Management

Well into the second decade of the Internet, many of you reading this — if not all of you — have a pretty good recollection of the “Wild Wild West” days of the Internet early on. It actually still is the Wild West, but in a much different way. And, having sat in on a number of sessions at the e-Tail conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, I noticed the breadth of knowledge that’s permeated the catalog/multichannel community and helped give it an entirely different character than it had 10 years ago. For one, consider how the language has changed. In the mid-’90s, I

Whether they’re great CEOs from good companies, good CEOs from great companies or great CEOs from fantastic companies, these people often don’t want to let the rest of the world know what’s made them or their companies so great. So, it was a joy to sit in on a wonderful presentation by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh during the e-Tail conference in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8. He openly reeled off 10 truly fascinating ways Zappos has succeeded in its first eight years as a dot-com seller of shoes and apparel. What does your company have in common with the $800 million Zappos? For

BACKGROUND: In 2000, Kassie Rempel started her own financial planning business, working with five affluent families. In 2002, “One family asked me to work with it full time and help the spouse set up and run an exercise studio and day spa in the D.C. area,” she recalls. The next year, she transitioned out of financial planning and into cataloging. “The topic was always shoes,” says Rempel, who in ’04 founded the SimplySoles shoe catalog. “I found that I was doing more shopping personally through catalogs and via the Internet,” she says. “I decided that if that’s where I saw myself doing most of

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, August 2007 Interview by Gail Kalinoski Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Kassie Rempel: The first catalog was mailed in September 2004. It took about a year to educate myself enough to feel comfortable putting something in the mail. The first catalog was 36 pages and now they are always 36 pages. I started with two catalogs a year, one for fall and one for spring. It has since grown. In fact, this upcoming fall, we will have four drops this season. We are working our way to eight drops a year.

People On the Move MCM Electronics: Phil Minix has been named president of Centerville, Ohio-based B-to-B catalog distributor MCM Electronics. A member of the Catalog Success editorial board, Minix is a 12-year veteran of the catalog/direct business. He most recently served as president of Astral Direct. Prior to that, he worked at Reiman Publications and J. Schmid & Assoc. Sharper Image: Andrew P. Reich has been named EVP of merchandising. James Sander has been named SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary. Eddie Bauer: Neil S. Fiske, the head of Limited Brands’ Bath and Body Works, has been appointed president and CEO. Fiske, 45,

Last week, I got an e-mail from a former student of mine telling me he was starting a company with mail order as one of its distribution channels. He had a neat idea, and I thought the items he was about to sell had merit. Clearly he had his product line thought out well.

It pleases me to no end when this happens: a budding entrepreneur, about to stake his claim in the business world. Then I get the question that I dread: “How do I buy a list so I can grow the business?” How do I buy a list? Oh man, haven’t I

For some reason, I often feel the need to reflect back on my past experience in the catalog/multichannel business when I write these things. Is that typical for these kinds of columns and newsletters? Or at 47, am I just gettin’ old? Hopefully the former, because here I go again. These days, it seems like more and more “rules” of cataloging must be changed for myriad reasons: to account for unfair postal rates, to cater to consumers’ reduced attention spans and to accommodate catalogers’ increased reliance on other marketing channels, namely the Web and retail for consumer marketers and the Web, distribution advancements, telemarketing and

Mark Amtower, who’s made a career of helping B-to-B catalogers and other direct marketers sell to federal government agencies successfully, was the keynote speaker at a luncheon during last week’s MeritDirect Co-op in White Plains, N.Y., addressing the types of companies and people catalogers ought to steer clear of. In his presentation, “Six Habits of Highly Defective People ‘Who Just Don’t Get It’,” Amtower humorously, but quite seriously, described these top six in reverse order. 6. A really big company with name recognition, but not built on customer satisfaction or client relationships — instead, built on corporate acquisitions. Such companies “rarely have substance

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

BACKGROUND: Howard Flax, CEO of FLAX art & design, comes from a long line of art supplies dealers, stretching all the way back to 1938. The first Flax art supplies business was a store in San Francisco founded by Herman Flax, Howard’s grandfather. Other family members followed suit, with stores popping up from New York to Phoenix to Los Angeles. After Herman passed away, his sons Philip and Jerry ran the business. Now, Philip is the chairman, and his sons Howard and Craig, vice president of marketing, run the only Flax store that boasts a catalog. Here, third-generation Flax businessman, Howard Flax,