Millard Group Inc.

More than 70 percent of respondents to an online survey were pleased with their overall holiday Web shopping last quarter, according to Decision Direct Research, a division of Millard Group. More than 70,000 online shoppers offered their thoughts on their buying experiences in Q4 2005. Following are other findings from the consumer survey: * 82 percent of respondents said a catalog drove them to visit and buy from a Web site. * 81 percent said an e-mail also motivated them to shop online. For more on the survey, contact Decision Direct Research at (603) 924-9262, or visit: http://www.millard.com.

Customers who cared enough about your company to actually notify you of their changes of address should be handled with extra special care, said Bill LaPierre, vice president of catalog brokerage at Millard Group, during his talk “What Were They Thinking?” held at the Catalog-on-the-Road Conference in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 1. “Don’t treat them like they’re new customers or like catalog requests,” LaPierre said, speaking from his own experience. He moved last year, and recorded how catalogers whom he had notified with his new address handled this new information. Some sent catalogs with messages welcoming him as a new customer, “even though I had been

Your customers know what they want and expect from you. They know what your brand stands for, what they expect to find in your catalog and on your Web site, and the average prices for your merchandise. They’re also savvy about the quality and level of customer satisfaction they can expect from you. Your job, meanwhile, is to determine if you’re retaining your focus in customers’ eyes. Are you still providing the products or customer service they want? Are your copy and graphics lacking in what customers need to know before they make their purchase decisions? Do customers think your prices no longer

Insert media has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, so much so that advertising agencies now look to package insert programs in order to distribute and test-market products from leading manufacturers. But as often happens, questions about creating and maintaining a successful insert program abound. What follows are questions catalogers often ask when pondering the use of insert media, as well as some questions they may not have considered. ¥ Won’t my brand suffer if I allow other businesses to place their offers in my packages? By placing inserts into your packages, you are not losing control of your brand. As the

Consumers lowered their ratings on retailers’ online shopping and browsing attributes, according to a new survey from Decision Direct Research. The Online Multichannel Survey of more than 50,000 consumers of 35 multichannel merchants found that retailers’ ratings decreased when compared to both last quarter and the same quarter last year. Consumers said the following attributes are important to them: e-mail order verification, ability to view an item online in a selected color and ability to zoom to enlarge product features. Yet, only 63 percent, 44 percent and 44 percent, respectively, gave “excellent” ratings to retailers on those attributes. Additionally, only 50 percent of respondents gave a

In our Information Age, knowledge — not muscle power, as in the Industrial Age — is the primary economic mover. No longer can you leave your school days behind. Lifetime education is the new norm. Indeed, to retain a business advantage today, you must stay updated on systems, processes and best practices. Luckily, the direct marketing industry offers numerous such educational opportunities. I want to highlight just a few of them here. (I apologize in advance if I’ve missed one of your personal favorite events.) Following are the conferences whose planners I’ve found to consistently offer valuable education to catalog executives. The annual National

From scrapbooking supplies to Coach bags, and catalog consolidation to television advertising, 2005 is ushering in some interesting trends for catalogers. Ben Perez, president of list brokerage and management firm Millard Group, and programming chairperson of The Direct Marketing Association’s Catalog Council, sees the following merchandise and industry trends that catalogers should be watching. 1. Luxury items are still hot, and mass marketers are doing well. “It’s the middle slice of the market that will continue to have trouble,” said Perez during his presentation at the Catalog-on-the-Road conference, held in Cambridge, Mass., in February. 2. Scrapbooking is hot. “Collecting is becoming a popular activity,” he observed.

The last 20 months at L.L. Bean have confirmed one over-arching principle: Progress can be painful. Faced with stagnant sales, too much inventory and stale creative, Chris McCormick, CEO of L.L. Bean, had to make some difficult and unpopular decisions if he wanted to whip the company into fighting shape for the 21st century. He instituted numerous reorganizational initiatives that included eliminating 32 catalogs from the mail plan and 2,300 unproductive catalog pages. The staff cut 25 percent of its SKUs. Its vendor list was chopped in half after the company renegotiated nearly all major contracts, including printing, paper, e-mail fulfillment and data

Developing an effective e-mail prospecting program, especially amid today’s heightened sensitivity to spam, can be a tough proposition, even for the most experienced direct marketing expert. To be sure, the raw numbers needed to justify large-scale, opt-in e-mail testing just haven’t been that great. In fact, some catalogers have given up on e-mail prospecting. But there are some trends in e-mail marketing that could make the sales channel more productive for mainstream catalogers. First, a quick background of the e-mail list industry: At the height of the e-mail craze three years ago, there were many compiled and category-driven lists (i.e., consumers

Speakers at The Direct Marketing Association's recent Catalog-on-the-Road conference offered some helpful hints for those engaged in e-mail marketing communications with their current customers: 1. Send order confirmations in html format, advises George Kiebala, vice president of sales, Experian Marketing Services. Most e-mailed order confirmations are in text-only format. But because more people are gaining access to html files, try sending customers pictures of the products they ordered — along with any appropriate cross-sell items — in your order confirmations. Caveat: Not everyone can access html, so periodically poll your customer base to determine availability. 2. Compel call center reps to gather