Office Depot
Office Depot will open its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Commercial Interiors (CI) registered store. The global provider of office products and services expects the Austin, Texas, store to be certified a few months after opening.
Tired of waiting for spending to rebound on its own, retailers are taking matters into their own hands. Stores like Samโs Club, Target, Toys โRโ Us, Staples and Office Depot are offering unconventional promotions meant not only to attract visitors to stores, but also to get them feeling profligate.
After your from line, the most compelling thing motivating recipients to open your email is its subject line. You know the drill: To stand out in a cluttered inbox, you have to work hard to capture attention. Subject lines must be carefully crafted to develop innovative ways to present your latest promotions and products.
Promotions are an important part of every marketer's email strategy - sales, discounts, discounts with purchases, gifts with purchases, free shipping, etc. These workhorse communications shouldn't be overlooked. They work well to motivate buyers to take actions, but they're not showstoppers. They won't make you stand out from the pack.
Hopefully, youโve been keeping up with our coverage of a no-holds-barred, all-telling session during MeritDirectโs recent Business Mailers Co-op in White Plains, N.Y., in which four B-to-B mailers discussed how theyโre surviving the current economic malaise and their plans for emerging from it once the economy turns around. In part 1 of this recap last week, we detailed how theyโre holding up. In part 2, they discussed how theyโre preparing for better times ahead.
A chat with Terry Powers, founder and president of ComputerGear, a catalog/multichannel merchant of computer-themed apparel and games โ T-shirts, gadgets, books, among other things.
B-to-B catalogers always have had several advantages over retailers. They can maintain and offer wider and deeper product offerings as they're not limited to retail space. They can provide expert telephone sales and support, warranty and repair services, installation advice, and other โknowledge-basedโ services much better than a retailer can. Furthermore, new Web site shopping functionalities make it easy for customers to find, shop, learn, compare prices, order return and access a host of other related services much better than they could if they were standing in a store.
Pan American Develop-ment Foundation (PADF): This nonprofit organization that creates public-private partnerships to assist disadvantaged people in Latin America and the Caribbean has launched a print catalog of corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing opportunities in those regions. The 28-page book provides an overview of PADF projects that are well-suited for private-sector participation.
In addition to the insights provided in print, here are a few more observations, tips and thoughts from a sampling of catalogers on everything from how environmental concerns have affected mailing practices to e-mail marketing strategies to what effect rising gas prices will have on the direct marketing industry and more. * On B-to-B and the environment, โI donโt think youโre going to find that in the B-to-B market,โ says Peg Goelz, marketing communications manager for Shiffler, in response to whether environmental backlash has had any effect on Shifflerโs catalog prospecting. โI donโt think itโs as sensitive there as it is in the
While deterrents to mailing catalogs continue to mount (rising postage and paper costs, threats of do-not-mail legislation, environmental backlash, the Webโs rising popularity, etc.), the benefits of this marketing medium seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. So itโs fair to ask the question: Are catalogs worth it anymore? We randomly surveyed a cross-section of multichannel merchants and found the following facts illustrating the catalog mediumโs continued importance in most marketing budgets. โข Shiffler, a B-to-B cataloger of school and facility furniture, supplies and equipment, this year launched its second catalog title, Facility Hardware. More than 90 percent of its revenue comes