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The Editor's Take : What's It Really All About Now?

Announcing All About ROI Magazine

May 2009 By Paul Miller
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In tough times like these, companies often look for Band-Aids to slap over problems so they can get by. This year we all have problems, and the catalog business isn’t immune to them. In many respects, namely the losing battle they continue to fight with the USPS (although at press time, there was a glimmer of hope for postage to be adjusted downward for larger-volume mailers), catalogers are hurting worse than others.

Since the beginning of this year, my colleagues and I have taken a long, hard look at what’s going on in the general economy and within this business — as well as our own business. I’ve talked to many readers. Our sales team has spoken with many advertisers. We’ve sought to gauge what your needs and concerns are, not just now, but for the next several years. At the recent NEMOA Conference in Boston, I also got an earful on the current and future state of this business as we know it.

Bottom line? A change is gonna come. It simply has to. Bill LaPierre of list firm Millard Group perhaps summed it best up during his NEMOA presentation: “We are sticking to our ink and paper roots, our protective list strategies, and our perception of our brand’s importance. And we are becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the consumer — particularly the consumer buying online.”

In a nutshell, if you think of yours as a catalog or even a multichannel company, you could get left behind. In today’s Web-centric environment, consumers have access to so much information that you can’t go on doing business the way you always have.

The manner in which you sell depends on how your customers want to transact with you. It’s all about the integration of your selling methods so customers will remain your customers for a long time.

Something New From Us
That’s where we come in. Starting with our June issue, we’ll do our part to guide you through the current rough waters and well beyond the post-recession environment. We’re going to broaden our focus to not only help catalog merchants redefine and reinvent themselves so they can thrive going forward, but also to help online and brick-and-mortar retailers, all with the same common goal: integration.

Watch your mailbox for our new look, broadened focus and, yes, a new name. We’ll be introducing All About ROI: Retail/catalog Online Integration. (You can see our new logo below.) We’ll continue to come out monthly, have richer content on our Web site and a better e-newsletter.

It’s our intent to be a one-stop read to help you grow your business in ways you wouldn’t have imagined just 10 or even five years ago. If you take a macro view of it, you can see that the retail business has become one big melting pot. Store retailers, catalogers, online merchants, B-to-B sellers, even brand marketers all can learn from one another unlike ever before.

Moving forward, it’s going to be all about the integration of your selling methods, regardless of what your primary sales mode is. As you can see from our new tagline, the “ROI” has a double entendre, and everything you do will need to show some sort of payoff. That’s not to say testing will go away, of course. But we’ll all have to watch our bottom lines a lot closer; a maximum ROI strategy will be crucial.

Historically, catalog, store, online and B-to-B merchants, despite all being diverse forms of retailers, haven’t had very much in common. Today and beyond, that won’t be the case. The Internet changed all that, making consumers and business buyers more savvy. Promoting your brand and selling your product line in the manner your customers want to shop will rely on how well you can integrate your efforts and make them seamless.

That’s what we’re going to represent with All About ROI, and I’m excited about this evolution. Over time, it’s going to make you — and us — more successful.

Enjoy this month’s issue of Catalog Success, as it’s packed with our usual assortment of money-making ideas. Then starting with our June issue, I not only assure you of more profitable ideas coming along in our patented, economical how-to format, but I can also guarantee that these will be the kinds of ideas you’ll need in order to thrive in the future.

Catalog Success isn’t going away — it’s progressing into All About ROI. This ain’t no Band-Aid, and I hope you and your business will evolve and grow with us for years to come.


 

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(PDF DOWNLOAD) Who’s not talking about QR codes lately? Since appearing on the US marketing scene two years ago, QR codes have revolutionized the way businesses promote their products and brands. So what exactly is this stamp sized, abstract art-looking module? And how can your business benefit from it? Cracking the...

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<b>Quotations, Rules, Aphorisms, Pithy Tips, Quips, Sage Advice, Secrets, Dictums and Truisms in 99 Categories of Marketing, Business and Life</b> <a href="http://bookstore.napco.com/images/TakeawaysPreview.pdf" target="_blank" class="moreInfo"> <font color = "red">Click Here to Look Inside</font> </a> <i>"Denny Hatch’s latest, Career Changing Takeaways, is an extraordinary reflection of one of the direct marketing industry’s most enduring polymaths. With quotes and “takeaways” on every conceivable aspect of business and marketing life and beyond, it’s the sort of book you’d give your children and children of friends on graduation day as a guide for life, especially in business. Worth having on your desk to look to for inspiration." </i> —Charles A. Prescott. Editor, The Prescott Report <i>"Often the most profound advice can be distilled into two or three sentences. CAREER-CHANGING TAKEAWAYS is filled with bullet points of advice that really could change the direction of your career. Save the book as a reference and turn to a particular section as you need it, or read it from cover to cover as I did."</i> —Arnold Howard, Marketing Director Paragon Industries <b>About “CAREER-CHANGING TAKEAWAYS”</b> Since 2005, Denny Hatch has been writing <b>BusinessCommonSense.com</b> —a free e-newsletter that looks at current news and connects the dots back to the reader's life and career. Every issue contains Takeaway Points—a short collection of bulleted one- and two-liners or short paragraphs at the end of each piece-that summarize why a particular issue might be worth reading. The very best of Denny's Takeaways have been assembled into this collection that readers can use not only to make career decisions, but also add power, emotion and erudition to their correspondence, memos, reports, PowerPoint presentations, white papers, articles and books. Here’s a sampling: <b>17 Career-Changing Takeaways— Fascinating, Memorable and Fun </b> <i>"When you innovate you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts."</i> —Larry Ellison Oracle founder, owner of Rising Sun, second largest yacht in the world <i>"You'll never have to apologize for giving people some fun."</i> —Bill Veeck (1914-1986) Major league baseball owner, author of "Veeck . . . As in Wreck," (who sent 3-foot-7-inch stunt man Eddie Gaedel to pinch hit for the Cleveland Browns, August 19, 1951) <i>"The customer or prospect doesn't give a damn about you, your company or your product. All that matters is, 'What's in it for me?"</i> —Bob HackerDirect marketing guru Founder of the Hacker Group, Seattle <i>"It's easy to remember Hacker's dictum (above): Always listen to W-I-I-F-M."</i> —Denny Hatch Here are thousands of takeaways in 99 Categories! Find the quotable gems that will stick with you and provide the roadmap no matter if you are writing a business letter, hiring or firing an employee, looking for a job, making a speech, or simply maneuvering life! <b>CONTENTS</b> Note From Denny Hatch — 1) Advertising — 2) Advertising, Rescinding — 3) Agencies — 4) Art & Antiques — 5) Awards — 6) Book Publishing — 7) Brands and Branding — 8) Brand Trashing — 9) Business, Acquiring a — 10) Business, Expanding a — 11) Business Models — 12) Business, Starting a — 13) Charities — 14) Checklists — 15) Communications, Corporate — 16) Competition — 17) Consultant, Being One — 18) Consultants, Hiring — 19) Controls — 20) Copywriting — 21) Creativity — 22) Corporate Culture — 23) Customer Relationship Magic — 24) Customers, How to Know — 25) Data-Data Management — 26) Data Protection — 27) Decision Making Process — 28) Design — 29) Direct Mail — 30) Direct Mail Copy & Design — 31, Direct Mail Letters — 32) Distribution — 33) Due Diligence — 34) eBay — 35) E—Books — 36) E—mail — 37) E—marketing — 38) Employee, Being One — 39) Employees, Dealing with — 40) Energy — 41) Fulfillment — 42) Guarantees & Pledges — 43) Headlines — 44) Help—Wanted Ads — 45) Hiring & Firing — 46) Humor in Advertising — 47) Information, How to Absorb — 48) Internet — 49) Internet & Your Career — 50) Interviews, How to Handle — 51) Investing — 52) Job Search — 53) Job Search: Cover Letters — 54) Job Search: Résumés — 55) Leadership à la Gen) George S) Patton, Jr.) — 56) Legal Matters — 57) Letters — 57) Letters in Newspapers — 59) Life Rules — 60) Mailing Lists — 61) Management — 62) Marketing — 63) Marketing, Direct — 64) Marketing, Guerrilla — 65) Marketing, Internet — 66) Marketing, Lead Generation — 67) Marketing Rules — 68) Markets, Surrounding Your — 69) Media — 70) Media Selection — 71) Meetings — 72) Moonlighting — 73) Murphy’s Law — 74) News — 75) Offers — 76) Outsourcing — 77) Overwork — 78) Politics — 79) Pre-emptive Advertising — 80) Pro Bono Work — 81) Products, Launching New — 82) Public Relations (P)R)) — 83) Public Relations, Blitzkrieg — 84) Public Relations Crises — 85) Public Speaking — 86) Researching Competitors — 87) Spokespersons — 88) Surveys — 89) Sweepstakes — 90) Telemarketing — 91) Testimonials — 92) Testing — 93) Traveling — 94) Vision, Corporate — 94) Web Abuse — 96) Web Content: Free v) Paid — 97) Website Design — 98) Women — 99) Writing <b>Here are fourteen more Takeaways:</b> <i>"A great cover letter is the golden key to any job search. Yet despite a glut of advice books and websites, an estimated 85% of cover letters are so flawed that senders never land an interview, career coaches say."</i> —Joann S. Lublin, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal <i>"Always hire A’s. In the first place, they are more fun to work with. Secondly, they push you into excellence."</i> —Denny Hatch <i>"You can observe a lot by just watching."</i> —Yogi Berra <i>"If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically improve your offer."</i> —Axel Andersson Founder, Axel AnderssonAkademy, Hamburg <i>"Executives talk a blue streak about the importance of developing talent. But many quickly form rigid opinions of staffers, and then resist changing those views despite evidence that employees have matured, become more seasoned or possess talents that weren't apparent when they were first hired. Conversely, some bosses continue to insist that an employee is a star even though he or she was just never that talented."</i> —Carol Hymowitz Reporter, writer, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal <i>"I look for a business I can understand."</i> —Warren Buffett Founder Berkshire Hathaway <i>"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half."</i> —John Wanamaker (1838-1922) Legendary retailer <i>"If I had one takeaway point to suggest to horseplayers, private equity firms and venture capitalists, it would be the classic advice of successful horseplayers: Winning is knowing when NOT to bet."</i> —Denny Hatch <i>"If your company has a clean-desk policy, the company is nuts and you’re nuts to stay there."</i> —Tom Peters Business guru, co-author of “In Search of Excellence” <i>"A neat stall is the sign of a dead horse.”</i> —Sign on an Ogilvy & Mather office wall. <i>"I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular."</i> —David Ogilvy (1911-1999) Founder and Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather, <i>"My advice: Don’t write anything in an email that you wouldn’t want to see on your office bulletin board or hear announced over your company’s loudspeaker."</i> —Carol Kleiman Reporter, The Chicago Tribune <i>"Legendary direct marketer Bob Hemmings once worked for a jeweler on New York’s West 47th Street diamond district where the merchants rent counters and window space in a kind of giant co-op. Every evening all the jewelers would dutifully take their diamonds out of the showcases and lock them in the safe until the next morning. All the jewelers, that is, except for Hemmings’ boss, who would leave his diamonds out all night and put his customer list in the safe. 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He is the author of: <u>Business Books</u> Million Dollar Mailings * Method Marketing * 2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success * priceline.com – A Layman’s Guide to Manipulating the Media <u>Novels</u> Cedarhurst Alley * The Fingered City * The Stork <u>Memoir</u> Jack Corbett, Mariner CAREER-CHANGING TAKEAWAYS

Quotations, Rules, Aphorisms, Pithy Tips, Quips, Sage Advice, Secrets, Dictums and Truisms in 99 Categories of Marketing, Business and Life Click Here to Look Inside "Denny Hatch’s latest, Career Changing Takeaways, is an extraordinary reflection of one of the direct marketing industry’s most enduring polymaths. With quotes and...

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PDF FORMAT "Despite news to the contrary — especially from the social media space — reports of the death of email are greatly exaggerated. In fact, as your inboxes most likely show, email is growing and becoming even more sophisticated." -- from The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing It's true....

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(PDF DOWNLOAD) Who’s not talking about QR codes lately? Since appearing on the US marketing scene two years ago, QR codes have revolutionized the way businesses promote their products and brands. So what exactly is this stamp sized, abstract art-looking module? And how can your business benefit from it? Cracking...

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