Omnichannel

Seventy-five percent of consumers believe they have lost all control over how personal information is collected and used by companies, according to a recent Privacy& American Business survey, said James Koenig, co-leader of privacy practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, in his session”Marketing in a Privacy-Sensitive World” at Direct Marketing Days New York held last month. Following are a few tips Koenig offered to manage internal communication to better protect your customers’ data: * Implement a marketing oversight management process. “All marketing programs and campaigns should be reviewed quarterly,” said Koenig. Representatives from each distribution channel should be included. The process should be used as a tool to reinforce

“Letting the customer choose how to interact with your company is critical, but interactions across channels must be as seamless as possible,” said Steve Trollinger, senior vice president of client marketing for catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates, at his session “7 Ways to Increase Customer Value Today and Tomorrow” at the Annual Catalog Conference held in May in Orlando, Fla. Following are some tips Trollinger offered to make the multichannel experience easier on customers: * Use common branding cues. Your Web site should look like the catalog or retail store that spawned it, said Trollinger. * Make products easy to find. Include a catalog”quick buy” feature

Since the founding of cooperative database Abacus by Tony White in 1990, consumer prospecting has changed considerably. While results may have fallen off (mailing the same names too often), co-ops remain an important source of prospect names for catalogers. When deciding whether to participate in a co-op, know that at least 95 percent of your customers already reside in one of the myriad co-op database files. What’s more, buyers on your housefile who haven’t made a purchase from another catalog aren’t retained by the co-op. (These are your unique buyers, and they’re not used for modeling or rental by the co-op.) This

Opt-in e-mail campaigns continue to be a cost-effective way to generate sales and traffic to your Web site. If you execute your own campaigns in-house, the cost practically is zero. Even if you use an outside e-mail marketing firm, the cost to send each e-mail is miniscule compared to the cost of a mailed, printed piece. However, as consumers get more and more frustrated with inbox clutter and shady offers, it’s even more important that you ensure your offers are effective and provide value and/or interest to your customers or prospects. Otherwise, the cost to you may not be in simply executing the

“Although less than 40 percent of catalog companies conduct a lifetime-value analysis of their customers, it can be a powerful tool in new customer acquisition efforts,” said Steve Trollinger, senior vice president of client marketing for catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates at his session “Seven Ways to Increase Customer Value Today and Tomorrow” at the Annual Catalog Conference held last month in Orlando, Fla. In that session, Trollinger offered the following tips: ¥ Don’t just focus on initial acquisition costs. It’s tempting to try to make your money back on prospects as quickly as you can, but it’s also possible that a higher acquisition cost

What key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical to a catalog business? What can you learn from tracking them? And how can you make changes and implement improvements based on your results? In this article you’ll learn about 10 KPIs that are critical to any catalog business. KPIs vary by catalog, as each has specific objectives and needs. You may have a KPI of, for example, the gross margin ratio, contribution ratio or net income — whichever best reflect your company’s goals. When selecting KPIs, choose ones that are quantifiable and therefore can be tracked. For example, a KPI to improve customer service can’t be

Problem: Seta Corp., a jewelry syndicator and the parent company of Palm Beach Jewelry catalog, continually looks to reduce labor fulfillment costs. Solution: Instituted employee incentive programs, improved automation, realigned scheduling and staffing, and streamlined distribution center operations. Result: Between 1999 and 2004, the cataloger reduced its labor fulfillment costs by 45 percent; at the same time, it increased employees’ average hourly wages. * The following functions are included in Seta’s labor fulfillment costs: receiving; quality control; stock putaway; picking/packing; shipping; engraving; returns processing and putaway; production maintenance; and all hourly and salaried payroll costs, including payroll taxes. If you’re of the

Catalogers need to continuously humanize customers’ shopping experiences despite an increase in technological advancements, said Todd Simon, senior vice president of $380 million-marketer Omaha Steaks, during his keynote address at the Annual Catalog Conference last week in Orlando. Simon offered several pointers for catalogers to improve and grow their businesses, including the following: If you sell a commodity, turn it into a brand. “We leveraged the regional quality of the beef we sell -- premium, grain-fed Midwestern beef in the heart of beef country USA in Omaha,” Simon said. The company adds value by incorporating a natural beef aging process that he said few beef

What’s the single biggest mistake catalogers make when attempting a strategy to improve customer retention? “We most often see over-investment in the least productive customers and under-investment in the most productive [customers],” says Jim Wheaton, co-founder and principal of Wheaton Group, a Chicago-based data mining practice. Wheaton offers the following advice to catalogers looking to make the most of their customer files. 1. Focus on identifying customers who’ve ceased to respond because they’re no longer receiving your promotions. The first step is getting rid of the dead weight, says Wheaton. In addition to NCOALink, “nixie” and deceased processing, statistics-based predictive modeling can determine which

In the wake of Kmart’s recent merger with Sears, we thought you’d enjoy this nostalgic look back at what it was like to work for a catalog pioneer during its heyday. —Editors As American business was getting back on its feet after World War II, I entered a career adventure with one of the world’s largest catalogers, Sears, Roebuck and Co. Since all my associates in 1948 were more than twice as old as I, that means I’m the last survivor of the company’s catalog creative division from that era. Here’s a look back at what catalog creation was like in