La Redoute Femme
French fashion cataloger La Redoute (from Brylane) has introduced a new catalog for plus-size women. The premiere edition of La Redoute Femme
features a "women's collection" of clothing between sizes two and 26, with most offerings being size 10 and up. The catalog incorporates the new pink "Femme" logo throughout the book with a new symbol (a white "f" enclosed in a little pink circle) meant to denote "special values on must-have items." It should be noted, however, that the symbol does not indicate marked-down prices. Like other La Redoute catalogs, the 64-page issue includes a variety of women's apparel like dresses, intimates and bathing suits, as well as shoes and accessories. Prices range from $12.99 for a pair of shorts to $49.99 for a tank dress. Like many Brylane catalogs, La Redoute offers up to $500 credit with approval and deferred billing with credit card orders.
Roll Call
Roll Call, the "Newspaper of Capitol Hill," has mailed an effort that replaces its once bulky white package with a photo-illustrated 8-1/4" x 3-1/2" self-mailer.
The promotion face presents the recipient with the nudging teaser, "So, what's your New Year's resolution?" which is followed with a prompted answer of, "How about staying ahead of the competition in 2002?" Mysteriously, this New-Year's oriented piece was apparently mailed over two months after Jan. 1. Unusual for a self-mailer is Roll Call's reply form, which is presented as a tear-away "Professional Subscription Order Form" to be detached and mailed in by 3/29/02. The new voucher offer is for 58 issues for $99 (10 free), while prior efforts have been for $48/$96 for 28/58 issues (4/10 free). The new effort also offers subscribing "Congress-watchers" a new incentive upon receipt of payment, an engraved Roll Call pen.
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council recently mailed a jumbo 9" x 12" package that repositions its typical Arctic National Wildlife Refuge petition piece into a more patriotic "Declaration of Energy Independence." While the new
package is actually the same effort to prevent oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic Refuge, the context has been altered to counter the Bush administration's current position that oil development in the refuge is vital to America's national security in the wake of 9/11. In response, the new petition and package attempts to equate environmental support with patriotic ideals. Creatively, the changes range from using a red, white and blue motif and eagle iconography to borrowing language from the document that birthed the nation, "We, the People, do call upon our elected leaders to… reduce our nation's destructive dependence on oil…"The new package maintains all other aspects of a typical Natural Resources Defense Council mailing except the personal message from Robert Redford has been eliminated. The tote bag thank-you gift for $10+ donations is retained, along with the standard $10/$20/$35/$50/$100/other donation ask ladder and wildlife postcard insert.
The direct mail pieces appearing in Mail Stream are tracked and analyzed by Paradysz Matera, New York, through its online competitive direct mail and e-mail tracking tool MarketRelevance located at http://www.MarketRelevance.com/newsletter.cfm.
