Omnichannel

Most catalogers these days sell via two or three channels. It’s how they use each channel that determines their success. “The Web made mail order accessible to many, who didn’t need to invest in a big catalog infrastructure,” says Susan McIntyre, president of Portland, Ore.-based catalog consultancy McIntyre Direct. But the resulting glut of Internet pure plays and new catalogers makes standing out from the crowd tougher. Below are McIntyre’s directives for making your catalog stand out. 1. Keep service consistent across channels. Effective multichannel marketing includes both the capability to take orders from multiple channels and the ability to provide the

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Catalog Success: The Corner View. Coming to you directly from the keyboard of Catalog Success editor in chief Paul Miller, this fortnightly e-newsletter will reach your inbox every other Friday. In all of our channels — the monthly print magazine, the weekly Idea Factory e-newsletter and our daily Web site — Catalog Success’ mantra is to provide you with moneymaking ideas that can help you run your catalog/multichannel business better. Always on the lookout for new products that we can offer our readers, we bring you this executive report with analysis and reflections on the catalog/multichannel business, specifically targeted

Just a month into the new year, catalogers have a mixed bag of enthusiasm. On the one hand, the economy appears strong and consumer spending is solid. On the other hand, there’s another postal rate increase going into effect during the first half of the year. Catalog Success caught up with several mailers and industry observers to give you an idea of which multichannel prospecting strategies may be best for you this year. Prospect With Caution No surprise: Feelings differ about how catalogers should prospect in 2007. “I’m feeling particularly bullish this year,” says Tim Kiss, director of enterprise direct marketing for The

Susan McIntyre, president of Portland, Ore.-based catalog consultancy McIntyre Direct, recommends that catalogers look at how customers use their channels to interact with them. This often isn’t as simple as dividing customers into catalog, Web and retail buyers. The ideal strategy, she notes, considers the fact that some catalog shoppers want to be reminded to purchase via e-mail, while others will look at products online before taking their catalogs to retail locations to make a final purchase. The solution, she says, involves in-depth analysis of an integrated customer database, and a firm partnership between marketing personnel and the IT staff who manage your housefile.

There’s a very thin line that ties together the two catalogs produced out of 132 Robin Hill Road in Santa Barbara, Calif. Founded in 1994 as Surf to Summit, a B-to-B catalog of kayakin g equipment, the company in 2001 spun off After 5, a consumer catalog of quirky — often wacky — products for wine and martini parties. After 5 came to life after the company found that its customers were responding briskly to the cocktail party-related novelties that it first offered almost as an afterthought in Surf to Summit. But that’s where any similarities between the two catalogs end. Although the

To get a sense of how 2007 could play out on catalogers’ pocketbooks and growth aspirations, Catalog Success asked a few catalogers what they expect for the coming year. Catalog Success: How will your implementation of multichannel marketing strategies change this year compared to last? Tim Kiss, director of enterprise direct marketing, HoneyBaked Ham: We’d like to test dual channel offers. Most of our catalog and Web customers buy HoneyBaked as a gift. We’ll test discounts for money off when you buy for your family at one of our stores and send HoneyBaked as a gift. Phil Minix, president, Astral Direct: Our multichannel strategies

Like other insert media programs, such as package stuffers and blow-ins, miniature catalogs have been around a long time. But in recent times, their popularity among catalogers appears to be on the rise. Catalogers as diverse in nature as nursing mother products marketer Motherwear International and B-to-B uniforms mailer UniFirst Corp. have been successful marketing through mini-format catalogs. What’s more, multi-title apparel and food cataloger Crosstown Traders plans to test its first miniature later this year. Defined primarily as having no more than 24 pages at various dimensions, miniatures can be a more efficient way to get your product offerings in front of

A four-year old food gift company co-owned by former basketball great and current New York Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas, Dale and Thomas Popcorn launched its direct-to-consumer business in late 2004 with an e-commerce enabled Web site. With a catalog in the mail to its retail customers by fall of 2005, the direct business grew 800 percent in the first year. Paul Goodman, senior vice president of e-commerce and marketing for the young company, recently talked to Catalog Success Associate Editor Matt Griffin about what led to the decision to launch a catalog, as well as how the direct channel and retail business

One of the most difficult things about operating a multichannel retail company is channel measurement and allocation. That’s what a panel of marketers concluded during a session at last week’s National Retail Federation conference in New York. “Everything in online retailing is measurable,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, senior analyst for Forrester Research, in describing some of the key multichannel marketing issues. “You know which e-mail drove a customer to your site. But you don’t really know what multichannel behavior among customers is when you don’t know where customers started a transaction and where they completed it.” At retail, however, retailers count their hits to store locations. “That’s

Continuing last week’s look at challenges facing catalogers in the new year, Catalog Success spoke with Eric Faintreny, chairman/CEO at multititle cataloger Redcats USA, which mails the apparel catalogs Chadwick’s and Jessica London, outdoor sporting goods catalog The Sportsman’s Guide and home furnishings catalog Brylane home. Among Faintreny’s goals for the coming year are expanding a successfully tested Web site, doubling his product design staff and cutting inventory turn. Catalog Success: How’s the catalog marketing economic climate shaping up for 2007? Eric Faintreny: For apparel retail in particular, 2006 didn’t end very well. I suspect we’ll have more of the same in 2007. It’s an unpredictable