Vineyard Vines Offers a Taste of Martha's Vineyard
According to a welcome letter found on the catalog's inside cover, the company attributes a part of its success to the number of politicians who have been spotted wearing the ties, from John Kerry and Bill Clinton to Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The catalog’s picturesque cover art features two fishermen casting lines off the coast of a white sandy beach, and is from a painting done by a fellow Vineyarder. Adding to this authenticity, the 64-page catalog is filled with snapshots of Vineyard Vines' founders Ian and Shep Murray and other staff members living out the Martha's Vineyard lifestyle with clothing and accessories from the catalog. The aforementioned ties ($65) are available in an ample assortment of bright, fun colors and patterns (vineyard whale, cat boat and barefoot to name a few). Prices, found exclusively on the back of the enclosed order form, range from $19.50 for a pair of raspberry colored crab boxer shorts to $125 for a women's Tisbury tote bag. Only small collections of women's and children's items are offered this time around, with further expansion expected throughout 2005. D.A.R.E. America Encloses Gift
Fundraiser D.A.R.E. America, dedicated to educating kids about the dangers of drug abuse, recently mailed four similar 5-1/4" x 7-1/2" packages. 
Two of the promotions use a photograph of kids in D.A.R.E. t-shirts on the outer envelope, accompanied by a caption that reads in part, "for 21 years we've shown children how to successfully resist drugs and violence." In place of the group photograph image, the two other packages utilize an alarming quote from a recovering drug addict to stress the importance of drug abuse education from a young age ("I first used nicotine when I was 11 or 12 and then marijuana a month before my 13th birthday..." All four packages enclose a freemium, which consists of an oversized sheet of address labels and stickers. The design of the labels is common across the four efforts, alternately featuring the D.A.R.E. logo, the tagline "D.A.R.E. to care about America's kids!" and the organization's mascot, the lion Daren. The stickers (visible through a window on the front of the packages) depict images of smiling children. Finally, ask ladders also vary: $6/$8/$10/$12/other in one effort, $8/$10/$12/$15/other in another, and $12/$18/$24/$36/other in two promotions.
Totally Tomatoes Mails Annual Catalog
Avid gardeners and the catalogs that serve them plan for the springtime planting season months ahead of the average consumer. 
So it is reasonable that Totally Tomatoes dates its annual book for the new year but mails it to reach homes in early December, giving customers time to order at a leisurely pace. The 2005 edition exhibits all the traits of the mailer's tried-and-true strategy, which it updated slightly last year. The most recent book retains its traditionally tall and thin size, 11" x 6", its usual 72-page thickness, and the full-color design and patchwork photo cover that was introduced in the 2004 edition. It repeats its offer of two seed packets as a premium on payment for all customers who spend a minimum of $5 per order by March 15, 2005. The incentive is positioned as a "Free Trial Offer!" on page 3, where it is explained that the seeds are for "two brand-new, highly prized varieties," the Tomcat Hybrid Tomato and the Candente Hybrid Pepper. (Despite its name, Totally Tomatoes also sells a small sampling of peppers, cucumbers, squash and other vegetables.) Merchandise items are predominantly seeds, sold in packets of 20 to 30 for just a dollar or two, although larger sizes command considerably higher prices. The Mountain Fresh Hybrid VFF tomato, for example, costs $35 for 1/8 oz. A green leaf symbol indicates that plants are available for certain varieties, although pricing for plants is left unstated.
The direct mail promotions appearing in Mail Stream are tracked and analyzed by ParadyszMatera, a media brokerage services company, through its MarketRelevance(tm) Promotion Library. Click here to visit their site: ParadyszMatera.com.
