Having his team focused on the concept of one brand across several channels is Gordon Cooke’s strategy for catalog-online-retail synergy.
Cooke, president and CEO of women’s apparel cataloger DM Management since 1996, told attendees of the Catalog Conference yesterday that similar copy and visual elements across all channels is the company’s strategy as it expands into Web and retail marketing.
The company’s initial Web site will be in test mode by August, and fully transactional by the holiday season. He expects the site to have a “considerable impact” on customer retention, as well as drive down order-taking and customer service costs.
DM Management’s preliminary retail plans call for five to 10 J. Jill stores to open in fiscal 2000, followed by additional stores in 2001.
“As we did in catalog, our intention is to be super aggressive in our roll-out and take advantage of a void in the marketplace,” he said.
During his keynote address, Cooke said after the fourth edition of the company’s People Places Things mails, the home catalog will be shelved. “It was a hard-to-make decision,” he said, noting the company has decided to place its energies in other expanding areas for the J. Jill brand like retail and e-commerce. Some of the products from the catalog may be sold through the J. Jill catalog or stores.
In a week, the name of the company will be changed to The J. Jill Group Inc., said Cooke, noting he hoped the new corporate logo would dispel some of the identity confusion between his brand and J. Crew.
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