Some Fake Head Here
Vacation Passport is the first of several moves in an aggressive growth plan Damark plans to develop two or three new catalogs a year indefinitely as part of an aggressive long-term program with three key goals: diversify the business, add customers/members and get established customers to spend more.
The first expansion endeavor is Vacation Passport, a travel club tested throughout the spring and summer to house file names. George Richards, VP of membership and partnership marketing, says the tests drew positive results.
A digest-size, 64-page catalog inside a four-color envelope offered Vacation Passport members discounts of up to 50% on everything from airfare, cruises and car rentals to white-water rafting and dogsledding. The membership fee is $39.99 a year.
Richards wouldn’t discuss test results but said Vacation Passport will roll out in the near future in mailings to outside lists as well as Damark’s house file.
The new club adds service offerings to Damark’s core retail business. The Minneapolis-based cataloger sells computers, home electronics, sporting goods and other merchandise. It issues 70 different catalogs and mails 140 million copies a year.
Named after founders David Russ and Mark Cohen, Damark began selling merchandise through a traditional catalog in 1986 and launched the Preferred Member Club program in 1987.
That club now has a million members who pay $50 a year to get 10% off all catalog purchases and discounts from travel and leisure companies, among others.
Last year Damark separated the membership marketing group from its general catalog group to step up its membership-driven businesses. It did this after database analysis showed that customers in the Preferred Member Club are more loyal.
“They purchase twice as often as nonclub buyers and they spend three times as much,” says spokesperson Quita Matthes.
Damark now is testing the Insiders Club, which offers Preferred members added benefits including discounts on express shipping, extended warranties and a 60-day lowest-price guarantee. (“If someone can prove there’s been a lower price, we’ll pay back 125% of the customer’s purchase price,” Matthes says.)
New club concepts come out of purchase-history analyses and lifestyle-data surveys.
