit Discover the Power of Confirmation
By Jim Gilbert One major value of the Internet and e-mail is the power to keep customers involved and informed throughout the purchase cycle. From confirming receipt of an order, to notifying customers of back orders or shipments, event-triggered e-mail tied to your customer database can build your brand, create positive relationships and generate sales. Below, I've put together some effective ways to use e-mail: 1. Use e-mail sign-up confirmations. Although the industry numbers are increasing, there are many companies that don't send out confirmation e-mails when I opt in to receive their newsletters, sales materials and the like. A simple confirmation
Dick Hodgson's Legacy
Although he passed away in late January, word of Dick Hodgson's death caught a number of attendees at the May Catalog Conference in Chicago by surprise. I heard about it right away, but I hadn't joined Catalog Success yet. So I felt it appropriate to set aside this month's column to finally give this catalog legend the industry recognition he deserves. Not many who knew him realized that Richard Sargeant Hodgson, who spent the last three years of his life battling myelodysplasia, a rare bone marrow disorder affecting blood cell production, got his start in direct marketing by operating his own lettershop and
Growth the Smart Way
The concept of home automation may call to mind futuristic visions of robotic butlers and a retinal scanner for your home security system. But for Smarthome Direct, real-life home automation products have helped create a multibillion dollar business that’s seen its 12-month housefile double over the past four years. And Smarthome has done so by leveraging its unique and growing line of electronic home automation products against the home improvement craze that’s engulfed the nation in the past few years, says Rajeev Kapur, president of the Irvine, Calif.-based cataloger. Kapur notes that the company has sought to capitalize on the popularity of the ABC-TV
How to Use Selling Expense Ratios
In my previous columns, I’ve talked a great deal about direct selling expenses — e.g., paper, printing, postage, list rental — and why these expenses need to be separated on the income statement. This month, I offer a slightly different twist by relating direct selling expenses to recency segments of the housefile. I’ll demonstrate how overmailing the housefile can and will increase this key ratio, and why not all housefile segments should be mailed in every drop. Typically, direct selling expenses range from 25 percent to 35 percent for consumer catalog companies and 15 percent to 22 percent for business-to-business catalogers. In order
Inserts Are They Still Worth Your While?
By Gretchen A. Peck Some practical, modern insert media tips for catalogers. Postal rates went up earlier this year, and they're expected to rise again in about another year. For catalogers looking for ways to offset some of their distribution costs, the time may be right to launch an insert media program or ramp up an existing one. "One of the main challenges for any mailer right now is that you only have so many promotional dollars to acquire new customers," says Garrison Cummings, circulation analyst for Miles Kimball, a general merchandise cataloger. "With postage rates going up, you have to look down other
Smarthome Direct Growth the Smart Way
By Matt Griffin Exclusive product availability, proprietary technology and an energetic response to customer feedback provide Smarthome Direct with the keys to successful growth. The concept of home automation may call to mind futuristic visions of robotic butlers and a retinal scanner for your home security system. But for Smarthome Direct, real-life home automation products have helped create a multibillion dollar business that's seen its 12-month housefile double over the past four years. And Smarthome has done so by leveraging its unique and growing line of electronic home automation products against the home improvement craze that's engulfed the nation in the past few years,
Strategy How to Use Selling Expense Ratios
By Stephen R. Lett In my previous columns, I've talked a great deal about direct selling expenses — e.g., paper, printing, postage, list rental — and why these expenses need to be separated on the income statement. This month, I offer a slightly different twist by relating direct selling expenses to recency segments of the housefile. I'll demonstrate how overmailing the housefile can and will increase this key ratio, and why not all housefile segments should be mailed in every drop. Typically, direct selling expenses range from 25 percent to 35 percent for consumer catalog companies and 15 percent to 22 percent
Technology Focus Connect, Search, Click and Conquer
Three experts offer key pointers on Web site hosting, e-loyalty programs and advanced search engines. These days, catalogers reach more customers via the Web than ever before, and a growing number of them now receive a majority of their orders online. So in this technology focus, we've grouped together three articles to help marketers 1) better manage their e-commerce businesses, 2) use the Web and e-mail to keep customers loyal and 3) revamp their sites with advanced search capabilities. 1. Might it be wise to switch to a hosted software solution to better manage your e-commerce business? Some
Technology Focus Part 1 To Host or Not To Host?
By Ernie Schell What is "software?" The easy answer is a computer program designed to execute one or more specified functions. But in 2006, the reality is that there is no easy answer. Over the past five years, there's been a revolution in the so-called "software as a service" (SaaS) arena. This is something of a throwback to the 1970s and before, when a centralized mainframe served selected views of software programs to a user's "dumb terminal." The terminals were "dumb" because they did no computing. You entered data into the interface and the mainframe did the
Technology Focus Part 2 Build Online Loyalty Efficiently
Best practices to increase loyalty and retention on your Web site Do you need a formal loyalty program to boost customer retention and customer loyalty? Don't assume so just because your competition has one. Recent research indicates that some focused Web site improvements and carefully constructed e-mail campaigns can have a very positive impact on loyalty just by improving the overall online experience. Here are some best practices that can make your online offering more relevant to customers' interests and needs, building retention and loyalty while avoiding the costs of developing and running a formal
Technology Focus Part 3 Improve Your Site's Searchability
When evaluating future technology acquisitions, make services-oriented architecture a key selection criteria. A new breed of software application has emerged over the last few years that has changed the dynamics of online product search within multichannel marketers' Web sites. Advanced search engines are becoming "must haves" on catalogers' lists of next-generation e-commerce features. Advanced search technologies differ from traditional, structured search approaches that rely on simple keywords and description indexes. Today's better Web sites allow for searches that automatically categorize results sets by navigable counts of relevant subsets of data. For example, a customer's search for "denim" may
Weighing In on the Catalog Co-op Databases '06
By Matt Griffin Now an eight-player field, consumer co-ops widen their offerings. What works best foryour catalog? With five established cooperative databases in the market, and three others trying to make headway in the past year, you might wonder what exactly separates each of these from one another. Whatever sets each co-op apart, the important thing to consider is that constant testing will prove whether the models offered by each company actually work. "Certainly you have to be willing to test the different databases, and you have to be willing to test different models," says Bob Webb, senior vice president of marketing for
