Gilbert Direct Marketing

I love the process of how the price of gas has risen above $4 per gallon.
To greatly oversimplify the situation, part of it has to do with speculators driving the price of crude oil up. And, of course, there’s OPEC holding us over the proverbial barrel. Then there are the pundits on TV who have nothing better to do than tell us gas prices are going up. So what happens? We all get comfortable with gas prices going to the next level now that we’ve had it drummed into our heads — like the tail wagging the dog. And when it happens,

It’s June here in South Florida — ah yes, that wonderful time of year for electrical storms, hurricanes, 100-degree temperatures and 90 percent-plus humidity.
Elsewhere in the world, there’s major flooding along the Mississippi River, wildfires again in California and a tsunami just hit the Philippines, but not before killing 700 passengers on a cruise ship off the coast.
Much like a four-letter word, disasters happen in all forms just about anywhere — without warning, at any time. So prepare your company and yourself. Here’s a disaster-readiness checklist I suggest you look over carefully. If you think you’re on top of this, I

I’m on vacation this week in the Dominican Republic, a great country with extremely warm, friendly people who enjoy life and laugh easily.
But somehow the concept of direct mail marketing seems to have missed them. There’s no great mail service to speak of here. (Not like our great Postal Service, he said facetiously). Bills come by mail, but not much else. And you can forget about catalogs. They don’t have them here.
The more affluent order online and have their items shipped via FedEx or United Postal Service. Some actually have P.O. boxes in the states — mostly Miami. They have their

Continuing my series on the best ways to acquire new customers using DRTV, this week I highlight the importance of working with the right DRTV agency to maximize results.
(For part 1, click here, for part 2, click here and for part 3, click here.)
So, you’ve decided to take the DRTV plunge. You’ve done your homework on your product, have the right margins and know how to set up your operation to handle TV-driven traffic. Great! But …
Proceed with caution. Although those waters contain a ton of buried treasure that can be yours, they also contain sharks, poisonous jellyfish and electric eels.

Two weeks ago I provided you with the needed cautionary information about the pros and cons of direct response TV as a new customer generation vehicle. So what do you need to pull off a successful DRTV campaign?
(To read part 1, click here.)
First, you need the right product. DRTV is much more mass-targeted than direct mail. While you can do some targeting of audience by choosing stations wisely, you’ll need a product from your stable that is or has the following:
1. Mass appeal. Can your product be sold to a mass market?
2. Uniqueness. Are you the only company selling your

I’ll get back to acquiring customers via DRTV next week. In the meantime, it’s that time of year again, readers. Catalog conference time — or to be more precise, Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) time. This year it’s in Orlando, Fla., and despite the conference being a mere two-hour drive up the Florida Turnpike for me, once again, I’m not going.
I had planned to go this year. I even set up some meetings. But then some other meetings took precedence. Truth is, however, I have mixed feelings every year about going.
What I love most about going to the

A few years ago at the catalog conference, I got to listen to that year’s keynoter, Richard Thalheimer from The Sharper Image, discuss how he started out. Like so many other entrepreneurs in our industry, he started with one product advertised in a magazine. From there, he built his business.
I loved listening to his classic fairy-tale beginning. He started out with a great product that was unusual in nature and not readily available anywhere else.
Fast forward a few years and The Sharper Image team developed the Ionic Breeze air purifier. The Sharper Image managers found they had a winning product

This past week the so-called “Economy Stimulus” tax rebate checks started to go out. Some of you with direct deposit may have already received your little slice of the pie.
I sure hope this is a good thing for catalogers!
It would be a shame if all the good citizens out there in the U.S. decide to use their windfall for something like paying off bills and paying down the all-time high consumer debt we’ve racked up.
Nah! Won’t happen! We’re a nation that loves to consume, so I think catalogers are OK.
In the meantime, I sincerely hope you’re

OK, that’s it. I’m done!
I’ve officially had enough, and I’m done sitting around letting it happen. This morning I paid $3.97/gallon for regular unleaded gas.
Today, I’m forgetting my column on catalog marketing and imploring you to take a stand. If you don’t want to take a stand — if you haven’t had enough of being gouged at the pump — please stop reading right here. Come back next week, and we can discuss adding new customers to your housefile.
But I can assure you that if we don’t take a stand on this issue, very soon there may

In the second part of this series on tips for catalogers looking for useful ways to bolster their housefiles with prospect names, this week I examine the relevant metrics needed to evaluate an effective prospecting technique.
(For part 1, click here.)
Let’s discuss the concept of measurability — making sure the channels you choose for customer acquisition are analyzed and tested thoroughly before roll out. I implore you to seek the advice of qualified professionals to help you build break-even analyses and pro formas up front, and lifetime value analyses on the back end. While you’re likely to add a new