STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE: Catalogers Sound Off About 2007

Chinn: For us, postage costs are roughly half of the in-the-mail cost of producing the catalog; the rest is printing, prep and paper. This is going to make it more than half. It makes it harder when you look at your RFM cells, because your cost per piece is going to determine how deeply you can mail. We may cut the size of the book in the middle of the year, which is a slower time for us anyway, so we can mail more deeply into our housefile.

How do you feel this year will pan out? What’s your plan? Do you agree or disagree with what these catalogers had to say? E-mail us your thoughts and we’ll publish them in an upcoming issue. Send to mgriffin@napco.com with “Outlook feedback” in the subject line.