Catalog

• Agencies

  Focus, Catalogers, Focus

  Catalogers need to focus on what is really important to their brand for driving both sales and long term growth, according to Charles Silver, vice president of marketing, Bloomingdale’s Direct.

• Agencies

  Putting the Sell in Creative

  The creative departments of catalog companies concentrate too much on esthetics and not enough on showing off merchandising and copy to drive response, Bill LaPierre, vice president, brokerage division of Peterborough, NH-based list firm Millard Group, told attendees

• Agencies

  Of Price and Men (and Women)

  Giving proven buyers discounts may train these individuals to wait for sales rather than making purchases as soon as the first catalog of the season arrives.

• Agencies

  Short-Term Behavior, Long-Term Value

  Direct marketers put a huge amount of time and money into examining, testing, analyzing, and fine-tuning their marketing on a campaign-by-campaign basis. The results of a single campaign are judged by response rates, average spend amounts, and often, the ROI generated by that campaign.

• Agencies

  Web Buyers, Catalog Buyers: Together but Not Equal

  According to CATALOG AGE’s Benchmark Report on Operations, which will appear in the April issue, a mean 35.5% of catalogers’ orders come via the Web. So it stands to reason that Internet buyers account for a growing share of catalogers’ print circulation

• Agencies

  Measuring Incremental Vs. Overall Response

  When measuring the effectiveness of a promotion, the focus should always be on the incremental order activity that is generated by the promotion, according to Jim Wheaton, a principle with Chapel Hill, NC-based database solutions firm Wheaton Group. The overall order activity during the promotion’s “response window,” he says, is irrelevant.

• Agencies

  Digitized Catalogs Do Double Duty

  Recycling catalogs can be a chore at home, when that avalanche of glossy, four-color print threatens to bust out the sides of the blue bin. But online marketers of all sizes are embracing catalog recycling with gusto by putting their catalogs up on the Web site as well as in the mail, and reaping important new sales as a result.

• Agencies

  BENCHMARK 2005 MARKETING

  Thomas Jefferson declared that information is the currency of democracy. More recently, U.S. general Gordon Sullivan said, Information is the currency

• Agencies

  Seasonal Planning: How to Prepare for Your Next Major Mailing

  “Chance favors the prepared mind,” said scientist Louis Pasteur. And while chance does play a part in the success of any marketing venture, you can nudge the odds in your favor with a combination of forethought and foresight, notes George Hague, senior marketing strategist for Shawnee Mission, KS-based catalog agency J. Schmid & Assoc. Here are five questions that Hague suggests you answer before sitting down with the next season’s circ plan:

• Agencies

  Understanding the Relationship Between Catalogs and Web Buying

  How do you know that a Web-buying household is placing an order just because they received a catalog? The argument has been made that just because a Web buyer gets a catalog and then later places an order, that purchase doesn’t prove that the catalog circulation caused the Web purchase. There are ways to answer whether receiving catalogs causes the Web orders.