Portland, OR

Denny Hatch is the author of six books on marketing and four novels, and is a direct marketing writer, designer and consultant. His latest book is “Write Everything Right!” Visit him at dennyhatch.com.

Roughly speaking, all catalogs are styled in the tradition of either Louis Vuitton or Wal-Mart. No, really. The former are created using a traditional catalog workflow: merchandiser, designer, photographer, stylist, color house and web printer. The result often is a high-end look that’s inspirational enough to coax customers into paying the substantial product costs. Cocktail-party stories about these catalogs feature the photographer too heavy to fit into a helicopter and an art director arguing with modeling agencies by cell phone while standing on an island in a remote Alaskan lake shooing deer away from a fully styled bedroom set at midnight (true,

By Susan J. McIntyre Catalogers have a uniquely tough time when hiring employees, because good cataloging requires several skills that many people don't have — skills like math. "I can't figure out this math problem," said the designer, a recent college graduate with a good GPA. "Well, I hope I can help," I said doubtfully. Math classes were far in my past. He placed a sheet of paper in front of me. "The regular price of this item is $40, and there's a 10-percent off sale. So how do I calculate the new price?" Catalog math isn't that advanced.

By Susan J. McIntyre Company growth brings with it a host of unique problems that can lay you low if you're unprepared. Comma Crazy "I've got a lot of changes," said the cataloger. I sighed. We'd already been through countless rounds and sent files to the color house very late. And the cataloger still was making changes. Color costs were soaring. I got out my red pen. "Ready for your changes," I said. "OK," said the cataloger, "in the first sentence, third word, remove the comma before the word 'and' ... " One nice thing about smaller catalogs is that

Greening With Five P's A famous Muppet sang, "It's not easy being green," but two major catalogers are singing a different tune, offering proof that kindness to the earth can be good business. The Direct Marketing Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors recognized Patagonia of Ventura, CA, and Norm Thompson Outfitters (NTO) of Portland, OR, for their environmental efforts with Robert Rodale Awards. Patagonia was named Recycler of the Year and NTO Environmental Mailer of the Year. The companies have achieved high levels of earth-friendliness through changes in "five P's": product, packaging, printing, postal and power.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." —William Wycherley (1671). By Denny Hatch PEOPLE WHO TRAVEL need stuff—a tiny screwdriver with tiny screws to fix eyeglasses, a bottle opener, tweezers for splinters, a sewing kit, sunburn skin cream, a poncho, laxative, Imodium A-D—you know the drill. Ever tried to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew? For Tim Leatherman, the epiphany came on his European honeymoon in 1975 where he had to deal with a very temperamental '68 Fiat he'd bought for $300. In an interview with USA Today, Leatherman said, "All I had was this Boy Scout knife, which we

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