Commentary: NEMOA Lovefest Gets Down to Business
By and large, attendees at industry conferences throughout at least the first half of this year had something of a bewildered look. Kind of a “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” sort of thing going on. Then again, so too did just about anyone in this country amid the brutal recession. But perhaps the Fall NEMOA Conference, held last week at the gaudy Foxwoods Casino complex in Mashantucket, Conn., showed signs of a new, more encouraged, more aggressive attitude among attendees and speakers.
Attendance was down for the third straight NEMOA conference, which is held every March and September. No surprise at that, of course. Still, at the event itself, there was a lot of positive energy.
One could reason that this is because there were a few more younger, more energetic attendees to this 62-year-old cataloger lovefest. (In fact, not to imply that they bring negative energy, but a good number of the old faithful from NEMOAs past weren’t in attendance.) Or perhaps the tighter attendance allowed for closer interaction between speakers and attendees.
There was a confluence of present and forward thinking going on at the event. On the one hand, NEMOA openly continued to plug its support for the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) in its efforts to work more aggressively with the USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission to keep catalog postage rates in check. (See my commentary from last week for more on the ACMA.)
On the other hand, many speakers and the topics they discussed were quite forward-thinking on matters such as social media and search, among others. One of the more noteworthy presentations came from Stan Krangel, president of the MKC Catalog/Internet group at Blyth Inc., which goes to market with the Miles Kimball, Exposures, Boca Java, The Home Marketplace, Walter Drake and As We Change catalogs.
A native New Yorker, Krangel has spent the past few years in Miles Kimball’s Oshkosh, Wis., headquarters trying to modernize an old-fashioned catalog business that still receives a lot of mailed-in orders from its aging clientele. He shared with the audience several of the forward-thinking strategies he’s been applying at Miles Kimball, such as the deep merchandise analysis the company’s been doing to find out where specific product categories have been growing online.
Like other speakers, Krangel urged NEMOA members to join the ACMA and get actively involved in catalog postal efforts. At the same time, however, he was presenting a very modernistic vision of an old, aging direct marketing company.
That’s much like NEMOA, which in recent years has sought to shed its original New England Mail Order Association moniker and its outdated implications. Traditionally, NEMOA conferences have been the setting for a clique of veteran, small to midsize catalog marketing execs and some of their vendors. But like the larger, but considerably downsized, Direct Marketing Association, NEMOA has worked hard to remain relevant in the rapidly changing retail environment, both financially and in purpose.
“We're trying to figure out new ways to maintain the financial health of our organization,” NEMOA Executive Director Janie Downey told me after the event.
Watch for our complete summary of the best takeaways from Krangel’s session in next week’s edition of The ROI Report e-newsletter, along with other NEMOA coverage. Among others, look for the recap of the forward-thinking session on social media presented by social networking trailblazer David Carter. He may not have shed bright light on how integrated retailers can make money directly from their involvement with social networks, but Carter offered up many ideas on how to move closer to that goal.
