Department 56 e-mail enhances collectors’ experience
e-marketers across the Web worry that customers won’t open their e-mail. But that’s not the concern of Department 56, a designer, importer and distributor of collectibles and giftware.
Department 56 e-mails are spared the delete button by avid collectibles fans who are responsible for a 400% growth rate in the company’s e-mail program since it began seven months ago.
“The collectibles customer is dramatically different from those in other industries,” explains Maria Mimick, relationship marketing manager for the company, which is headquartered in Eden Prairie, MN. “Collectors have emotional ties to the product,” she says. “They automatically open our mail due to that strong affinity.”
That affinity accounts for Department 56’s successful e-mail program, which was designed solely to promote brand awareness of its collectible lines and to drive interactivity with its four-year-old Web site (www.department56.com).
What began as Bachman’s, a retail floral company that used a numbering system to identify each of its departments, now stands alone as Department 56 – the name assigned to the wholesale gift imports division. The product line, including handcrafted Snowbabies figurines, the Dickens’ Village Series, Monopoly Citylights and the Original Snow Village, are only available through U.S. and Canadian retailers. Even though customers can not order their prized possessions on the Web, sales success and growth of the lines are directly enhanced by the e-mail program, says Mimick.
Once a collector opts-in to the e-mail program from Department 56’s home page, they receive a personalized e-mail newsletter each month, which is sent to the total e-mail base. The text newsletter contains up to 10 trackable links that open to browser pages on the Department 56 site. This allows current collectors to devour the latest in product information for their lines while introducing them to new products, special promotions and opportunities – regardless of which product line first caught the collector’s interest.
“Tracking has shown that Web traffic spikes for the specific pages e-mail recipients are directed to in the newsletters,” observes Mimick, adding that new product announcements usually out-click any other message.
“We’ve seen pretty high clickthrough rates on Department 56 campaigns,” says Chris Kellerman, account manager at ClickAction, the company whose software enables tracking of Department 56’s mailings.
“On one campaign for a new product,” says Kellerman, “the company had a 60% clickthrough rate with more than half of the mailing recipients responding.”
While on the Department 56 site, collectors are aided in finding a retailer near them who carries their product of interest. “We use the Web to drive traffic to our retailers because we believe it’s important to support the retail channels of our product lines,” says Mimick.
And making it easier for collectors to grow their collection, Department 56 has co-branded a credit card with First USA depicting various collection lines that consumers can apply for online.
In addition to the newsletter, consumers can request information specific to their collection from a list of 12 village lines or three figurine lines. They will then receive e-mail regarding product retirement announcements and retail store promotions, such as artist signings for their particular collection. Geographically sensitive event e-mails are targeted to product collectors based on the customer’s ZIP code in the surrounding areas.
Frequency of those e-mails depends on the product line and particular announcement. By tracking individuals’ names, Department 56 can gauge the success of a giveaway or store-promoted activity.
Messages aren’t always tied to a product line or event. One very well received e-mail was a holiday card mailing. “It’s exciting because the collectors feel they have a personalized relationship with us,” indicates Mimick. “They write back saying `Thanks for thinking of me.’ It’s incredible.”
Interactivity is promoted with the collector base through a trivia quiz, refreshed each month, which offers opportunities to win collection pieces. “There was a lot of traffic there before,” points out Mimick, “but now we remind people of the opportunity to play and win, and the numbers have increased.”
Department 56 also uses e-mail to promote its special relationship-building programs within specific product lines, such as the Snowbabies Friendship Club. Programs for building the total customer relationship include one for the company’s upcoming silver anniversary celebration in Saint Paul, MN, in August 2001. Collectors can submit an e-mail survey on how they would like to celebrate the 25th anniversary and subscribe to specific e-mail updates about the event.
Mimick would like to reach more customers through e-mail. “We know we have a huge customer base and our biggest ongoing challenge is reaching them to let them know we’re here and to give them the ability to opt-in to the mail program,” she says. And although it may seem older collectors aren’t serviced by electronic communication, Mimick finds that e-mail is the best way to reach all customers, which span several generations. “Older people may not be surfing the Web,” she maintains, “but they are communicating with friends and family.”
To grow the e-mail base and increase site awareness, Department 56 spreads the word by placing flyers in bags at consumer conventions, announcing the program in their quarterly Fifty-Six magazine and product-specific clubs, and updating product packaging to carry the Web site address.
Since the program was launched, an e-mail base consisting of approximately 17% of the identified customer database has actively opted-in to receive Department 56’s mail with “consistently low” opt-out rates. Moving forward, Mimick sees the program developing into more frequent, personalized communications based on people’s interests. “It’s a process that’s constantly being modified,” she says, “based on our customers’ responses.”
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