Industry Eye: Key Multichannel Execs Join Catalog Success Editorial Board
Top executives from catalogers Acorn Media, Lillian Vernon, Plow & Hearth, The Nailco Group and Headsets.com, were named to the 2007 Catalog Success Editorial Advisory Board, effective this issue. Board members are consulted on a regular basis to help bring forth improvements to the content of the magazine.
Incoming board members are Miguel Penella, president of video and gifts cataloger Acorn Media; Mike Muoio, president/CEO of general merchandise cataloger Lillian Vernon; Jean Giesmann, vice president creative services at home and garden products cataloger Plow & Hearth, a unit of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM; Larry Gaynor, president of B-to-B beauty salon supplies cataloger The Nailco Group; and Mike Faith, CEO and president of telephone equipment cataloger Headsets.com.
“We were looking to add catalog pros who are closely in tune with the pulse of the business,” says Catalog Success Editor in Chief Paul Miller, “and our new board members working along with our returning members will help make our print magazine, Web site and e-newsletter better and even more in line with what our readers want from Catalog Success.”
Among the incoming board members, their outlook for the industry in general is cautious, but mostly favorable. Muoio says that Lillian Vernon and other catalogers will be pressured by postal and outbound freight consolidation prices. “The age of indiscriminate free shipping is over,” he says, “and fundamental merchandising skills will determine the winners and losers.”
Gaynor of The Nailco Group is confident that consumers will continue spending on sectors in which they find value. “The year after a general election is typically favorable for economic conditions and the stock market,” he says. “[Marketers] will need to continue to be innovative and offer luxury, exclusive or design-oriented items to attract business.”
Penella notes that the new postal rates expected to come into effect this year “are forcing us to be cautious, but we expect our business to continue to grow next year through increased prospecting efforts.”
