HOT CREATIVE: Candle Power
Still, this catalog’s marketing mix needs more spark
IF IT IS INDEED BETTER TO light a candle than to curse the darkness, then Wally Arnold is going one up on the old adage. Arnold feels it’s better still to light hundreds — if not thousands — of candles. So he founded Illuminations, a catalog and retail chain store offering candles and related paraphernalia, to help people light their way.
But despite its 69 stores, Illuminations believes “direct marketing is the way to go,” according to marketing director Lanya Havas.
It would be more accurate to say that integrated marketing is the way to go for the Petaluma, CA-based company. Although the 5-year-old cataloger/retailer has had a Web site (www.illuminations.com) since 1998, it didn’t become the focus of the firm’s sales efforts until it was revamped in October 1999.
The site is marketed through 1,500 affiliates and such major portals as Yahoo! and America Online. The affiliates cover a wide range, Havas says, from charities to astrology. (Some of Illuminations’ candles have astrological themes.) Online shopping sites contain links, which she refers to as “banners,” to the address. And Internet direct marketer MyPoints provides a continuity program that Illuminations itself does not.
The goal of the site is to provide customers with a robust experience, Havas explains. It offers information about products and ordering. Also included is “Ask Kim,” a column by an in-house expert who dispenses advice about how to use candles to enhance home decor and one’s lifestyle.
Havas says the four-a-year catalog mailings sell in the millions of copies. While the book doesn’t include such content as “Ask Kim,” it does refer the customer to the Web site. She acknowledges that one of the catalog’s purposes is to drive traffic to the site, where customer service is more cost-effective for the company.
While Illuminations does not use space ads or DRTV spots, its ritual candles were featured on The Oprah Show, which boosted sales and buzz for the firm.
And Arnold has published a book, titled “Illuminations: Living by Candlelight” (Chronicle Books, $19.95), which explains more about candles, aromatherapy, rituals and the like than readers might have imagined they ever needed to know.
The catalog’s typical customers are young to middle-aged women. Havas suggests that online buyers may be skewed younger, as are the company’s retail customers.
Illuminations locates its storefronts in upscale malls or more fashionable shopping districts. In New York, for example, the company has stores in SoHo and Rockefeller Center.
So much for background information. Now let’s shed some light on the catalog and Web site.
Waxing Poetic
Illuminations’ site is more exciting than its catalog. The holiday edition, for example, is a 48-page, four-color booklet. Photography consists of straightforward product shots — one to five items per page — but all are in the warmer, if not red, hues (gee, we wonder why).
The copy tends to be brief, with little if any romance. It does extend itself for the ritual candles, but omits Oprah’s endorsement in favor of the following:
Made from the finest grade of natural wax and carefully crafted according to ancient aromatherapy lore, these candles can help bring about a shift in your thinking or a reaffirmation of something you already know. Burn them in containers that hold a cup of liquid, as they will liquify completely. One ritual candle can result in a profound experience, which only deepens when you burn it with its “companion” candles. Each candle comes with a ritual scroll to guide you and a keepsake gemstone that is revealed as the candle melts.
OK. So like a box of Cracker Jacks, there’s a prize inside.
The creative for the holiday offerings also seems to fall a bit short of what it might be considering the product and service — that is, the romance of candlelight. The selection is presented in a couple of pages at the beginning of the catalog, all priced for impulse buys, and all themed for Christmas.
Actually, the gifts are attractive, and we’re sure they did well, but we were surprised that Christmas was the only winter holiday the catalog addressed. Aside from the fact that most catalogs have at least one or two items for the other major winter celebrations — Kwanzaa, for example — at least one holiday would seem a natural for the pyromaniacal Illuminations: Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights. The holiday’s centerpiece is a menorah, a branched candelabrum that displays candles for each of eight nights.
In contrast, the Web site is much more exciting. The product shots are supplemented by photographs of rooms lighted by candles, which are as seductive as the “Ask Kim” section is instructive. Its decorating tips are useful if sometimes obvious.
The catalog and retail shops are much more in line with the Web site. The book is filled with atmospheric shots of space filled with candlelight, while the shops use candles and recessed lighting to give the impression that the store space is lighted only by candles.
Our verdict? Illuminations needs to raise the catalog’s quality to that of the other marketing channels. It’s definitely the weak link in the marketing chain.
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