A Chat With March’s Profile, Martin Smith, CEO of MindWare

Catalog Success: Where is the company headquartered?
Martin Smith: Minneapolis/St. Paul. Roseville to be more specific — just north of those two cities.
CS: What year was the catalog established?
MS: I believe Jeanne [Voigt, the founder of MindWare] started it in 1990. It’s certainly not earlier than that; it might have been 1991.
CS: What is the primary merchandise offered in your catalog?
MS: Toys and games, all of which have some educational or developmental attributes. This could be physical attributes, physical developmental skills, or it could be mental skills … it could be math, it could be more literary, it could be creative. The common thread that links all the products is that they have a benefit over-and-above enjoyment in the narrow sense.
CS: It really stresses an educational benefit to it?
MS: Yes it does. We wouldn’t carry something which was a straight mass-merchandiser product that was just a game or just a toy that had zero educational content.
CS: How many titles (books) does the company mail?
MS: Just the one title [MindWare].
CS: How mailings per year? Both what you did in 2007 and what the company has planned for 2008?
MS: We had seven major mailings last year and we’re still in the process of really reviewing what happened in the fall holiday season of last year, so things might change. But I would think the seven is likely to hold again for 2008.
CS: What’s the annual circulation of the catalog?
MS: We certainly don’t have a final figure for 2008, but I’d think it would be in the 12 million to 15 million range.
CS: Will this figure be based off of 2007?
MS: That will be upon ’07. In that bracket I’m kind of allowing for the possibility — because our ‘07 figures were generally encouraging — that there might be some modest growth in circulation.

Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.