Merchandising

Creative Cut: Green Mountain Sticks to its Green Word
May 1, 2007

In the ever-improving world of coffee, the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters catalog has a clear focus, which is simply stated in the opening of the president’s letter: “Coffee is more than just something to drink; it’s a powerful connection to each other, and to the rest of the world.” In this catalog, coffee is the world’s language. You read it in the letter. You see it in the merchandise selection. Green Mountains’ mission is to support the global community. Many businesses make this their intention, but with Green Mountain, it’s a reality, evidenced on every page of its catalog. From the onset, I felt

Catalog Marketing: Michael Tiernan Details Boston Proper’s ‘Sexy’ Evolution
April 24, 2007

The Boston Proper catalog has come a long way since it was liquidated back in 1991. So, too, has the company that bought its name and list for a song at that time ($100,000) and propelled it to greater heights ever since. That firm — once known as The Mark Group, so named after its former flagship catalog, Mark, Fore & Strike — renamed itself Boston Proper three years ago, based on the success of the catalog and divestiture of the country club apparel title, Mark, Fore & Strike, as well as the gifts and home furnishings catalog, Charles Keith. Through it all has been

Marketing Partnerships: How You Can Play Nice-Nice, Just Like Hanover and Sears
April 17, 2007

In a roundtable discussion held on April 11 during a Hudson Valley DMA luncheon in Greenwich, Conn., Hanover Direct Vice President of Corporate Marketing Amy Schilder led a group on the best practices involved in partnership marketing. Specifically, she pointed out that partnerships with other marketing companies require several key components in order for them to work for both parties. Below are several take-away pointers from the discussion in which she focused primarily on Hanover’s own partnership with Sears, in which Sears offers a line of clothing from Hanover’s Silhouettes catalog. * Make sure both partners’ goals are in line with one another. In the Sears-Silhouettes

The Future of SEM: What Marketers Need to Know
April 10, 2007

As catalogers, you know the importance of search engine marketing for your Web sites and ultimately on your revenue. But technological advances and users’ preferences can make a difference in search engine results, page algorithms and spiders, as well as search engine optimization and overall SEM strategies. Manoj Jasra, director of technology at Enquiro Search Solutions, a search engine marketing firm in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, recently shared his thoughts on SEM changes in a blog entry. He warns marketers of some key factors to watch for: *Growth of personalized search. Because this is becoming more prominent, Web site operators have to work hard on Web

Editor’s Take: Yes, There’s Plenty Anew in Ops
April 1, 2007

As you can see, the contents in this month’s issue are quite operations-heavy. We’re always trying to balance our coverage, and with a more general focus for our big double-issue next month, as well as a broadly focused June issue, we’ll turn to technology-related issues in July. Perhaps the most interesting thing we found in putting this month’s issue together was that, although there typically aren’t a lot of drastic changes in the whole area of catalog/multichannel operations, fulfillment and management, there are nevertheless noteworthy changes taking place. For instance, take a look at consultant Liz Kislik’s feature on necessary changes in catalog order takers’ approach

Cataloger Spotlight: Lillian Vernon
April 1, 2007

Having topped out at $287 million nearly six years ago, Lillian Vernon’s sales have been falling ever since; it’s expected to finish out its fiscal year at about $170 million. But the bleeding could stop soon. A public company until 2003, the general mer-chandise cataloger was sold to investment conglomerate Direct Holdings, led by media company Zelnick Media. But despite an aggressive game plan to broaden Lillian Vernon’s reach, Direct Holdings’ initiatives largely backfired. Direct Holdings bailed out in May 2006 and sold Lillian Vernon to investment firm Sun Capital Partners, which installed former Miles Kimball CEO Mike Muoio to turn the company

Oooo, It’s So Exclusive!
March 13, 2007

Clothing industries have used the tactic of creating scarcity to drive up demand for such products as a T-shirt or a pair of ultimately disposable sneakers. Giving something that could have been mass-produced an element of uniqueness can have the same effect. … Marketers can add individual flavor to what they are selling to make consumers want it with abandon. —excerpted from “Punk Marketing,” (Collins, March 2007, $25.95) by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons; for more, www.harpercollins.com

By the Stats: ‘Shoe Census’ Measures Women’s Passion for Platforms, Peep Toes and Other Footwear
March 13, 2007

It may not be surprising that 57 percent of women buy more shoes than the men in their household and they’re likely to spend at least $40 on the average pair, but ShoeMall’s first U.S. Shoe Census did uncover some other facts about women and their fascination with footwear. Here are some findings from the survey conducted online in February by ShoeMall and Greenfield Inc. with 560 women ages 18 to 54: Besides sneakers and sandals, what kind of shoes do women have in their closet? 74 percent flats 32 percent wedges 26 percent peep toes 23 percent platforms Almost all women have black shoes in their closets. What other

The Sum of Crutchfield’s Parts
March 1, 2007

New product selections for consumer electronics cataloger Crutchfield are driven by its merchandising staff, which works closely with manufacturers. Vice President of Merchandising Rick Souder and the merchandisers thrive on launching new products. Since Crutchfield deals in high-tech consumer electronics, its merchandisers are organized by product groups to gain an in-depth familiarity with a particular product category, such as televisions or car stereos. Crutchfield’s marketing department steps in to determine if these new products will appeal to its customers, and if so, how and when this product information will be communicated. “The marketing challenge is to get the word out about your products in

Special Report: The Art and Science of Catalog Management
March 1, 2007

Two essential ingredients of any successful catalog business — marketing and merchandising — have artistic elements where experience, creativity and intuition count more than numbers and cold hard facts. But they also have numeric benchmarks that if ignored, can spell disaster for customer acquisition, customer retention and brand integrity. Marketing and merchandising skill sets and viewpoints are vital, and impact the bottom line. When they’re in sync with each other, the resulting catalog invariably is better than either can deliver on its own. Interaction between the two disciplines is a two-way street, rather than a linear path. There are several ways to