Interview by Lara Jensen

Sports fans can access content from any number of media outlets these days, so it can take some fancy maneuvering by marketers to target them effectively. Thus far, the National Hockey League has done pretty well keeping its fans satisfied. For instance, attendance at games has increased by about 1.2 percent this season — and now rivals attendance figures for pro basketball games in the United States. Meanwhile, NHL revenue, already more than $2.6 billion, is expected to rise by 6 percent during the season.

Perry Cooper, senior vice president of digital and direct marketing at the National Hockey League, works hard to keep NHL rinks filled. Recently, he crafted a strategy to gather crucial data from the league’s various consumer touch points to create better-targeted communications. Direct mail, including the league’s merchandise catalog, anchors these efforts. Cooper talked recently with Deliver® about why his strategy is scoring with fans.

Deliver: How is the NHL’s direct marketing program evolving, especially in light of current economic conditions?

Cooper: Our direct program is entirely new, and while this wasn’t specifically in response to the economy, it is helping us weather the downturn better than might be expected. We have a brand-new direct marketing team that is focused on monetizing our customer engagements across all touch points, including our NHL Center Ice network and Shop NHL and live-streaming games on NHL.com.

A big part of the picture is a new relational database that will capture transactional data across many of these NHL businesses. (The database was slated to launch in January.) Previously, the NHL had no defined strategy to capture customer data or to use this information to cultivate relationships. The goal is to be able to customize as much consumer-facing content as possible.

Already, the results from several tests of targeted communications and from our new, more immersive Web site have been impressive. We’re seeing growth across all of our businesses. Part of this is because sports fans are resilient, meaning they still respond to focused marketing during an economic downturn. But also, we’ve been “under-penetrated” until recently. Our direct marketing efforts have put us in a position to be successful right now. In a better economy, we’d be seeing even more of an upturn.

Deliver: Where does mail fit into this new cross-channel marketing initiative?

Cooper: Direct mail is central to our efforts to go deeper into analytics. By looking at data from recency-frequency-monetary value analyses, the multi-source penetration of customers and whether someone is a displaced fan — meaning they don’t live in the state of the team they are a fan of — we believe we can be successful in direct mail.

Having one central repository of customer data, for example, will make it easier to determine the favorite team of our fans. We recently tested a merchandise catalog customized to feature the favorite team of the recipient on the cover. Overall, the results for the customized catalogs were at least 35 percent better than with a generic cover.

Deliver: What does direct mail do better than the NHL’s other marketing efforts?

Cooper: As nice as the Web is, there is a still a big desire among consumers to receive something tangible. We have a very loyal audience that wants to sit down and look at our catalog at their leisure. A lot of those people then go to the Web.

When we’re doing a good job of targeting, the ROI on direct mail is terrific. Which is one reason why we will be increasing the circulation of our catalog by 20 percent to 30 percent in 2009 and delivering a targeted message to more than half of the names.

One of our goals is ensuring that new customers are exposed to our entire portfolio of offerings. So when someone new is acquired through Shop.NHL.com, for example, we will turn around and send him a targeted catalog when this is appropriate. Having a reservoir of names that you can use in as many places as possible is what makes any business successful.

Deliver: Do you have a favorite piece of direct mail that you’ve personally received?

Cooper: I’ve always been a fan of what Land’s End does. Really being able to tell a story and romance a product is something the brand has done well over time. This is something we aspire to do around the right products.

Also, I recently received an insert card from an entertainment magazine asking me to subscribe. I’d been feeling unable to connect with entertainment as much as I’d like. Plus, the price was great and the creative was clever. There was a big, glossy image that hit on all themes in the magazine — music, movies, books and popular culture. That’s really all you need to do: Hit the benefits, hit them hard and make sure the visuals play off of that.

Deliver: Do you have a direct mailer that you hold onto for some reason?

Cooper: I grew up a big sports fan, so I like sports nostalgia. There’s this direct mail piece from a football helmet maker that showcases collectible mini helmets from the 1970s, and I think it is great. The company must have gotten my name from some football list, but other than that it’s not a very targeted piece. Still, the uniqueness of the helmets and the nostalgia attached to them takes me back to a moment in time, which is why I keep the piece.

Kohl’s plunks down extra cash for marketing when many competitors don’t

By Sandra Beckwith

While many retailers cut back on promotional spending during the 2009 holiday selling season, Kohl’s department stores stayed top of mind with cost-conscious consumers by leveraging a depressed media buying market and spending more on direct mail.

The Wisconsin-based chain’s holiday campaigns stressed the value offered by what the retailer calls “stackable savings opportunities.” Advertising, social media marketing and direct mail highlighted how shoppers could save the most by combining charge card offers, special deals at specific times and Kohl’s Cash coupons.

Direct mail efforts focused on Kohl’s Charge customers, offering them cardholder-only events, special Pick-Your-Day offers, and a bundled gift guide and jewelry mailer.

In addition, cardholders in select markets received a men’s holiday gift guide that included extra savings offers.

New study shows Americans have a print preference

Digital media is no substitute for traditional printed pieces, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Earthtone, a firm specializing in comparison pricing for printers. The majority of employed U.S. adults (64 percent) say print media is easier to read than the digital equivalent. Further, more than two-thirds (68 percent) say they feel more comfortable reading something on paper than on screen, suggesting that we associate things we can touch and feel as being more “real.”

The Xerox 1:1 Lab shows how highly personalized marketing messages are leaving imprints on consumers.

By Chantal Tode

Sure, plenty of direct marketers and print ad specialists will talk a good game about how personalization and other newer techniques can lift your bottom line.
But at Xerox, the experts have developed a mail-marketing program — known as the “1:1 Lab” — that’s designed to help them back up the boasts.

“We’ve told the story a lot about how response rates and return on investment improve with the use of full-color printing and relevant data,” says Shelley Sweeney, vice president and general manager of the service bureau and direct marketing sector for Xerox’s graphics communications business. “But we really needed to prove it to people in a way that gives a true A/B comparison.”

Most high-level corporate marketers understand that personalization works. However, many brands fail to take advantage of the power of mail personalization because they don’t or can’t gather the consumer information critical to such precise targeting, Sweeney says. “Customer data is by far the most important thing to a successful direct mail campaign, which is what we are trying to prove in the lab,” she adds. “Most marketers have the data, but it might be in three or four different places.”

Without a certain depth of information about customers, such as when they last made purchases, marketers will find it impossible to create truly relevant messages. In fact, Sweeney says, Xerox regularly turns away candidates for the 1:1 Lab because the marketing department can’t compile customer data from the disparate departments.

Despite its name, the 1:1 Lab isn’t a physical place, although it was indeed born in a high-tech Xerox printing facility in Canada some years ago. Since expanding beyond the Canadian marketplace, the effort has become a “virtual” program in which Xerox and its partners around the globe blend their expertise with the company’s latest technology to underscore how personalization increases a message’s relevance to mail recipients.

Under the program, Xerox fits select clients’ existing mail campaigns with a variety of variable data printing (VDP) solutions. The marketing offer and creative are largely the same as the original mailer, with the biggest difference being the increased personalization of the 1:1 version. The Xerox Graphic Communications customer and direct marketing provider then print and mail out the revamped pieces, at no cost to the client, to measure how well the new mailers do as compared to the less-personalized versions. The hope at Xerox, of course, is that successful tests of its mailers will encourage client marketers to use a customized direct mail approach (and Xerox’s expertise) in full-blown direct mail campaigns.

Xerox completes about 10 tests a year in the 1:1 Lab, including several with well-known national brands. Typically, Xerox picks test candidates with robust customer data that are willing to publish any results. Once it chooses a candidate, Xerox teams up with that marketer’s production partner and any other strategic partners involved with the campaign.

Getting results

So far, many of Xerox’s clients are citing increased response to the personalized mailers. For instance, one recent test involved a 529 college savings fund. Dissatisfied with contribution levels, the fund administrators worked with the 1:1 Lab to revise a critical direct mail piece. The new version included graphics that projected how much money the targeted fund participant could save up by the time his or her child was ready for college. Additional graphs showed how greater contributions could boost the growth of the target’s account. Recipients of the personalized mailer upped their contributions levels at a higher rate than those receiving the traditional letter with no graphs, according to Sweeney.

“It really is a way, with no effort on the part of the end client, to be able to prove how successful direct marketing can be when it is not just spray and pray,” Sweeney says.

Content is king

Of course, there are many other marketers who do collect a wealth of vital data, and theirs are the brands that benefit most from the Lab. Consider, for instance, Ford Motor Co. The carmaker was using basic personalization — such as customers’ first names and the vehicles that they owned — in a recent direct mail campaign to promote extended service contracts. However, when response rates topped out at about 2.5 percent, the company looked for other ways to maximize ROI on the mailers. “We were doing a mediocre job of giving customers a reason to respond,” admits Mark Bardusch, Ford’s national sales and marketing manager of extended service business.

Ford’s production provider for the campaign, Budco, recommended the 1:1 Lab.
As a first step to reworking the mailer, Bardusch and Budco marketers pulled together an abundance of customer data from various departments, including vehicle type, length of ownership, address, age, income and gender.

“By combining the different sets of data and looking really hard at how we could connect the data with the messaging, we were able to build messages that speak to the reasons why having an extended service contract is important to different customers,” says Jeff Sierra, vice president of marketing and product development for Budco. “For example, a woman with a family might receive a mailer with an image of a family and the car that she owns.”

For the 1:1 Lab test, Ford mailed more than 20,000 pieces to owners of Ford F-150 trucks whose factory warranties were near expiration. The mailer was done in two formats: a black-and-white letter with the Ford logo in color, and a full-color self-mailer. Each format then had two versions: one with basic personalization such as the recipient’s first name (such as Ford had been sending all along) and the other with more personalized messaging and greater VDP content.

The test ran from November 2008 to February 2009, as the U.S. car industry teetered on the brink of collapse and as automakers testified before Congress in an attempt to garner government aid. Despite these events, the personalized self-mailer with a wide variety of VDP content still achieved a 5.7-percent increase in response rates and a 35.7-percent increase in sales penetration as compared to the original mailer with much less personalization. “With mail, they can comfortably investigate the service contract that best fits their needs,” Bardusch says.

Based on the success of the test, Ford began this past September rolling out the VDP strategy across its entire direct mail program for extended service contracts. This will eventually result in more than 2 million pieces of relevant mail annually, Bardusch says. And the company will continue to test various formats for VDP content, including letters and self-mailers. “We always felt that if we learned more about customers and the customers could have a better understanding of us, we would do more business together,” Bardusch says. He adds that by personalizing each offer, Ford also was better able to communicate its product selection.

Xerox’s Sweeney says that the successes of campaigns such as Ford’s only do more to back up the contention by those at the 1:1 Lab that rich VDP efforts can translate into deeper customer relationships. “When a company starts looking at customer data from an overall point of view, it is able to start creating more relevant messaging and drive results from its direct mail,” she says.

Perception Isn’t Reality

Variable data printing (VDP) solutions like those offered through the Xerox 1:1 Lab go a long way toward increasing the relevance of a product or service to consumers — but marketers’ perception of the relevance of their messages may be a far cry from how consumers really view them.

How to shrink this gap?

“Remember that relevance is in the eye of the beholder,” says an independent study titled “Marketers: Stop the Abuse! Adopt Preference Management,” Forrester Research Inc., July 2009.

The study reports, “It’s baffling that 80 percent of marketers can claim that customer preference is a key factor in determining which message is sent to customers when only a handful even ask how often customers would like to hear from them.”

Findings in the report show:

• Only 33 percent capture customers’ preferred method of message delivery.
• A similar number (29 percent) capture the type of content that customers want to receive.
• Only 12 percent capture customers’ preferred frequency for receiving marketing e-mails.
• 8 percent capture preference for receiving direct mail and telemarketing calls.
• 30 percent of marketers who capture at least one type of preference data take no action based on that preference.

Clearly, it’s time more marketers stopped guessing at what their customers are thinking and started actually asking.

Mine, an experimental customized magazine, shows consumer interest for tailored content – and receiving print communications.

Interview by Lara Jensen

As magazine publishers experiment with new methods for delivering content, Time Inc., American Express Publishing Corp. and Lexus have given us a look at how the future of print might look.

Mine magazine — a customizable publication offered for a 10-week period earlier this year — let consumers influence the content and ads that would appear in each issue. And they even got to select a delivery method: print, online or smartphone. Surprisingly, most requested a printed copy.

Here, Wayne Powers, president of Time Inc. Media Group, discusses how customization and printed magazines are a powerful combination.

Deliver: How did Time come to create a customized magazine?

Powers: As Lexus planned the launch of the new 2010 RX, it joined forces with Time Inc. and American Express Publishing Corp. to create an integrated marketing campaign around the idea of driver-inspired design. The car comes with what Lexus calls “driver-inspired technology,” such as MP3-player connectivity operated through steering-wheel controls, and a remote-touch controller, similar to a mouse, for the pop-up navigation system.

In thinking about how we could bring our assets to market in a unique way on their behalf, we pinpointed several Time and American Express Publishing magazines that fit with Lexus’ targeted consumer from a demographic and psychographic point of view. From there, the idea evolved into looking at how we could take content from these various magazine brands and aggregate it in a way that the consumer would have some choice.

Deliver: Why was consumer choice important?

Powers: We wanted the end result to be aligned with the definition of the Lexus RX brand as user inspired. That’s why consumers were given the opportunity to choose five magazine brands from a list of eight — Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf and Travel + Leisure — that they were the most interested in and would like to receive content from. Our editors then chose which content from each publication appeared in Mine. Lexus was the sole advertiser, with four full-page ads in each 36-page issue.

Deliver: How did you promote the program?

Powers: Advertising in the participating magazines and their Web sites drove consumers to a site where they were able to choose their content and delivery method. Within the first four weeks, consumers had signed up for all of the 31,000 print subscriptions available, and from launch until the end of the program, more than 20,000 people signed up to receive a digital version of Mine.

Deliver: Why do you think so many wanted a printed magazine in the mail?

Powers: I think consumers felt connected to the actual magazines themselves. The photography and the content they were expecting to see are things they are accustomed to seeing in a printed product. But it was the customization that really drew attention because it let them sample magazines they don’t subscribe to but may be interested in.

Deliver: What was the benefit of a customized magazine for Lexus?

Powers: Lexus was able to customize the ads for each recipient based on his or her interests using data from the sign-up process. During the process, consumers were asked a few simple questions to find the magazines that best matched their interests. For example, an ad might show a car driving on a local road or highlight a destination of interest. It was hoped that this would make consumers feel connected to the ads. So far, the data is proving this to be true. Of the consumers who signed up to receive Mine, 16 percent opted in to receive additional information about the new Lexus RX.

Deliver: Is customization something publishers and advertisers are looking to as they consider the future of print?

Powers: There’s a lot of interest around customization right now. We had more than 300 million media impressions around Mine and we’re receiving inquiries from the media and advertisers around the concept all the time.

One of the questions that advertisers are asking is whether the use of customization for ads can evolve to the point where consumers are not only influencing the messaging, but also the actual product that appears in the ads. For example, one consumer might be defined as an SUV driver while another a sedan driver. The question is, how can we evolve the ads and the content of the ads to address each of these consumers?

The editorial content may evolve as well. For Mine, the editors involved with each publication chose the content. However, one recipient may be more interested in international news while another leans toward national news. Are there ways we can better align the content within these magazines to match the consumers’ interests? Right now, we’re doing some investigating around these ideas.

Deliver: How do you feel about the increasing amount of personalized and customized mail?

Powers: I think the traditional direct mail channel is a very challenging place. What we like about Mine is that the consumer actually chose to receive this, either through the mail or digitally. So while the messaging may be viewed as direct to consumer, it is more of an engaged relationship. The ads that appeared in Mine are there because of what we know about our subscribers. So it’s a great way to get that direct-to-consumer relationship without being in a mass distribution medium.

Direct mail catalogs help bolster online purchases.

By David J. Mastervich

Direct mail catalogs are hardly a thing of the past. In fact, they’re more relevant than ever in today’s online shopping world.

Catalogs tell a brand story, support merchandise with rich photography and stir a desire to purchase. Although there’s no question their role in traditional paper form has changed, nowadays they’re a way for retailers to entice customers to visit their Web sites. And it’s working.

The Key Catalog/Multichannel Issues Survey conducted by Vovici EFM late last year shows a whopping 96 percent of respondents agreeing that their printed catalog generates online sales, and more than 60 percent say it influences half or more of those sales. And we’re not talking small numbers here: The majority of respondents saw a 20- to 50-percent increase in online sales immediately following a catalog drop.

That’s likely because print’s tactile nature makes it easy for people to carry a postcard or catalog to their computer when they’re ready to respond — something they can’t do with a radio or TV spot. And with so much online competition, sending catalogs and other direct pieces motivates customers to visit your site more often, stay longer and get to know your brand better.

In fact, research commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service® and conducted by comScore shows direct mail and catalog recipients are more likely to make an online purchase than shoppers who do not receive them. In addition, they typically buy more items and spend more money, with sites supported by catalogs seeing a 163-percent revenue lift compared to those that aren’t. Catalog companies repeatedly tell us that customers who come to their site through a catalog stay longer than customers who arrive through an online search. That’s because while online searching is typically a one-time event, shoppers with a catalog are more likely to make repeat purchases and become loyal customers.

And catalogs don’t just influence shoppers to visit a site; they also discourage comparison shopping and can boost per-order sales.

So if you’re looking to jump-start online sales, don’t overlook the power of catalogs and other direct mailings to push customers to your site. And make sure you mail regularly so that your brand is top of mind.

David J. Mastervich is manager of catalogs, periodicals and saturation mail at the United States Postal Service.® Catch his presentations on variable data communication and stretching your marketing dollars in October at the DMA09 Conference in San Diego.

By Paula Andruss

Picture a dinner party with crowds of people milling about, sharing laughs, exchanging information and holding forth about matters great, small and in between. Now imagine that, at that same party, a few guys are off in a corner with their hands covering their ears and screaming “lalalalala” so as to drown out the voices of others in the room.

They look like idiots, right? But in truth, these guys aren’t much different from corporate CMOs who still insist on maintaining one-way mass communications with their consumers. In a digital age where customers share ideas and opinions with unprecedented speed and reach, the belief that you can somehow insulate your brand by simply ignoring these conversations is as nonsensical as standing at that dinner party shouting so as not to hear.

Marketers, it’s time to let the people speak. And I don’t just mean on your blog or some other sequestered digital space. No, it’s time to start incorporating user content in all that you do, including your direct mail campaigns. And it’s time to let them speak candidly and openly.

Let the people speak

“But,” says the beleaguered CMO, hands still near ears, “what do I do about people who want to say something negative about my brand, my product or my service?”

You let them speak. In fact, you let the naysayers speak as loudly as customers who have nothing but praise for your brand. Because, believe it or not, a little negativity can actually be a plus for your marketing. So embrace those negative reviews. Hunt actively for them. And blend them into the user content that you so critically need these days for your catalogs and postcards and other mail pieces.

Leveraging user content for print, be it negative or positive feedback, is already under way in many quarters. Wine accessories retailer Wine Enthusiast added glowing customer reviews to its print catalog in 2007. Now, the company deems the reviews important enough to the catalog that they typically print them right on top of the product images. Also, specialty outdoors outfitter Cabela’s incorporates laudatory customer reviews from its Web site into some of its print catalogs. The books instruct readers how and where to go online to read even more comments, driving Web traffic and additional points of customer engagement.

Other retailers are moving user content beyond catalogs. A pet retailer, for instance, has highlighted its top-rated products in a printed weekly circular. Electronics giant Best Buy recently called out customer reviews and ratings to hawk televisions in a freestanding insert.

Making negativity work for you

While it’s only natural for marketers to zero in on the positive comments, shoppers know there is no 100-percent perfect product or service, and letting your reviews represent yours as such can raise doubts about your credibility. That doubt can have serious consequences: Customer reviews provider PowerReviews conducted research that determined that, if consumers see all the reviews on a product as being positive — with no cons or concerns mentioned — they don’t trust the review system on that site and they go elsewhere.

But while too many positive reviews may scare off skeptical consumers, a smattering of negative reviews doesn’t hurt nearly as much. A recent report by Forrester Research, for instance, found that slightly more than half of online shoppers have purchased a product despite reading negative reviews.*

Open exchanges can build trust

For customers and prospects, negative reviews establish authenticity by helping them feel like they’re getting honest feedback — feedback that, frankly, they don’t trust you to give them. Seventy-eight percent of respondents to a recent Nielsen study said that consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising. Meanwhile, in a 2006 Edelman survey, respondents identified “a person like me” as the most credible spokesperson for a company. That same study also found that respondents’ trust in employees is higher than their trust in CEOs.

Further, negative reviews offer you a natural opening to respond to customers. This response builds rapport with customers by letting them know you monitor their feedback and care enough to address it when possible.

These comments have internal business advantages, too. Bad reviews can help you identify issues that need attention. Oriental Trading Co. CEO Sam Taylor recently discussed a children’s craft product that one customer harshly reviewed online as nearly impossible to keep assembled. In response, Oriental Trading added a blurb to its description saying the project works best when assembled using glue dots (which, not coincidentally, are also available from the catalog). Not only did the change create a chance to up-sell, but subsequent customer comments mentioned that the insight from the negative rating helped ensure they bought all of the proper materials needed to make the project a success. And just think: The company didn’t even need to pay an expensive consultant to discover the problem. Someone provided it for free!

Losing control, gaining credibility

Now if the majority of your reviews come in as negative, clearly you’ve got bigger issues to tackle. But don’t be afraid of a few negative submissions. To be truly transparent, you have to show your consumers the good along with the bad.

And let’s face it; you don’t really have much control over your brand discussion anymore, anyway. Consumers already talk and text among themselves, sharing brutally honest comments about your brand with anyone who will listen. In other words, the dinner party is in full swing with or without you — so you might as well join in.

* According to an independent report from Forrester Research Inc., 51 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,890 Web buyers in the U.S. said that they had still purchased a product or service after reading negative reviews. (“Myths and Truths About Online Customer Reviews,” Forrester Research, Inc., December 2008)

Paula Andruss is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Marketing News, Crain’s Chicago Business, Woman’s Day, WomensWallStreet.com and Work.com, among other places. She also runs her own Web site, www.paulaandruss.com.

By Paula Andruss

Few businesspeople dispute the importance of consumer research to a marketing plan, but rare indeed is the industry leader that chooses to reposition an entire brand based on a study.

However, office-supply giant OfficeMax is poised to do just that.

Driven by new research on customers’ shopping experiences and expectations, the Illinois-based retailer has launched a comprehensive marketing and brand repositioning effort aimed primarily at the company’s newly defined target audience: women.

The national campaign — titled “Life is Beautiful, Work Can Be Too™” — was crafted in response to recent OfficeMax findings that showed that women either control or influence the vast majority of office-product purchases in the retail and B-to-B arenas. As a result, in a marketing world still reluctant to trust statistical measurements to drive campaigns, OfficeMax is proving that a data-driven approach can yield new strategies (and perhaps huge dividends) for brands willing to trust the numbers.

“Our research findings helped us forge a new perspective on the role women play,” says Ryan Vero, OfficeMax executive vice-president and chief merchandising officer. “This is not an exclusionary approach, but a focus that allows us to concentrate on a key audience while still attracting and serving all.”

The campaign is designed to offer women creative, intimate shopping experiences and new private-label product lines. The decision to focus more on women shoppers stems from wide-ranging research the company conducted a few years ago that showed that women either directly control or exert significant influence over about 85 percent of purchases in retail and business-to-business channels.

Prior to the study, the company was like other industry peers, in that they tend to market to a much broader, much less defined audience of business customers, says Vero.

But after looking at traditional market research -– and, more critically, at responses from an OfficeMax-sponsored survey of 5,000 women customers — the retailer decided to reconsider its focus. As part of this change, the company launched in December its “Life is Beautiful, Work Can Be Too” campaign, which is designed to combat the stereotype of the workplace as dull. “An estimated 80 million Americans work in drab cubicles,” he says. “Workers are starved for inspiration and need new outlets of expression. The ‘Life is Beautiful, Work Can Be Too’ campaign is intended to provide inspiration and counter negative work stereotypes.”

A major component of the campaign is an overhaul of the company’s branded Maxi Catalog, which has been revamped into a stylish, magazine-like publication that features a black, glossy cover, sleek photography, tabbed stickers to mark items of interest and flower-and-vine graphics that tie back to the advertising campaign. Seven versions of the Maxi Catalog went out to more than one million B2B and B2C targets. And page count in the publication was beefed up from 1,000 to 1,100. “Our catalog is modern, stylish and beautiful, featuring attractive photography, elegant layouts and recognizable tools like tabbed stickers,” boasts Vero. “We designed it to present our products and services in a way that will resonate with our women customers.” Vero says this was also driven by data, as the OfficeMax study of women consumers showed that they craved more creative shopping experiences, even within the pages of the catalog.

By: SAMAR FARAH

These days, members of KCSM-TV, a public-broadcast station based in San Mateo, Calif., have an unusually intimate relationship with station programming director Steve Opson.

Through a direct mail campaign that won the 2008 Bronze ECHO award, Opson appears to station viewers as a plucky, geeky cartoon character. In his chatty intellectual voice, he shares details about his travels around the world in search of programming. His letters to members are also full of quirky confessions, like the fact that he has a passion for TV crime shows and a penchant for solving whodunits.

How to Triple Member Donations

What KCSM members might not know about the cartoon Steve is that he helped elevate the station’s direct mail response rate to more than 40 percent over a three-year period — and also helped more than triple member donations. Behind Steve’s geeky smile is the story of a non-profit outfit that resuscitated itself with this recipe: better branding, more effective use of direct marketing and a dash of risk-taking.

Moving Away from the Traditional Look

To help pull KCSM out of a rut, it hired Goodman Marketing Partners. With her client’s membership and donations in steep decline, Goodman Marketing creative director Carolyn Goodman began urging station officials to launch more inspiring prospecting efforts.

KCSM had already been combining direct mail with on-air fundraising drives aimed at station members — a common tactic for a PBS affiliate — but mailings were predictable and cheap-looking.

“The [original pieces] were very traditional,” Goodman recalls. “It was a simplified brochure in two colors on inexpensive paper. If you pushed hard on the envelope, you could see it was a solicitation for money. I told them, ‘You look like every other non-profit out there.’”

Personalizing the Brand

First, the two parties needed to solve another problem: Figuring out what differentiated the station from its regional competitors. After a few failed attempts at this, station development director Sinclair Crockett mentioned Opson.

What makes Opson so interesting? Crockett says:

• He’s kind of scary smart, and likes to go off in all kinds of directions.
• Not only is he extremely creative, he also maintains interesting ties to producers around the world and frequently goes globe-trotting in search of educational programming to fit KCSM.
• He’s got connections with Hong Kong producers, to cite one example of Opson’s far-flung ties. And they give him content and lead him to interesting shows.
• He mixes it up. He’s put together interesting productions — things that have never been seen before in the U.S.

Goodman immediately saw a branding opportunity in Opson’s character, a way to humorously reflect the station’s quirky intellectualism and make KCSM stand out from other PBS affiliates. Soon, the cartoon Steve was born and emblazoned onto KCSM direct mail materials, speaking to members through letters and offering updates about his search for better programming.

“I’ve searched the globe to find the kinds of shows I know smart people like you want to see,” the illustrated Steve told members in his very first direct mail correspondence. “KCSM is really small, local and independent. Which means I’m not following some ‘big media plan’ or ‘network mandate.’ ”

Initial Response

Even before KCSM could measure the results of the first campaign, the response to the mailing was promising. Recipients flooded the station with letters and e-mails offering programming suggestions for Opson, from which country he should visit to the types of shows they wanted more of. “There’s a real relationship between members and our programmer now,” says Crockett. “This whole ‘Steve’ campaign created a brand that we simply did not have before.”

The WWE uses a heavyweight campaign to tighten its stranglehold on sports entertainment

By: Bruce Britt

Throughout its history, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has never been accused of subtlety. The incubator for superstars with nicknames like “The Body” and “the Rock,” WWE has evolved into an entertainment empire built on action-packed drama and some of the most intense multimedia marketing in American pop culture (see sidebar).

But the conglomerate exceeded even its own reputation for the unexpected with a 2008 mail campaign that spotlighted a curious new promotions star — commonly known as “the fridge.”

To trumpet the premiere of WWE’s new high-definition TV programming initiative, the Connecticut-based entertainment organization began courting programmers and marketers at large cable and satellite providers by mailing out actual branded mini refrigerators filled with ice packs. And in launching perhaps the heaviest direct-mail campaign in entertainment history, the industry-leading WWE also reminded observers that integrated direct marketing is often as crucial to maintaining brand dominance as it is to attaining it in the first place.

The effort began taking shape in late 2007, when Lisa Richards, WWE vice president of affiliate marketing, and her team began thinking of ways to underscore their claim that the HD technology enhanced the WWE fan experience. “We came up with the pun ‘So Real It Hurts’,” Richards recalls. “Basically, we wanted to communicate that our programming would enhance the overall viewing experience, that HD offers fans the actual experience of being in the ring.”

When the marketers learned that the company had 50 mini refrigerators idling in a warehouse, the idea shifted into high gear. Rallying around the freshly minted “So Real It Hurts” slogan, Richards and team collaborated with WWE’s creative department, branding the iceboxes with logos emblazoned with a red and white cross. To drive home the point about the HD viewing experience, the jet-black refrigerators were each crammed with 75 8-by-6-inch ice packs, all the better for recipients to nurse their virtual “wounds” after viewing hours of exciting WWE HD programming.

The outlandish effort was topped off by a promotional letter that comically stated the intent of the campaign: “These are dangerous times for the millions of WWE Fans. As we make final preparations for our High Definition transition… it has come to our attention the superior resolution, better picture quality, digital surround sound and smoother motion of WWE in HD creates an enhanced viewing experience so intense and so real it hurts.”

WWE also devised a complementary phase of the “So Real It Hurts” campaign that sent branded media kits featuring only the ice packs and promo letter. The 9-1/2 by 7-1/2–inch boxed kits were mailed to 100 additional VIPs on WWE’s distribution list.

Shipped to their respective targets in January 2008, the iceboxes — 36 inches high, 20 inches wide and 23 inches deep — drew a powerful and almost immediate response. “Oh my God — everyone called,” Richards says. “You’re sitting there in the office — and you get a refrigerator delivered.” The campaign eventually earned the WWE marketing team the prestigious Gold Mark Award from the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, along with an excellence in marketing award from a top publication in the cable industry.

A marketing chief for the NHL explains how direct mail assists the hockey league in hitting its goals.

Interview by: Lara Jensen

Sports fans can access content from any number of media outlets these days, so it can take some fancy maneuvering by marketers to target them effectively. Thus far, the National Hockey League has done pretty well keeping its fans satisfied. For instance, attendance at games has increased by about 1.2 percent this season — and now rivals attendance figures for pro basketball games in the United States. Meanwhile, NHL revenue, already more than $2.6 billion, is expected to rise by 6 percent during the season.

Perry Cooper, senior vice president of digital and direct marketing at the National Hockey League, works hard to keep NHL rinks filled. Recently, he crafted a strategy to gather crucial data from the league’s various consumer touch points to create better-targeted communications. Direct mail, including the league’s merchandise catalog, anchors these efforts. Cooper talked recently with Deliver® about why his strategy is scoring with fans.

Deliver: How is the NHL’s direct marketing program evolving, especially in light of current economic conditions?

Cooper: Our direct program is entirely new, and while this wasn’t specifically in response to the economy, it is helping us weather the downturn better than might be expected. We have a brand-new direct marketing team that is focused on monetizing our customer engagements across all touch points, including our NHL Center Ice network and Shop NHL and live-streaming games on NHL.com.

A big part of the picture is a new relational database that will capture transactional data across many of these NHL businesses. (The database was slated to launch in January.) Previously, the NHL had no defined strategy to capture customer data or to use this information to cultivate relationships. The goal is to be able to customize as much consumer-facing content as possible.

Already, the results from several tests of targeted communications and from our new, more immersive Web site have been impressive. We’re seeing growth across all of our businesses. Part of this is because sports fans are resilient, meaning they still respond to focused marketing during an economic downturn. But also, we’ve been “under-penetrated” until recently. Our direct marketing efforts have put us in a position to be successful right now. In a better economy, we’d be seeing even more of an upturn.

Deliver: Where does mail fit into this new cross-channel marketing initiative?

Cooper: Direct mail is central to our efforts to go deeper into analytics. By looking at data from recency-frequency-monetary value analyses, the multi-source penetration of customers and whether someone is a displaced fan — meaning they don’t live in the state of the team they are a fan of — we believe we can be successful in direct mail.

Having one central repository of customer data, for example, will make it easier to determine the favorite team of our fans. We recently tested a merchandise catalog customized to feature the favorite team of the recipient on the cover. Overall, the results for the customized catalogs were at least 35 percent better than with a generic cover.

Deliver: What does direct mail do better than the NHL’s other marketing efforts?

Cooper: As nice as the Web is, there is a still a big desire among consumers to receive something tangible. We have a very loyal audience that wants to sit down and look at our catalog at their leisure. A lot of those people then go to the Web.

When we’re doing a good job of targeting, the ROI on direct mail is terrific. Which is one reason why we will be increasing the circulation of our catalog by 20 percent to 30 percent in 2009 and delivering a targeted message to more than half of the names.

One of our goals is ensuring that new customers are exposed to our entire portfolio of offerings. So when someone new is acquired through Shop.NHL.com, for example, we will turn around and send him a targeted catalog when this is appropriate. Having a reservoir of names that you can use in as many places as possible is what makes any business successful.

Deliver: Do you have a favorite piece of direct mail that you’ve personally received?

Cooper: I’ve always been a fan of what Land’s End does. Really being able to tell a story and romance a product is something the brand has done well over time. This is something we aspire to do around the right products.

Also, I recently received an insert card from an entertainment magazine asking me to subscribe. I’d been feeling unable to connect with entertainment as much as I’d like. Plus, the price was great and the creative was clever. There was a big, glossy image that hit on all themes in the magazine — music, movies, books and popular culture. That’s really all you need to do: Hit the benefits, hit them hard and make sure the visuals play off of that.

Deliver: Do you have a direct mailer that you hold onto for some reason?

Cooper: I grew up a big sports fan, so I like sports nostalgia. There’s this direct mail piece from a football helmet maker that showcases collectible mini helmets from the 1970s, and I think it is great. The company must have gotten my name from some football list, but other than that it’s not a very targeted piece. Still, the uniqueness of the helmets and the nostalgia attached to them takes me back to a moment in time, which is why I keep the piece.

Office Depot has taken a “green” catalog and turned it into an internal eco-movement

By: Gwen Moran

The shelves of Office Depot were turning green.

The changes had nothing to do with new packaging or fixture color, but rather with new ways of thinking.

Year ago, managers were noticing that their customers, particularly in eco-sensitive California, were actively searching for products with a greater level of environmental sensitivity. They wanted goods that used recycled content and that could be recycled themselves.

Office Depot obliged. By 2003, approximately 1,200 products in the company’s 16,000-product assortment contained some kind of “green” element, most having to do with using recycled materials. Customers were at once happy with the increased variety – but frustrated by the need to wade through thousands of products to get to the green alternatives.

In response to this – and to growing ecological concerns by corporate and government customers seeking suppliers – Office Depot began publishing and mailing The Green Book, its catalog of environmentally friendly products.

“We are finding that our environmental leadership can give us the edge when customers are choosing between Office Depot and another supplier,” says Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategies at the company. He also says that Office Depot customers are increasingly asking about the company’s suppliers and their green initiatives in proposal requests and during sales meetings.

Meanwhile, the success of the mailed catalog has helped spawn a larger green initiative at Office Depot that affects numerous ways the company does business these days. For all of its resonance with customers, The Green Book has also had significant impact on the company that created it.

Green Beginnings

Publishing its sixth annual edition this November, The Green Book was one of Office Depot’s first major green initiatives. From the start, the company established standards for products to be included in the catalog. But Siddiqui concedes that the bar was initially low: Any product that had 10 percent post-consumer recycled content would make the cut since many products used small amounts of recycled materials. Customers at the time weren’t as exacting about eco-standards, and many manufacturers were just beginning to dip their toes into the green pool.

However, from the beginning, Office Depot set a much higher standard for itself, printing on 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper. Because customers hungered for information about being more green, the catalog also ran pages of editorial content about precisely that topic, says Siddiqui.

Today, advances in the paper marketplace ensure that the quality of paper used in The Green Book rivals that of standard paper (it once had a grainy feel). Its editorial content focuses even more on how customers can become better stewards of the Earth through the products they choose. One recent feature profiled a major airline customer and its commitment to purchasing recycled ink; another centered on a graduate student who used The Green Book as a way to develop greener everyday habits. And the product assortment has nearly tripled, including a more robust view of “green” than just recycling. Listed products reflect responsible forestry, energy efficiency and reduced chemical use. Custom icons explain which products boast which green attributes.

“It’s evolved into an educational tool that helps bring our customers along a journey toward greater sustainability,” says Siddiqui. “It’s almost a ‘mag-alog’ (part magazine, part catalog), and we’re proud of the fact that we’re trying to bring these two historically disconnected worlds — product catalogs and providing the solutions on how to go green — together in one tool.”

The company has also enhanced its green shopping opportunities online, where e-commerce sales accounted for $4.8 billion in revenue over the past year. The green section of the Web site includes all 5,000 green items that the company carries. The Green Book, in print and online, features just over 4,000 of those products.

Beyond the Book

Office Depot’s green efforts don’t stop with its green catalog, however. “Our vision is to be increasingly green, buy green and sell green,” says Siddiqui. For the office supply giant, that means more than just offering greener office products for resale. It means establishing greener practices for the company itself.

Since hiring its first all-purpose sustainability manager in 2002, Office Depot has grown its own comprehensive sustainability program for internal and external business processes. In 2003, it launched its Environmental Paper Purchasing Policy and has validated that 66 percent of the paper in its marketing, catalogs and other print materials has come from certified well-managed forests.

Last year, the company joined the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to green building. Through a USGBC pilot program, the company became the first U.S. retailer to participate in the organization’s Volume Certification Program, pledging that all future stores would increasingly be built to green standards. The first “Green Store” opened in June 2008. Upon completion, the store applied to become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified as a high-performance building, which, among other benefits, may use significantly less energy.

Seeking other ways to prompt environmental change, Office Depot in 2004 unveiled the Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. The five-year, $2.25 million initiative was forged in conjunction with Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy. The program promotes responsible paper-management practices and develops standards and tools for forest and biodiversity conservation initiatives.

Further, the retailer this year became the first in the office supply industry to introduce its own green brand, Office Depot Green. The line includes products such as recycled paper, nontoxic pens, CFLs and other items.

Office Depot has also initiated several successful customer-focused recycling programs. Since 2003, it has offered recycling of empty ink and toner cartridges to customers. Customers return empty cartridges to the store and receive a $3.00 coupon good for their next purchase. This resulted in several million cartridges per year being recycled.

Office Depot launched a tech-recycling service, a program that Siddiqui calls “revenue neutral,” in 2007. The program allows customers to purchase a tech-recycling box for a nominal fee at their local store. Customers can fill the box with old technology like computers and monitors and return them to the company. Working with a recycling partner, Office Depot extracts reusable materials, such as copper, plastic and aluminum, from the electronic waste.

This year, Office Depot is working on tools for customers to recycle large quantities of contact fluorescent lights and alkaline batteries. The company is also discussing a battery-recycling program with the United States Postal Service® (USPS®), which would allow retail customers to buy a box they could fill with alkaline batteries and mail to a participating recycling center from the local post office. Siddiqui hopes that it will be finalized before the end of the year.

There’s no question that Office Depot has taken aggressive action to become more environmentally sensitive. But it’s not always easy, says Siddiqui. It’s tricky to execute classic direct marketing with a green message because of concerns surrounding paper use. The key lies in creating the cleanest and most targeted mailing lists possible. He predicts that list brokers who have expertise in green lists and green mailing procedures will have a robust future.

Siddiqui believes that these programs will lead to greater growth overall for Office Depot. However, he says that green initiatives are not sustainable if they are not profitable. In addition to landing more environmentally aware customers, these programs deliver increased sales and reduced operating costs. Green awareness and cross-promoting through vehicles like the Office Depot Green brand and The Green Book become important marketing opportunities.

By satisfying customer demand, these comprehensive green efforts are good for shareholder value and good for the environment. As a result, Office Depot now finds itself occupying a rare, but enviable, space in American business — at the intersection of profitable business practices and good corporate citizenship.

Quick Stats

$4.8 billion
Office Depot revenue from online sales in the past year

66 percent
Amount of paper Office Depot uses in its catalogs and other print materials that comes from certified well-managed forests

$2.25 million
Cost of the company’s Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance outreach program

Some direct mail is so eye-catching, it borders on fine art. But does it generate business?

By: Natalie Engler

A year ago, Brea Olson, a marketing manager in Denver, received a direct mail postcard that caught her eye. Promoting an offer from online shoe retailer Piperlime, the card was designed to look like the green citrus fruit. Olson doesn’t recall her exact response to the message — but she knows that she couldn’t ignore it. A year later, that lime-shaped postcard still hangs in her kitchen.

Lin Ennis knows this experience well. A decade back, she stumbled across a direct mail postcard with the word “create” printed across it. Ten years later, its offer long since expired, that card still adorns her office wall. “It’s tattered now,” she says, “but I seem unable to part with it.”

Olson and Ennis aren’t alone. In offices and homes across the country, mail pieces initially designed to pitch an offer or service have become something more than just another piece of business communication. For many recipients, these pieces are something deeper, richer, more inspiring. No longer just an ad, they are also viewed as art.

We’re not talking just a crude illustration or generic stock photo designed to elicit a passing chuckle, either. Rather, many of the pieces that endure are created by respected artists and fully intend to do more than just prompt a purchase decision. While almost any mail piece can catch someone’s eye for any reason, the pieces that last due to sheer artistic brilliance are almost always intended to do so.

Writer and designer Alison Macmillan has kept several direct mail postcards because they provide inspiration for her own marketing campaigns, she says. Among them is an ad for a water filter, with a photo of a girl in 1950s-style clothing; a nursing services piece celebrating art and soup; and a mailer from an eyewear store that she saved because “the colors draw me in, as does the sultry look of the model in dark glasses.”

What recipients also see — weeks, months and even years after the marketing message has lost relevance — is a constant reminder of the company that sent them this irresistible bit of mail. And while evidence about the influence of highly artistic pieces is largely anecdotal, it’s still clear that a brand can get an unexpected boost by having its name or logo affixed to a wall for years purely because of the aesthetic appeal of a mailer.

There are plenty of companies that invest in visuals that they hope will outlast the immediate message of a mail piece. Some are companies you’d expect — such as art houses, graphic design companies and other visual-arts businesses. But there are also other major businesses, from retirement communities to big-city dance troupes, hoping to win over consumers with visuals that go beyond just a generic stock photo or crude illustration.

Return on Artwork

The first, most obvious payoff from the use of high-level artistry in a mailer is that the piece becomes more likely to capture potential respondents’ attention. The right images can help differentiate a direct mail piece from competitive mailings, says Kacy Cole, vice president of marketing at Corbis, a Seattle-based resource for advertising, design and media professionals worldwide. “Using imagery in direct mail campaigns helps convey a complex concept or idea in a glance,” she says. “Using quality imagery helps a campaign stand out.”

Recently, Corbis launched an initiative it calls BrainBran, which includes both an online and hard-copy component. The direct mail piece consists of a pack of 24 cards, each featuring a single and thought-provoking image along with a brief statement (“Remove the technology”) or question (“What’s the emotional motivation?”). The cards, which can be ordered from the company’s Web site, are designed to help stimulate ideas among creative professionals while also promoting Corbis as a fount of smart thinking, resourcefulness and eye-grabbing art. Just as significantly, they are designed as keepsakes.

Of course, you’d probably expect an art supplier to invest heavily in direct mail images that art lovers would want to keep. You might not, however, expect a popular retirement community to make a similar stake.

That’s what happened, though, when strategic marketing agency Creating Results launched a campaign for Westminster at Lake Ridge, a continuing-care retirement community. Creating Results sent 10,000 double-sided, full-color postcards to retirees. The 6-inch by 10-inch postcards spotlighted two resident artists — a photographer and an award-winning painter/sculptor — and displayed images of their work along with details about their lives. “Getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop pursuing your passions,” says Karen Pitts Baugher, director of public relations for Creating Results. “The vibrant artwork helped us show that Westminster at Lake Ridge gives you the time and freedom to live a vibrant life.” The campaign even inspired a reporter for a local paper to write about each featured artist.

In the weeks after each mailing, visitors to the Westminster Lake Ridge Web site roughly doubled, Creating Results reports. Calls from new leads surged as well, and the community’s occupancy rate of 96 percent was the highest ever.

Individual artists can benefit from an artistic approach to direct, too — especially when they are savvy about their mailing lists. When a Houston-area dance company showed the artwork of internationally recognized artist and designer Pablo Solomon in connection with an April performance, Solomon advertised the show with a postcard displaying one of his sculptures.

But he not only sent the mailer to prospective attendees, he also used it as an opportunity to reach out to past and potential business associates, gently reminding them of his existence. This targeted mailing resulted in several new opportunities, he says. For example, when he sent it as a “thank you” to the company that makes the particular product with which he sculpts, the company made him a spokesman.

And a mailing to critics he met several years ago when he did promotions for an art-related television series as well as a few local fine arts institutions and retail establishments led to several new artistic collaborations. Meanwhile, a poster-sized version of the postcard was hung at the theater complex where he was the featured artist. As it turned out, Houston Grand Opera shared the complex that night, so he also received inquiries about doing graphics work from opera-goers.

Different Strokes

But can a direct mail piece be too arty? Although beautiful mailers catch the attention of creative types, does investment in eye candy make sense for everyone?

Not necessarily, caution direct marketing experts. The value of aesthetics hinges on the industry, the audience and the message, they say. “We are a visual society,” observes Thomas Lamprecht, creative director of Hacker Group in Seattle. “We rely on our eyes more than any other sense, so visuals in marketing are important.” But he points out that we are also an Internet society, accustomed to finding pertinent information immediately — so if the visuals are fabulous but the message is muddy, your beautiful work may end up in the trash.

Hacker Group, which has created campaigns for numerous brand-name companies, occasionally compares the impact of an art-intensive execution of a campaign with a plain version. What they’ve found: Art tends to produce more bang for the buck when marketing an “object of desire,” such as real estate or motor vehicles, Lamprecht says.

Among the firm’s successful art-driven campaigns was one for a motorcycle manufacturer. Each direct mail piece displayed a digitally enhanced view of a motorbike, but in full and detailed view. The imagery focuses on “romanticizing” the product and is aimed at intense fans of the machines. In this case the art, says Lamprecht, “is purely about the product’s aesthetics and sex appeal.”

Appearance-related industries also benefit from pronounced artistry, says Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, a direct mail marketing company in Clearwater, Fla. Among those industries: dentists, day spas, art galleries, plastic surgeons, high-end landscaping, salons and home improvement companies. “Any time you are selling beauty, you have to have a beautiful card,” she says.

Some high-end services companies may benefit from beauty as well, but for different reasons. Tammy Mangan, director of marketing for Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC, an intellectual property law firm in Washington, D.C., says, “We’ve made superior design a part of our normal course of business because we believe it defines and reinforces our brand.” She adds that by using inventive imagery the firm aims to mirror the creativity of its clients, which are often tech companies.

Corbis’ Cole notes that for some health care and financial services companies, lifestyle images, showing people conveying emotions or connecting with friends and loved ones, can engage customers and help them identify with the product or service.

But for other financial planners, physical therapists, cleaning services, plumbing, appliances and other services firms, gorgeous design may be counterproductive. In these industries, humor tends to be more effective, says Gendusa, who has produced over 688 million postcards with around 70,000 designs over the past 10 years. In addition, she says that anyone trying to reach a financially conservative or low-income audience should be especially wary of coming across as slick or snobbish.

“Gilding the lily is one of the pitfalls of direct mail,” contends Steve Goebel, the creative director for MassMedia Inc., which is based in Las Vegas. “If you focus too much on the art and not enough on the call to action, you’re just making art for art’s sake. There’s a place for that.”

Of course, if you manage to make that great art relevant to your message, the place for your mailer just might be on someone’s office wall.

For a FREE* sample of how you can make your mail stand out, visit delivermagazine.com/standout.
*While supplies last.

How direct mail helped keep a vintage New Orleans jazz record label afloat in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

By: Lekan Oguntoyinbo

Seventy-nine year-old George H. Buck has weathered more than his share of storms, so when Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf Coast three years ago, pulverizing more than half the city of New Orleans, Buck says he wasn’t too fazed. His New Orleans-based jazz label, Jazzology, had survived other upheavals in its 58-year history, and Buck figured he’d ride this storm out, same as always.

But this wasn’t just any storm. And when the rains and flooding finally stopped, Buck soon realized the damage was far worse than he’d bargained for. The print shop he used - to print CD covers, catalogs and the label’s iconic custom magazine, Jazzbeat - had been deluged and forced to shut down. The warehouse where he kept thousands of old wax LPs and back issues of Jazzbeat was destroyed, most of its inventory forever lost.

Still, Buck refused to despair, his spirits buoyed by the one constant that kept Jazzology tethered to its glorious recent past: his direct mail customers.

“We didn’t get flooded in our offices, and we still had our customers around the nation and around the world,” says Buck, whose headquarters are based in the French Quarter, which was spared the brunt of the hurricane.

And so, even as the waters receded, the telephone calls, letters and e-mails began to trickle in. Soon, Buck was fielding calls from around the globe from jazz buffs desperately hoping that their favorite label hadn’t gone under. With the calls, Buck says, also came orders for more music. And slowly, steadily, Jazzology began its long trek back to business as usual.

“We’d be out of business without direct mail because we don’t have record shops,” says Buck.

Instead of using countless distributors, Jazzology - the umbrella company for nine smaller boutique labels - takes orders directly and has relied on catalogs and its branded publication to help maintain contact with consumers. Buck concedes that more of the label’s fans are turning to the Internet for their orders, but says that direct mail remains the company’s most important marketing tool.

Its primary communications link is Jazzbeat, a quarterly magazine mailed free to 9,000 members of the Jazzology record club, which also serves as the source for its mailing list. For $5, members can join the club and receive a lifetime membership as well as a complimentary subscription to Jazzbeat, which is available only by mail. In return, the club asks that subscribers buy at least one record per year. The magazine, which is filled with reviews and articles about traditional jazz, is also the primary vehicle for showcasing Jazzology’s newest products, particularly since the storm had made finding a printer for the label’s colorful catalog more difficult.

In fact, Buck says, Jazzbeat is so popular that music orders often spike by nearly 100 percent whenever the magazine is released. “The magazine has done very well for us,” says Buck, who moved Jazzology Records to New Orleans from Atlanta in 1987. “A huge amount of our sales is from direct mail. Most of our sales are made through direct mail or individual mail orders from people. Most of our individual sales come from people on our mailing list.”

Jazzology, with its subordinate boutique labels, is more than just a traditional jazz record label. It is also a shrine for the genre and an archive for its varied manifestations. It boasts a piano jazz label, a big band label, labels devoted to New Orleans-and Chicago-style jazz, and even a label that handles blues records. In addition, Buck has created a foundation that’s devoted to traditional jazz, and he hopes that the foundation will also help stave off larger labels that may try to buy out Jazzology and change its mission after he has passed away.

Buck acknowledges that, despite its global reputation and solid sales numbers, Jazzology remains largely a labor of love, not one of immense profit. No surprise then, that Buck is more comfortable honing the label to meet listeners’ tastes rather than to follow commercial trends.

This has allowed him to fine-tune his longtime relationship with the fiercely loyal aficionados who are Jazzology subscribers, a relationship he has developed through years of steady direct mail outreach. As a result, the label’s fan base stretches from New York to London to Tokyo, he says.

An Atlanta marketing firm drew rave reviews from fashionistas for its personalized direct mailer

By: Lekan Oguntoyinbo

Two years ago, Grizzard Performance Group set out to take the New York-centric U.S. fashion industry by storm from Atlanta.

Of course, when they made the decision to go after business within the wholesale and retail apparel industry, executives at the southern-based marketing firm knew it would be a challenge. For starters, they were going against competitors who had a track record of working with some of the fashion world’s most venerable giants. And then there was the small matter of geography: Atlanta is not exactly at the epicenter of the retail apparel industry, and location carries much currency in that business.

“There’s a kind of parochialism attributable to different parts of the country,” says Douglas Broward, creative director of the Grizzard Performance Group and the campaign’s quarterback. “Being from the South, we had to work aggressively. Markets in places like New York are trend-setting as opposed to trend-reflecting. It was definitely uphill.”

Uphill but not unattainable, he figured. Grizzard had just come off a lengthy relationship with one of its biggest clients, so there was a lot riding on this. Broward and three colleagues set about developing a campaign that would magnetize a significant segment of their target audience. Four months of painstaking work led to the birth of Volume ONE, a campaign that consisted of a two-step mailing to approximately 50 potential clients.

The first step included sending out a low-cost poster that alerted the prospects that a second, more substantive mailing was on its way. Grizzard also developed a URL that was specific to the campaign and contained a registration form and a flash show. But it was the second mailing a lavish red, quarter-inch-thick, 16-by 22-inch book with a floral design embossed in the thin metal foil stamped on the book’s cover that got people talking and calling. The books, which each cost between $500 and $600 to develop, also came complete with a customized music CD and a specific URL, thisisvolume.com.

In the middle of the book was a 22-by 64-inch centerfold of a work table strewn with photos. The books, which were wholly designed and partially created in-house, arrived in highly personalized, hand-painted boxes. The CD had a musical accompaniment to each passage in the book. Each of the songs referenced the passage in song lyrics or title.

Unilever uses direct mail to help consumers redefine “Real Beauty”

By: Paula Andruss

The buzz surrounding the Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty has been deafening since its inception. Using real women to promote its personal care products has made the Unilever Inc. brand resonate with women around the globe, earning accolades and awards in addition to double-digit sales growth.

Part of a comprehensive marketing effort that includes advertising, billboards, a dedicated Web site, viral films, special events and the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, the 4-year-old campaign is also supported by the “Dove Dimensions” direct mailer. A mini-magazine that’s sent by mail three times a year to approximately 1.8 million households, it’s designed to connect directly with consumers and reinforce the brand’s “real beauty” philosophy through general and product-related articles and promotions.

Though the Campaign for Real Beauty may garner more publicity from its new-media elements, Dove officials and industry insiders agree that the mailer and its editorial format play a crucial role in building brand equity and loyalty among the Dove brand’s target consumers.

Kathy O’Brien, marketing director for Dove, says the Dove Dimensions mailers started as a way to help the brand establish direct communication with its most valuable consumers.

“They allow us to provide real women with brand, product and category information in a more personalized format,” she says. “Dove has found that direct marketing is an effective way to reach loyal consumers. While coupons, FSIs, advertising and public relations efforts reach the general population, Dove Dimensions is a more personal connection to the brand for consumers who have expressed additional interest in Dove products or programming.”

Recipients of the mailer are taken from Unilever’s database of consumers based on previous interactions with the brand, such as entering a Dove contest, participating in a promotion or requesting sample products.

Such direct mail allows Dove to target consumers who have been affected by the campaign and its real-woman imagery, and create an ongoing dialogue with them about the brand as a whole, says David Diamond, partner at Toronto-based marketing consultancy Twenty-Ten Inc.

“Today there’s a trend to create a mega-brand,” Diamond says. “This mailer allows Dove to target the ladies for whom this campaign has made an emotional connection and try to get them to spend their skin-and body-care budget on Dove products, and also have a bias going forward so that when there’s a new Dove product, they’ll try it because they already have this relationship with the company.”

Why more and more big brands are using carbon offsets to bolster PR, profits and the planet

By: Samar Farah

“The VW Forest” sounds like the name of a sporty German all-terrain vehicle, or perhaps an advanced level in a video game designed for Jetta zealots. In fact, it’s a straight forward moniker for acres of trees in Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, paid for by carmaker Volkswagen of America and its customers. So far, more than 900 acres designated as the VW forest have already been replanted in an effort to offset the carbon dioxide produced by VW vehicles.

These figures represent some of the new thinking driving the latest trend in environmental marketing carbon offsets. An initiative that allows companies to underwrite environmentally friendly measures as a way of counterbalancing (or “offsetting”) the ecological harm of their business practices, offsets have become a valuable instrument for many brands seeking to spotlight their “green” bona fides.

The trend cuts across industries, too, with offset programs embraced by everyone from airlines to credit card companies.

Of course, there’s still some debate around select issues within carbon-offset programs. For instance, disagreement remains over certain measurement standards (a comparable disagreement is the debate over whether to switch to the metric system). Meanwhile, the government continues to monitor the programs closely to ensure compliance, although it has found no evidence of fraud. Despite this, though, experts agree that consumers and brands should use common sense when deciding to join an offset program and choosing which groups to work with.

For its own program, the Carbon Neutral project, Volkswagen of America went with an approach that’s equal parts volunteer work and gift to consumers. Between September 2007 and January 2008, for every VW that consumers purchased or leased, the automaker pledged to plant enough trees to offset carbon emissions equivalent to one year of driving.

To market the effort, Volkswagen set up a mini-site within its VW.com site where customers are informed about VW’s efforts and allowed to make donations to the offset program. The site remains up to foster ongoing dialogue with consumers, even though the program has officially ended. Meanwhile, only a couple of clicks away is a portion of the site where customers can sign up to have VW product brochures mailed to their homes, thus using the environmental effort as a springboard for a multimedia dialogue about both ecology and VW cars.

Laura Soave, marketing manager at Volkswagen of America, has this warning about “green” campaigns: “It’s definitely something you can’t just jump into.”

Still, environmentalists and business experts agree that these offset programs, if done properly, can have a positive impact on the atmosphere, and on business. “It’s a wonderful entrepreneurial response to a real set of concerns in the public,” says William Moomaw, director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Tufts University.

What makes a project well executed? Marketers interested in pursuing such projects need to think about what kind of program makes sense for them, as well as how they’ll choose to communicate with and involve their consumers.

A Range of Possibilities

The most common carbon-offset projects generally fall into three categories: renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation.

Renewable energy projects typically involve a company purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) from a utility. These credits, which are a separate commodity from the electricity itself, represent a revenue stream for generators of clean energy, such as wind turbine or solar energy plants. They also give a company the right to say that a percentage of their electricity consumption is based on renewable energy. By contrast, energy efficiency projects look at ways that companies can reduce their emission through more efficient technologies, and reforestation initiatives involve planting trees.

Planting trees is arguably the most tangible action a brand can take to offset carbon emissions. Most consumers intuitively understand that trees are good for the environment. It conjures a specific image a leafy, green image unlike energy efficiency programs or REC projects, which take some explanation and abstract logic for stakeholders to grasp.

Still for some providers and practitioner companies, these last two projects are more attractive. David Ragland is the general manager of the Marriott Residence Inn in Washington, D.C., which is now operating on 50-percent renewable energy. Marriott announced its renewable energy program last September and now offsets half of its emissions by purchasing RECs. (Guests are also invited to donate $5 toward additional RECs.)

Clean Currents, Ragland’s offset provider of choice, focuses primarily on buying RECs for its partners through private markets. “There’s certainly a role for reforestation,” says Lee Keshishian, vice president of business operations at Clean Currents. “Customers ask us about it, but so far we’ve shied away from it.

It’s harder to measure.” While reforestation proponents argue that there are indeed clear measurement tools in place, Clean Currents’ position nonetheless reflects the varying opinions that exist even among those who support offsets.

Carbonfund.org takes a slightly different approach it offers all three categories of projects and even gives partners the option of building a portfolio of projects in different categories. Michael Stewart, the nonprofit’s partnerships manager, argues that each type of project accomplishes something slightly different. Reforestation, he points out, is the only kind of offset project that can impact the current high level of CO2 emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere. Says Stewart, “The other two offset methods are critical, but they can only focus on reducing the amount of CO2 that we produce in the future.”

Stewart, whose company is VW’s offset program partner, adds: “While individuals may have a project preference, Carbonfund loves all of its kids’ equally. By employing all three methods together as a cohesive team, we hope to address the whole process of fighting climate change. Along with direct reductions, offsets are simply a great tool to use toward that end. That’s our motto: Reduce what you can, offset what you can’t.”

VW’s Soave says the company chose to go the reforestation path because they found there were added benefits to rebuilding a forest, like creating jobs for planters and supporting endangered wildlife, in this case the Louisiana black bear. The idea of rallying a community of VW owners around a project with a tangible and visible impact on U.S. land was also appealing, as opposed to a parcel of land in, say, Guatemala. “We tried to keep a closer-to-home approach,” says Soave. The Alluvial Valley in Louisiana was attractive for another reason: Its climate and growing conditions support a rate of carbon absorption that is significantly higher than in other parts of the United States.

A Tale of Carbon Offsets

Once VW’s tree-planting project was under way, the company’s biggest challenge was to portray to consumers that the automaker was undertaking the project strictly for its environmental benefit. Ultimately, VW decided that an advertising campaign touting the project would only taint it in the eyes of consumers, so Volkswagen of America refrained from advertising or marketing the VW Forest.

“It would have been easy for us to go out with a huge campaign, and we did discuss that at length,” Soave says. Instead, the carmaker announced its project strictly through dealerships: Car salesmen at VW dealerships promoted the program verbally. Bloggers soon caught wind and helped get the VW Forest some press in major publications. A micro-site on the company’s Web site, jointly designed by its ad agency and Carbonfund.org, explains the project and invites other car owners to participate.

Although VW and Marriott pursued completely different offset projects, they both had to think through how they would explain their projects to customers an increasingly skeptical group when it comes to environmental claims.

While Ragland says he needed to train hotel staff to explain the concept of RECs to inquisitive customers, he also left some of the explaining in the hands of Clean Currents. For example, the offset company provided Marriott with a list of quantifiable benefits from the hotels’ REC purchase, including the fact that the 1.3 million kilowatts in RECs that the hotel has saved through its program is the equivalent of 178 cars off the road, a fact that Ragland has published on the hotel’s Web site.

VW also has had to balance transparency about its program with a desire not to inundate customers with technical details. The Web site for the VW Forest sticks mostly to generalities. VW and Carbonfund.org plan to update the site with recent photos of trees being planted in the valley. But, for example, the Web site excludes facts about how the new forest will support 17 different species of trees with specific consideration for how the ecosystem will be affected.

Indeed, most customers don’t expect brands to be environmental experts, but are looking for an honest and open conversation about the issues. “When we have conversations about offsets with customers, we don’t pretend we know it all,” says Ragland. Shortly after introducing the company’s carbon-offset program, Ragland was confronted by a Marriott guest who called out the hotel for using Styrofoam cups and plates. Guests have also requested more efficient LED lights in elevators. Ragland got rid of the Styrofoam, but didn’t add the expensive LED lighting.

Says the hotel general manager: “We’re not afraid to explain that we are a business, and we do need to maintain margins.”

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An upscale catalog cuts its mailing list and increases sales

By: Samar Farah

The story behind Fairytale Brownies has all the charm of your classic rags-to-riches yarn: Two friends who first met in kindergarten decide in 1992 to launch a company with little more than a secret family recipe. Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz bake their first batch of brownies in a kitchen borrowed from a friend, the culinary equivalent of an ’80s-era Silicon Valley garage. Sixteen years later, their Phoenix operation is the largest mail-order gourmet brownie company in the United States.

It’s the sort of story that inspires others to quit their day jobs and follow their entrepreneurial dreams. So one can hardly blame Spitalny and Kravetz if, along the way, they allowed themselves to get a little overambitious. Four years ago, the company hired an agency to help expand its customer list. On the firm’s recommendation, Fairytale Brownies acquired “all these lists,” Spitalny says with a sigh. That might’ve worked with a larger company, but for Fairytale, the strategy was risky.

Problems soon arose in the wake of this daring, unfamiliar new effort. To keep up with its expanding customer list, Fairytale increased its catalog production. By 2004, the catalog’s circulation had increased from 600,000 to 1 million. However, response rates and new customer acquisitions were barely enough to recoup the cost of the campaign. Shortly afterward, the brand dissolved its relationship with that particular agency.

The problem the company encountered was a common one among businesses of all sizes: Poor list management. Companies often learn too late that buying lists doesn’t automatically guarantee an increase in sales, or even that marketers’ messages are reaching the right people, especially if those lists are outdated or filled with the wrong types of consumers. And in many instances, relying on poorly maintained lists can create more problems than a company may anticipate.

In the case of Fairytale Brownies, Spitalny says, the company was swept up by the momentum and excitement of a large campaign. She recalls that many of the lists which the agency urged them to purchase were from compiled lists and trade associations a list of marketing directors at large companies, for example with the idea that these professionals would be looking for gifts for their clients. Not a bad idea on paper, perhaps, but in many cases the lists themselves provided no more than a corporate title and an address. Actual names were often missing.

“The strategy [the agency] recommended got more and more aggressive, and we’d always been growing so we were up for it,” Spitalny says. “But we went a little too far. We sent out catalogs without a specific name. That doesn’t break through the clutter.”

Spitalny’s company returned to managing its postal list in-house and scaled its list back. Then in 2006, Fairytale hired J. Schmid and Associates, a catalog marketing firm in Mission, Kan., with the hope of growing its list properly. This time, the mail order company was determined to be less reckless.

A new twist on direct mail coupons sweetens the pot for incentive programs

By: Christopher Caggiano

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many of New Orleans’ businesses struggled to get back on their feet. Bruce Frommeyer who owns eight Subway® Restaurants in the area was able to get up and going faster than many, thanks partially to a high-tech twist on a vintage incentive: direct mail coupons.

“After we got back online, we needed something to supplement Subway’s corporate advertising,” he says. “I’ve tried fliers in marriage mail, newspaper ads and inserts, but all these things don’t let you target one store. And that’s the key to my business right now. I need to bring it down to the neighborhood level.”

Fortunately for Frommeyer, Subway Restaurants had recently teamed with Database Marketing Group (DMG) to offer a systemwide program that allows the owners to go online and customize individualized mailings that can saturate every nearby consumer whether they are at home or at work. Franchise owners can send coupon posters to local businesses, which are posted in lunchrooms for access by all employees.

“The fast food category has historically been mass-media driven, but like most other retail industries, there’s been a significant shift toward direct mail,” says Kurt Whitmer, executive vice president of DMG. “With the introduction of TIVO and DVR technology and increasingly less effective mass media, fast food restaurants are looking for cost-effective solutions that allow them to saturate their individual neighborhoods.”

By: Frank S. Washington

Girls rule.

Sure, some adolescent boys might disagree but when it comes to some of the most effective and immersive marketing experiences currently being developed for younger consumers, there’s no question that female adolescents and pre-teens are a demographic that cannot be ignored. In recent years, several leading toy brands have come up with far-reaching multichannel marketing campaigns that have consistently proven girls to be a valued and influential audience.

Among these brands, few have been more successful in marketing to girls than doll manufacturer American Girl, which specializes in a line of dolls with period themes. Founded in 1986, American Girl started with just a mail-order catalog promoting three dolls (Kirsten, Samantha and Molly).

Since these initial direct mail efforts, the company has exploded. American Girl has sold 117 million books and 13 million dolls. And it continues to be a major player in direct mail: Its catalog ranks as one of the top 25 consumer catalogs in the country; its American Girl magazine has a circulation of 650,000 and receives 10,000 pieces of reader mail every time it is published.

Along with the products that continue to be promoted in the American Girl catalog, the company’s Web site, americangirl.com, gets 23 million visitors each year. More than 20 million of them visit “Fun for Girls,” the editorial section of the site. The company also boasts proprietary retail stores, “American Girl Place” and “American Girl Boutique and Bistro,” the newest boutique/bistro having opened in Dallas this November.

“Our brand has always been more than just a collection of toys,” says American Girl spokeswoman Stephanie Spanos. “Young girls have a deep, emotional connection to our product lines, which has allowed us to create meaningful experiences around them, elevating us to a lifestyle brand.”

At its 40,000-square-foot flagship stores in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, 19 million visitors have experienced what American Girl describes as “experiential retail.” In addition to purchasing dolls and accessories, girls can eat brunch and lunch and enjoy afternoon tea or dinner at the American Girl Cafe. There’s also a theater featuring live productions based on the American Girl books, including The American Girls Revue, as well as a participatory performance for younger girls, Bitty Bear’s Matinee: The Family Tree. Packages include parties, a day at the store, a late night at the store and a chance to be a “Star for a Day.” Special events include things like A Great Day with Grandparents, Doll Hair Salon Spectacular and cooking classes for girls.

American Girl has deployed a host of marketing techniques from direct mail and event marketing to word-of-mouth and e-mail to create a full-service experiential retail environment that visitors can see as an extension of an American Girl “lifestyle.”

Marketers who specialize in promoting brands to young consumers underscore that, even in an age when young people are hooked on the Internet, direct mail remains the most effective way to carry on an ongoing conversation with them.