Mike Muoio

Lillian Vernon’s year-plus road to recovery has seen a mix of return-to-roots and get-with-the-times changes. Many have worked, as president/CEO Mike Muoio reports. Here are three additional improvements the company has made: 1. Change the catalog size to preserve the brand. In 2004, Lillian Vernon changed the trim size of its catalog from its traditional 8-inch-by-8-inch format to an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch size. But the change had almost no impact on sales, and since the brand had been associated with 8-inch-by-8-inch books for more than 40 years, Muoio and his team reverted back to the old format last October. “People recognize 8-by-8 catalogs as Lillian Vernon books,”

Top executives from catalogers Acorn Media, Lillian Vernon, Plow & Hearth, The Nailco Group and Headsets.com, were named to the 2007 Catalog Success Editorial Advisory Board, effective this issue. Board members are consulted on a regular basis to help bring forth improvements to the content of the magazine. Incoming board members are Miguel Penella, president of video and gifts cataloger Acorn Media; Mike Muoio, president/CEO of general merchandise cataloger Lillian Vernon; Jean Giesmann, vice president creative services at home and garden products cataloger Plow & Hearth, a unit of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM; Larry Gaynor, president of B-to-B beauty salon supplies cataloger The Nailco Group; and Mike