A Look at a Few Major Catalog Markets

James Dempster is general manager of Hemisphere Marketing, a San Francisco- and Tokyo-based direct marketing consultancy. He can be reached at jim@hemispheresf.com

After many years where mail order was considered to be the grubbier end of marketing, the industry has gone through a quiet revolution. Retailers are clamoring to win catalog and Web site customers. Business-to-business companies are getting over the fear of upsetting their dealers, and launching catalogs and Web sites to sell directly to the end user.