Foster Smith

Below is a comprehensive list of all the articles published in Catalog Success magazine in 2007. If you would like to view stories by issue date, click here. You can also use the Article Archive to search by keyword or topic. CATALOGER PROFILES Cover Stories Chinaberry: “Reinventing the Wheel” by Paul Miller, January After 5/Surf to Summit: “Kayaking and Cocktails” by Paul Miller, February Patagonia: “Shiny Happy People” by Matt Griffin, May Garnet Hill: “A Natural Issue” by Carolyn Heinze, June Fair Indigo: “Playing Fair” by Paul Miller, August The Nailco Group: “More Than Skin Deep” by Carolyn

During a session at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose, Calif., a panel of speakers explained the reasons why the following five attributes are myths of affiliate marketing: * Affiliate shoppers are undesirable. “Affiliate shoppers are wealthier, tend to have children in the home and skew older than the overall Internet shopping average,” said Stuart Frankel, president of Doubleclick Performics, an online advertising agency. He based his information on a recent Performics-sponsored affiliate insight study commissioned by ComScore Networks (see www.performics.com). * You can’t control your brand. “Affiliate marketing at its root has absolutely nothing to do with affiliates,” said

By Shari Altman Continuity programs can help catalogers reduce the number of customers who vanish after one or two purchases. Continuity mar-keting often isn't the domain of catalog marketers, but those who dismiss this marketing approach too quickly as "not for us" may want to reconsider. For the average cataloger or multichannel marketer, more than half of new customers never make a second purchase. Even if your stats are better than average, it's hard not to be intrigued by the fact that continuity customers buy three to six times per year. Continuities also can offer a valuable service, saving your customers time and

Catalogs are such wonderfully visual experiences that copy, a critical component, often is overlooked. But the truth is that copy can make a star out of a mediocre image, or it can make good merchandise sound boring. Many catalogers spend thousands of dollars looking for just the right designer, the perfect photographer and an inspiring shoot location, but then fail to consider the importance of the written word. Indeed, visuals today often are placed at a higher level than copy. Yet to truly affect customers and boost sales, catalog copy should work even harder than its accompanying visuals. In general, good catalog

by Jack Schmid THE BIG IDEA! What direct marketer has not dreamed of coming up with that totally unique, breakthrough concept like the "Johnson Box" or the negative option club or another creative ploy that gives one immortality in industry recognition. Whether you're a designer, photographer, writer, printer or order form manufacturer, everyone is seeking that special creative technique that will help their work stand out, differentiate themselves from the competition and get better results. "Beat the Control!" is the cry of creative professionals. Let's look at a number of ways that successful catalogers are thinking "outside the box" in their creative efforts.