International Strategy

As has been its annual custom, B-to-B list firm MeritDirect’s annual co-op event in White Plains, N.Y. on July 12 was kicked off by a provocative and entertaining presentation by catalog veteran and futurist Don Libey. Having heard Don speak plenty of times in the past (and despite his frequent speaking appearances, rarely does he repeat a single concept, strategy or idea), I’ve long since learned how to filter through his motivational pep talk and the meat of what he delivers. While always entertaining, his shtick is always chockfull of meat, but it often looks beyond tomorrow. And after all, we all want to

Catalogers’ Updates PetSmart: The multichannel pet supplies retailer in late April sold its State Line Tack equine assets to PetsUnited, a holding company for a Web-based marketer of pet and equine products, including Dog.com, Fish.com and Horse.com. PetsUnited plans to move the State Line Tack online and catalog business from Brockport, N.Y., to its Hazelton, Pa., facility by July. Cutter & Buck: This apparel cataloger/designer in April agreed to be acquired by the Sweden-based New Wave Group AB, a designer/marketer of assorted apparel lines for the corporate promotional and consumer retail markets in Europe. Under New Wave Group’s ownership, Cutter & Buck

Continuing our coverage of the Canadian market begun in Catalog Success’ The Corner View e-newsletter last week (see www.catalogsuccess.com/story/story.bsp?sid=53237&var=story#cornerview ), we came across a new survey released by Statistics Canada, which found that 2006 online sales for Canadian companies reporting them rose 40 percent to $49.9 billion. It was the fifth consecutive year of double-digit increases. More than 19,000 public and private companies were surveyed for the report. The majority of the 2006 sales, about 68 percent, were business-to-business sales. Four sectors account for most of the e-commerce activity in Canada: manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and both wholesale trade and retail trade. The survey

TORONTO — For a good many years, I’ve periodically covered the Canadian catalog/direct/multichannel market — all, of course, from a U.S. perspective. Dating back to the early 1990s, I reported on catalogers’ experiences in expanding into Canada, usually focusing on brand-new efforts. More often than not, the results looked encouraging, the outlook appeared great. Most surveys showed that Canada was the number 1 logical choice for international expansion among catalogers. Yet, here we are in 2007, and finding catalogers that do any sort of truly significant business in Canada is just about as challenging as getting a ticket to a Stanley Cup playoff hockey

Catalog Success Editor in Chief Paul Miller caught up with J.C. Penney Chairman/CEO Myron “Mike” Ullman during last week’s National Retail Federation convention in New York. Ullman touched on several topics, including Penney’s multichannel advances and its ability to thrive while other big book catalog retailers were forced to redefine themselves over the years. Catalog Success: How do you see the role of your big book catalog changing? Ullman: We have a number of specialty catalogs and that’s where our growth has been. Our big book is still important; it still plays a role, especially among our more loyal customers, and it’s still successful. Catalog Success: How

In the two and a half years since its faltering performance led to the resignation of CEO Bruce Nelson, big box multichannel retailer Office Depot has struggled to regain its footing. But in an interview with Catalog Success Editor in Chief Paul Miller during last week’s National Retail Federation convention in New York, current president, North American Retail, Chuck Rubin said he believes the company is carving out a solid niche for itself alongside not only its two top rivals, Staples and OfficeMax, but also other multichannel retail powerhouses like Target, Wal-Mart and even Costco. Catalog Success: How do your different marketing channels work in

The potential in the global marketplace is huge. By 2007, 1 billion people will have access to the Internet; 70 percent of these people will speak a language other than English. In fact, there currently are 128 million Chinese-speaking Internet users alone. This number is predicted to double within the next five years. Studies show these Internet users are just like the rest of us: They heavily rely on Web sites in their native language to perform most tasks. What does this mean for marketers trying to reach these markets via the Web? Something many companies are not paying enough attention to: localization. To

Question: What tactics should international direct marketers employ to maintain the integrity of global data? Answers: • Seek resources and expertise specifically addressing the complexities of international data. This can include training your in-house data capture staff on the particular details of international data, using industry experts and resources to improve data capture and data management practices, and/or working with suppliers that have significant experience with international data. • International data often contains foreign accent characters, diacritics or local-language text characters that are not supported by most domestic computer systems. Be aware of the large number of different international data encoding standards that

The Canadian dollar’s strength makes marketing by catalog to Canadians a prime expansion opportunity for U.S. catalogers these days. For many, it’s a logical way to grow, provided the prospecting universe is sufficient for the offer. Mailing and distributing merchandise into Canada has become almost seamless thanks to services such as the one offered by Canada Post Borderfree. Here’s what you can expect, and how you can get started test marketing and building a Canadian housefile as part of your overall circulation strategy. Sizing Up the Market There are approximately 33 million people and 12.5 million consumer households in Canada. Similar to the

Taking your catalog to global markets is a major decision that involves a rather large investment in translation services and time. The project’s expense and level of difficulty will vary depending on how well you design your English-language catalog and how carefully you prepare it for translation. Following are nine tips that can help with such a project. 1) Test with a smaller catalog. If this is the first time you’re mailing a catalog version to other countries, test the market with a smaller version of your book that includes just your bestsellers. 2) Understand translation costs. Translation services often are quoted per