Interview by Pamela Oldham

Deliver® recently caught up with Dr. Samir Husni, the University of Mississippi professor and lecturer widely known as “Mr. Magazine,” to discuss the future of branded print marketing communications.

In the second of our two-part interview, Husni talks about what the future holds for catalog marketers and what custom publications must do to remain relevant in an increasingly digital and eco-conscious world. (Read the first part of the interview here.)

DELIVER: What’s ahead for catalog retailers?

SAMIR HUSNI: We’re going back to the psychological aspect of “wishing.” The whole mentality has changed from something that is nice to have to something that is needed. Even when you look in the catalogs and see the designs and then weigh the offers, they’re now based on need as well as want and desire.

DELIVER: Is catalog messaging changing?

HUSNI: Some of them are trying to be more magazine-ish. The Avon brochure, for instance. They’re introducing a little article here and there, like Lands’ End. They’re trying to be part of that experience, trying to create the experience so it’s not like they’re just selling. Instead, they’re [saying], “We’re giving you advice, we’re giving you tips, and we’re helping you.” It’s putting a human touch on those brochures. If there is one major change that is taking place right now it’s that we are humanizing catalogs. It’s not, “Here’s A, B and C.” We’re now telling you, “Here’s A, B and C — and B might look much better on you.” The more we humanize catalogs, the more we add to the brand experience, the more we add to that sense of community and sense of belonging.

DELIVER: How can catalogs be more relevant?

HUSNI: What we want to see even more than just relevancy is the catalog must become like a magazine. I don’t want somebody sending me a message on every page that says, “Go to the Web. Go here. Look here. See how this looks, here, there and there.” I want my brand experience within that catalog to remain there until I want to order something. Then send me to the Web [to buy].

DELIVER: You’ve talked about the comeback of the print catalog. What kind of environmental challenges does this highlight?

HUSNI: We need better education because there’s this myth that catalogs, that paper, all that stuff is hurting the environment. What about the batteries that we are using [to run] our laptops? What about the electricity that we are spending? At least magazines and catalogs can be recycled. I have five laptops sitting at home. What do I do with these things? It’s good to care about the environment, but we need to educate our public rather than just say, “We’re going green.” And why should we be the only ones going green? A laptop is not essentially the best environmental answer to the catalog.

DELIVER: Are you seeing any particularly exciting innovations in printed corporate marketing communications?

HUSNI: Now is the time for innovation. To me, the first step in innovation is focus. Give me something that will stop me in my tracks. When I see my name on every ad or I see something in the ad that specifically talks about Samir, that stops me. Technology is enabling ideas. We can easily afford to create five design covers of the same magazine now, based on different demographics and psychographics of five different audiences. We can experiment with new textures. There’s a book that came out in Germany, for instance, that is made of edible paper. We have chips we can put into magazines that talk to you. The problem is a lot of us are still using whatever innovation comes out in the marketplace for the sake of innovation, and that’s the biggest mistake we can make. I want to create and come up with innovative ideas that make my product a must-have rather than a nice-to-have.

DELIVER: Any other final thoughts?

HUSNI: One of the things that I really believe we’re going to be seeing more and more in the future is putting all that data we have to better use. We have to create this feeling that we are visiting with you, that I am your best friend and you can’t wait to come see me so we can talk about things that interest you and that I have the answers for. That’s why content is so important. We have to be in the business of selling content because content is our conversation with our audience, and we have to be the ones who start that conversation. The customer has all the questions. [They’re saying], “I’m waiting for you to start the conversation with me and start answering my questions.” Any piece of media that comes to me that does not start the conversation is one I consider to be a failure.

Interview by Pamela Oldham

Want to sell more products and services through your print pieces? Maybe you should stop trying so hard to simply sell.

That’s the advice of Dr. Samir Husni, one of the nation’s most highly regarded authorities on modern magazine publishing. Known widely as “Mr. Magazine,” Husni serves as director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism, where he is also professor and Hederman Lecturer. He maintains his own Web site, authors an annual guide to new magazines and conducts regular interviews around the country about contemporary publishing.

Deliver® recently talked with Mr. Magazine about the direction of custom magazines, catalogs and other printed communications vital to the marketing mix. In the first part of a two-part interview, Dr. Husni urges CMOs to view print marketing as a matchmaking function, one in which their publications focus less on the hard sell and more on fashioning a unique, relevant and seductive experience. Read the second half of the interview with Dr. Husni here.

DELIVER: What role do branded communications, especially magazines, play in helping companies meet marketing objectives?

SAMIR HUSNI: One of the latest trends today is what we refer to as the “grand experience,” that engagement process we used to have in the good old days — before we surrendered that time to the Internet and computers, when people received a magazine and immediately felt they were a part of a community. The magazine in hand is an experience that you enjoy as you flip the pages, as you engage with that magazine and as you lose yourself in reading it. If the audience is clearly identified and the relationship between the audience and the brand is the best matchmaking effort, then we have a very successful effort. Every time somebody loses themselves within that experience, you know they become addicted to it — and therefore will become users of that brand.

DELIVER: Are there companies that produce quality branded communications?

HUSNI: There are, but it depends on the magazine and whom it aims to target. A good example is Mine, the customized magazine created by Time Inc. and Lexus. Mine offers a mix of articles that reflect my lifestyle. The minimal amount of ads within the magazine show me the new Lexus RX, but are customized to speak to me, without being intrusive. I believe that good journalism helps market good products. When you have branded content, you must know who your audience is and try to create a relationship with that audience. Take some time to study the lifestyle and values of your audience. I always say that we’re no longer in the business of counting numbers. Now we’re in the business of finding customers who count.

DELIVER: What’s the role of “customer” publishing in the marketing mix today?

HUSNI: We’re lagging behind Europe and other countries in custom publishing. I am glad you mentioned customer publishing because I have been one of those people who have been trying to push the American custom publishing industry to add the “E-R” to custom publishing. “Custom publishing” is a good term, but “customer publishing” is an even better choice because now, we are laser-targeting the product to that specific customer. matchmaking

Marketers are in the business of reaching a very specific audience. Who else [but custom publishers] can create something that is specifically targeted to the needs, wants and desires of that customer? That’s why I use the word “matchmaking.” Who is better than a custom publisher at being a matchmaker between the brand and the user of the brand?

DELIVER: In your view, what is the state of catalog marketing? Should marketers think of catalogs as similar to magazines?

HUSNI:Anything you hold in your hands and can view with your eyes evokes a different response in your brain than just looking at your computer screen or touching something. It’s the combination of our sight and sense of touch — those two senses create a completely different reaction that makes us view things differently. So that’s why catalogs are making a comeback. They declined when everybody said, “Oh, let’s put all the catalogs online.” But more and more companies discovered that the more [print] catalogs they cut, the less traffic they pulled to their online sales sites. So they are now using the catalog as the means to put the brand in your hands and then [to get you to] go online to order. Human beings love that sense of ownership. We want to hold something in our hand and say, “This is my Lands’ End catalog,” “This is my Cosmopolitan magazine.” You can never say anything on the Web is yours, including your own Web site. We want the sense of calling it ours; this is mine … showing it, displaying it on our coffee table, throwing it in the recycling bin; doing whatever you want to do with it because it’s yours.

DELIVER: You spoke about the need to engage customers so they immerse themselves in the brand and lose themselves in the pages of a magazine. Is that also true of catalogs?

HUSNI: It’s a shopping experience. I’m one of those few people who do not actually believe in this myth of a separation of “church” (editorial content) and “state” (advertising goals) in magazines. When people pick up a magazine, they are looking as much at the ads as they are looking at the articles. So when it comes to a catalog, it’s one big shopping experience. It’s like you are strolling along Fifth Avenue and you are seeing all these products in front of you. You’re flipping pages until something stops you. Then you either go online to order it or you take a second look or a third look or you show it to somebody. That doesn’t happen on the Internet as easily. [With a print catalog], you can flip through and go back and forth easily without having to squeeze your eyes or tilt your head back to see the screen better or any of that. So it’s not only psychological; it’s physical, too.

As media become more fragmented seemingly with every new technological breakthrough, today’s multi-channel marketers often find themselves struggling to make the platforms work in unison. And though many fail, a growing number of brands are indeed figuring out how to successfully integrate their communications outlets — and the payoff has been sweet.

Clothing manufacturer Fair Indigo is among those that have tasted the success of a winning multi-channel effort — and now executives are craving more.

Not very long ago, the company, which specializes in clothing made in non-sweatshop factories, kicked off a multi-channel balancing act with staggering scope. Fair Indigo launched a Wisconsin retail store, a robust Web site and a catalog — all at the same time.

Rob Behnke, the co-founder and president of the company, says one of the big reasons for the simultaneous launches is that he and the other founders figured that starting the channels together would make it easier to integrate them. Given that each had experience in different marketing channels — “We have all done one or many channels,” Behnke explains — they believed they could get each one up and running without harming the others or giving one more importance than the others.

“What we learned in looking back is that, when you launch one channel and then another, you’re working with the infrastructure that was built for the first channel,” Behnke notes. “The new channels often take a back seat. What ends up happening is the store experience becomes an afterthought experience. We could easily see ourselves falling into that trap, and we wanted to create the best experience in each channel from the start.”

Meanwhile, they integrated the platforms by utilizing the same order-entry system for catalogs and the retail store as for the Web site. In doing so, Behnke and his partners have ensured that customer information is stored centrally irrespective of the channel that gleaned it. (The company also offers a call center where customers can make additional purchases; however, this wasn’t started at the same time as the store, site and catalog.)

The order-entry system also lets Fair Indigo salespeople bring up a customer’s purchase history across the three platforms. This allows the company to better tailor future offers to that customer.

So far, the system has served the clothing maker admirably. For example, the catalog has consistently posted strong response rates and, from 2007 to 2008, Behnke and his partners grew it by 74 percent. Further, Behnke estimates that about 8 percent of shoppers who visit the retail store are drawn by items in the catalog. And once in the store, Behnke points out, shoppers are also more likely to add on to their catalog order with “impulse” buys of chocolates, coffee, jewelry or other small items.

But Behnke warns other marketers, even those who have proven equally adept at multi-channel balancing acts, that cultivating customers via each channel and remembering to value each channel equally remains a challenge.

“It’s a natural tendency to say, ‘These customers are [more profitable] than these customers because we make more money from them,’” Behnke says. “At the end of day, we really have to make sure we treat every customer and every channel equally.”

INFORMATION BOX

Fair Indigo at a Glance

* Mails its catalog to 3 million households annually.

* Estimates that 5 percent of in-store shoppers bring a catalog in with them, and that another 3 percent who come in without the catalog have still been driven by it to the store.

* Grew its catalog circulation by 74 percent from 2007 to 2008.

By: Lekan Oguntoyinbo

As media channels fragment, so do the architects of the campaigns designed to utilize those channels. Where once companies allowed a lone agency to develop and execute a campaign across numerous media channels, a growing number of businesses are now using multiple agencies to cultivate various aspects of the same campaign.

Take, for example, recent moves at Turner Sports, which provides sports programming and entertainment for a wide range of fans. In expanding its offerings for stock-car racing enthusiasts, Turner Sports has worked to calibrate marketing pitches made on a recently developed Web site for car enthusiasts with a catalog that offers assorted racing paraphernalia.

Traditionally, this would mean the brand turning to a single agency to help craft the message. But as new portals emerge, brands are finding that many of the traditional agencies aren’t doing the same quality work as, say, smaller, newer shops. As a result, brands like Turner are now using multiple agencies to drive its messages home.

In Turner’s case, the company farms out work on the racing Web site to Datran Media, a New York digital marketing solutions provider. Meanwhile, it’s in-house marketing team develops the catalogs. In some instances, a third agency may be brought in to handle TV or mobile media.

Though this “multi-agency” model isn’t completely new, the trend appears to be picking up in recent years. Many forward-looking brands have realized that not all agencies are equally equipped to handle the new channels. Sure, a major marketer may know traditional outlets such as TV, but may not have the chops to do great digital work. And the smaller boutique agencies may come up with great marketing ideas for new media, but may find themselves lost navigating the particular challenges of, say, direct mail.

Meanwhile, the company also uses select direct marketers to help fulfill its strong commitment to mail.

“My philosophy on direct mail is, don’t get thrown away,” says Norman Miglietta, director of marketing and advertising of new media for Turner Sports. “The second is to get them to open it up. The third is to get them to take action. We offer three different ways for them to do this. They can go online, call an 800 number or fax in an order.”

As a result, many companies are now seeking specific expertise in a channel.

“We are not a traditional ad agency,” says Sean O’Neal, chief marketing officer of Datran Media. “We don’t just offer media planning and buying. But we offer a capability that most ad agencies don’t – inbox marketing capability.”

Intelligent Mail is making it simpler for Hallmark customers to send personal greetings while helping the Kansas City, Mo.–based company easily track pieces as they enter the mail stream.

Hallmark’s new Postage-Paid Postcards — which hit store shelves in May — come with prepaid First-Class Mail® postage, eliminating the need for consumers to place a stamp on them.

When mailed, Intelligent Mail barcode technology linked to the postcards notifies the Postal Service™ that postage was prepaid when the consumer purchased the card.

“These Postage-Paid Postcards create a convenience we’ve not offered before,” says Cindy Mahoney, vice president of product development at Hallmark. “All consumers need to do is fill out the postcard and drop it in the mailbox.”

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Six Ways Direct Mail Will Thrive in the New Year

Direct Mail Messages Take Social Network Connections to the Next Level

By Sandra Beckwith

When a coveted upscale retailer finally opened a store at the Eastview Mall in Rochester, N.Y., last January, the mall’s marketers wasted little time using the event to lure well-heeled patrons from across the entire state.

“This was a great opportunity for us to expand our market reach,” says mall marketing director Marie Karasinski. “We knew that certain shoppers outside our immediate market would want to know they could now shop at this store in person, instead of online or by traveling to New York City.”

While the local promotion for the store opening focused on publicity, Karasinski chose direct mail to reach out to shoppers in high-income ZIP Code™ locations in Buffalo, 90 miles to the west, and in Syracuse, 90 miles to the east. An 11-inch by 11-inch postcard announced the store opening and also trumpeted a popular outdoor apparel retailer slated to debut inside the mall six months later. Nearly 15,000 of the oversized postcards were mailed to a total of nine ZIP Code locations in the two distant markets.

The postcard’s size assured that it stood out in a homeowner’s mail — but the real features were in its messages: Each piece included driving directions from the recipient’s community to the mall. The nine sets of driving directions — one for each ZIP Code location — were generated on the design end; the printer handled reproduction and mailing. The direct mail piece also offered shoppers a complimentary cup of coffee from a popular mall kiosk near the new retailer’s location.

“Direct mail gave us a more targeted reach than other mediums,” says Karasinski. “We could use our market research to reach the person who might be willing to shop here, or one who already does and would want to know about the new store.”

While Karasinski declined to discuss the specific results of the campaign, she says both the mall and the upscale retailer have warmly embraced the effort. “They way exceeded their goals for the opening,” she says.

Let sampling campaigns prove the power of your product.

By Burt Rhodes

Sure, good marketers are experts at explaining to consumers the many benefits and advantages of a new product or brand. But convincing those same customers to purchase isn’t always as simple as broadcasting a commercial or aiming e-mails at them.

Sometimes, say experts, winning consumers to a product means letting them try it before they buy it. Sometimes, a brand has to lead by a sample.

“Product samples are a way of creating excitement,” explains Rico Cipriaso, a corporate marketing veteran who has spearheaded product sampling campaigns for major international beauty brands. “Sending samples is one of the best ways to reproduce a store experience in the customer’s home.”

Indeed, sampling continues to rank among the most effective tactics in the history of direct marketing, in part because of its ability to do what no other medium can: put a physical product in customers’ hands. Moreover, the practice is finding new adherents even in the digital age.

Consequently, while some CMOs struggle to make sense of new media initiatives, many others are enjoying steady success thanks to a rediscovery of the appeal of product sampling and the power of direct mail to get these campaigns to customers.

“Sampling is growing in importance [because] consumers are bombarded with messages,” says Cindy Johnson, who worked as the corporate sampling programs manager for Procter & Gamble before starting her own marketing consultancy. “It’s just really hard to make an impact on consumers today. But people love samples.”

Certainly, sampling allows companies to extend their message. According to figures from the Promotion Marketing Association, product samples reach 70 million households each quarter. A recent PMA poll also found that 75 percent of customers say they have become aware of a product through a sample.

And consumers are acting on this awareness, with many saying that product sampling helps them choose among brands. For instance, 81 percent of consumers said they would try a product after receiving a sample, according to a poll conducted in December by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of the United States Postal Service.® Moreover, 61 percent of those polled said that sampling a product is the most effective way to get them to try a brand.

“It is the consumer-preferred method of marketing,” Johnson says. “[Consumers] are tuning out the advertising, [but] they love to try new things. That’s why product sampling works.”

Like Cipriaso, Johnson maintains that product sampling is an ideal way to win customers’ faith in a product. “Consumers feel the sample gives them the actual experience of the product,” she says. “They don’t have to risk any investment to be able to try it.”

This is important, continues Johnson, because many consumers are still anxious about the current economy and have become much more discriminating about their purchases. “That’s why sampling is even more successful right now,” she says. “Because they don’t want to invest dollars in new products. So they are relying on that trial experience to tell them whether they are going to like the product or not.”

Brands can get samples to consumers through an assortment of avenues, of course, from event marketing giveaways to newspaper inserts. Direct mail efforts, though, offer one of the surest avenues to reach consumers, say marketers.

Nick Peragine, product sales manager for Georgia-based lighting manufacturer PureSpectrum, says his company recently used mail to send samples of a new energy-efficient light bulb to a wide assortment of B-to-B contacts. “We came to the decision to use direct mail primarily because it was the easiest way to introduce our products to a large number of potential constituents over a broad area — and to be able to get actual samples of our product in their hands.”

Johnson says the precision of mail marketing also gives it an advantage in product sampling campaigns, although she acknowledges that targeting isn’t everything when it comes to sampling. “With sampling, targeting is very important, but there are other elements that go into the return on investment. Like if you’re resampling the same person: I don’t care if you have the right target, if you have poor sample control there’s no point in doing the program.”

And while it’s a natural fit with direct mail, product sampling also can be integrated into larger, multimedia campaigns. In the Opinion Research Corp. poll, 84 percent of respondents said they would be likely to log on to a Web site to receive samples if they received a post card driving them to the site.

“A lot of retailers have sites where you can request a sample,” Johnson notes, pointing out how one grocery chain has blended mail and sampling with digital elements of its marketing mix. “And because consumers are thinking they get the sample through that supermarket, then that’s where they go to find the product if they want to buy it. Consumers link the brand with the retailer.”

Thus, the retailer enjoys the bump up in brand opinion and recognition, she says, while its sampling vendor carries the actual responsibility for distributing the products.

Johnson says these integrated programs also give marketers a chance to learn more about their customers. “A lot of times [after sending a sample], we give them a Web site to register on,” she explains. “We say, ‘Here’s a Web site. We’re collecting information about your sample, giving away a small prize.’ And they will go online and register, and provide us with the feedback that way.”

Likewise, many brands are making use of social media networks in their sampling efforts. It’s becoming increasingly common, for instance, for brands to mail samples of new products to a select list of targets and then watch as those recipients go to Facebook® and other sites to post rave reviews about the samples.

This suggests that product sampling also engenders consumer loyalty, much like frequent flyer programs and other initiatives, Cipriaso says. He notes how quality product samples, despite usually being distributed in small quantities, have a way of getting consumers to come back to certain brands. “After we introduce you to our products, we want to make sure we keep you forever,” he says.
“We also know that the best customers tend to replenish. They buy the same product over and over again because they use it every day and they love it.”

And these customers also present ideal targets for sampling campaigns designed to expand a brand line, says Johnson: “Let’s say you’re already using a shampoo by a particular brand. If that brand is expanding into the antiperspirant and moisturizer categories, the person who already uses another product by that brand may be more receptive to buying the product. Sometimes, giving them a sample will help make that transition happen.”

But for all their enthusiasm about product sampling, Johnson and others don’t hesitate to warn CMOs about taking sampling campaigns too lightly. No marketing strategy is ever easy to execute, Johnson points out, so marketers need to approach sampling as wisely as they would any other tactic. “The famous misconception is that product sampling is easy,” she says. “You really do need to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.”

In the end, though, when done right, product sampling can yield not only invaluable brand exposure, but also solid ROI, richer knowledge about customers and a stronger bond between companies and the people who buy their goods. Put simply, says Cipriaso, “It’s a business case that works.”

A little goes a long way

Consumers love getting something free — even if it’s a tiny bit of something, as evidenced by recent sampling initiatives from these brands.

Texas Pete Hot Sauce

The hot sauce brand recently touted its flavor varieties by offering a limited number of product samples through the social networking site Facebook.® The company planned to distribute its 10,000 samples over a four-week period, but hit that number of requests in just six days. Each sample contained a 1.9-ounce bottle of the consumer’s flavor of choice, a can koozie and a coupon that held a unique bar code to help the company track its redemption rate.

PureSpectrum

When the Georgia-based lighting company needed to distinguish its new 20-watt dimmable compact fluorescent lamp from rival products, a sample campaign was the answer. Test products were mailed to the company’s target audience — the 964 rural electrical co-ops across the United States. The campaign results generated an influx of purchase orders, product sales and requests for quotes.

Splenda

In July, the sweetener brand used sampling to give consumers a first look at its new pocket-sized mist spray and to gather feedback before rollout. Splenda required requesters to become fans of its Facebook page, which let the company better target its key demographic — women 25 and older — through their profiles on the social networking site. More than 16,000 samples were given away in just two weeks.

Living Proof

Free samples flew off the virtual shelves when the beauty brand offered Facebook® users a trial of its No Frizz hair care product. More than 15,000 samples were requested in a 48-hour period. Plus, fan numbers for the product spiked from around 1,000 to more than 7,000 during the promotion, even though consumers weren’t required to become a fan to receive the sample.

New Beauty magazine

Four times a year, the publication’s beauty sampling program, TestTube,™ sends subscribers deluxe-size samples of beauty products along with a booklet detailing the products’ features and benefits. After the first year of the program’s launch, 96 percent of recipients said they purchased a fullprice version of a sample item. The TestTube™ currently has over 20,000 subscribers, and the program continues to grow.

Cablevision Systems

Last fall, the New York–area cable operator brought interactive banner ads to TV that let its nearly 3 million subscribers order product samples from companies, such as Benjamin Moore, with a click of their TV remotes.

Sephora

The retail beauty chain offers consumers up to three free product samples with every online order. Customers select samples during checkout and the trial offerings are mailed with their purchased products.

Lead by a sample

Samples endure as a powerful way to win customers. In December, Opinion Research Corp. surveyed 1,000 consumers on behalf of the USPS® — all of them primarily responsible for sorting their household’s mail.

Here are a few findings:

81% of those surveyed said they will try a product after they receive a free sample.

61% said an actual product sample is the most effective way for a brand to get them to try a product.

65% said they would prefer to have samples mailed to their home.

72% said they would prefer receiving multiple samples in a single sample box.

89% said that an accompanying coupon would increase the value of a mailed sample box.

84% said that they’d likely log onto a Web site and sign up to receive samples if they got a post card from the USPS driving them to the site.

A product sampling expert tells why sampling campaigns may be more effective than ever.

By Pamela Oldham

Cindy Johnson spent more than 15 years at Procter & Gamble, including her tenure as the corporate sampling programs manager. In that time, she worked with nearly all of the P&G products and developed some valuable insights into how and why sampling continues to win over customers.

Johnson, who now consults with top marketers as head of her own firm, Sampling Effectiveness Advisors, sat down with Deliver® recently to share those insights and explain why recent advances in mail samples could make them more formidable than ever.

DELIVER: What makes sampling effective?

CINDY JOHNSON: With over 30,000 different products on the shelf in the average grocery store and with the typical consumer receiving as many as 3,000 advertising messages a day, a sample trial is one of the few ways that guarantees a brand due consideration from its target audience.

DELIVER: Is sampling growing in importance?

JOHNSON: [Today’s consumers] aren’t taking as many risks on a new brand or a new product. They love to try new products, but don’t want to spend $7 or $8 on a new shampoo to see if they like it. So they are relying on product trial experiences to tell them whether they are going to like the product or not. Coupons are nice if you’re going to buy the product anyway. But if you want to reach a new consumer who has never tried your product, the best way is going to be through a sample.

DELIVER: Why are more samples being mailed today?

JOHNSON: Two or three years ago, 80 percent of all purchase decisions were made in store. People were out of the home more often, and brands had to reach people where they were — out having fun or at work, or whatever. But now, because of the economy, 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at home. [Consumers] are making lists, and they’re going through their cupboards and figuring out what they need. Plus, they’re just not going out as much. So brands really have to try to reach the consumer and provide samples at home, where the decisions are being made.

DELIVER: What sampling innovations excite you?

JOHNSON: There is a new technology developed by First Flavor (FirstFlavor.com) called Peel ’n Taste.® It’s a film sample you put in your mouth that dissolves and gives you the same flavor experience as the product. For beverage brands especially, this will be a good way of sampling because in the past, they’ve really only been able to sample in store or at events [from a can or bottle] and there hasn’t been a good way to reach households. It will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of sampling for them. With this technology, they can actually send a sample through the mail, in a regular letter-sized envelope. Peel ’n Taste® will open up a lot of doors for companies to send samples to consumers.

Cindy Johnson’s tips for a successful sampling campaign

1. Reach your target consumer when and where they are likely to try the sample, now most likely at home.

2. Limit the program to one sample per customer.

3. Use a proven program with an experienced vendor.

4. Measure so you know what to do (or not do) next time. A purchase conversion measurement also lets you determine ROI.

The marketer behind the winner of the Deliver® “Best of the Brag Room” competition tells how he makes direct mail work for his clients.

Interview by Chantal Todé

Commercial printer Montage Graphics has a knack for helping its clients gain an edge through direct mail. Most recently, the company devised an effective and engaging mail campaign that has helped Savvi Formalwear, a marketing and sales cooperative composed of 35 men’s formalwear retailers, hold its own against even the larger retail chains. Relying on deep personalization, the series of four-color mailers have helped boost business by driving in-market consumers online and into stores for Savvi tuxedos. The mailers also earned Savvi (and Montage) more attention after it was named the winner of the Deliver “Best of the Brag Room” online competition. The magazine recently sat down with Toby Gadd, president of Montage Graphics, to talk about integration, personalization and the makings of a winning mail effort.

DELIVER: We hear a lot about personalization these days. Is there anything unique about the direct mail from Savvi?

TOBY GADD: A lot of one-to-one campaigns happen only once. What is unique about this program is that it is ongoing. Savvi members have continued using the same 8.5-inch by 5-inch oversized postcard, making this one of the most successful ongoing, personalized, automated direct mail campaigns out there.

DELIVER: What can other marketers glean from Savvi’s success?

GADD: Direct mail is good, but if you can make it retainable, you go a lot further toward encouraging the recipient to follow through on an offer. We were able to do this for Savvi via digital print technology that incorporates a name into an image. When this type of personalization is done in a way that is appropriate and creative, the piece becomes retainable. For example, Savvi uses an image of a bride and groom on a beach in which the groom is writing his and the bride’s names inside a heart in the sand. This particular piece has become a keepsake for many brides.

Another reason for the program’s effectiveness is that consumers are being slammed with e-mail and it is becoming noise. This, in turn, creates a situation where direct mail is more likely to be noticed by the recipient and to imbue the sender with credibility and prestige, something that matters very much in the bridal market.

DELIVER: How is the personalized direct mail generated?

GADD: It’s generated with the SavviOne system, which was built on Montage Graphics’ ParticleLogic one-to-one platform. It automatically generates direct mail, e-mail and personalized landing pages incorporating image personalization, variable coupon offers, retailer branding and store locator maps.

We do a mail drop every week, and it is usually a big mix of campaigns at different intervals from a variety of Savvi stores.

The system also handles all of the data. Members send us lists of leads, which come primarily from bridal shows. We get up to 30 different lists a week from members around the country. These go to a primary database and, each week, every lead is run through NCOA software to keep the database current. This helps keep track of people who are moving around, something Savvi’s younger demographic does a lot. Leads are then assigned to a specific member based on where the person lives.

DELIVER: What do the stores do to determine mailing intervals?

GADD: Each store typically sends us the data for their bookings, and we determine how far out from the wedding date most brides in their area book the groom’s tuxedo fitting. The membership of Savvi also meet twice a year to share what’s working and what’s not. Often, members will borrow a successful strategy used by another store and test it.

DELIVER: How does the direct mail fit with other elements of the program?

GADD: The direct mail campaign is the entry into a comprehensive multichannel marketing system. The direct mail pushes recipients to a personalized URL to learn more. Once someone goes to the Web site, this triggers a message to the appropriate telemarketer to follow up with a call.

DELIVER:You mentioned this being a keepsake. Do you keep any direct mail pieces because they inspire certain feelings?

GADD: I have around 100 pieces I hold on to. They are my inspiration bank.

There’s one piece I used to keep because, at first, I thought it was a good example of how not to use personalization since the only apparent personalization was the use of my name. However, the piece was from a well-known direct mailer that continued to use this strategy, so I decided I must be missing something.

After speaking with people who liked receiving these pieces, I realized that it wasn’t the incoming personalization that was significant, but that recipients could personalize their response back using information provided in the mailer. This taught me that while push personalization is important, the pull aspect can be even more valuable. So now when I develop direct mail campaigns, I’m always trying to find ways to allow someone to show their preferences or describe their lifestyle.

DELIVER: What types of direct mail pieces make you cringe or get you excited?

GADD: I receive a lot of direct mail without offers or calls to action, which makes me cringe. When someone puts a mailer out there and it’s not evident what I am supposed to do as a consumer, it’s a waste of money. Simply making me aware of the fact that a store exists isn’t enough to drive me in there or make me a loyal customer.

I love it when I see a mailer that is retainable, makes the call to action obvious and has an offer that applies to my need at that time. In an instant, I know what I am supposed to do. That really does inspire me.

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.

Ryan Vero of OfficeMax explains how mail makes the retailer stand out.

By Chantal Tode

Office supply retailer OfficeMax has earned high praise in recent years for carving out well-fitting places for itself across a variety of media. While some of the kudos in recent months have been in response to its digital campaigns, the company also is gaining attention for its work in more traditional channels.

Direct mail initiatives continue to loom particularly large at OfficeMax. For instance, it still offers a variety of catalogs. Also, mail plays a central role in helping the retailer understand specific customer segments. Deliver® reached out to Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at OfficeMax, to talk about why mail remains a mainstay in the company’s media mix.

Deliver: Has the economy affected your direct mail marketing efforts?

Vero: Direct mail is one of the areas of marketing to which we have remained committed. That’s because even with the economic downturn, it’s a tremendously effective vehicle for us — and historically has been. Catalogs still are part of the mix, but more recently we’ve been doing a lot of non-catalog direct mailing both for prospecting purposes and to continue the dialog with our small- and large-business customers. Direct mail lets us send targeted communications to specific customer segments in a cost-effective way.

Deliver: What segments are you targeting these days?

Vero: We’re focusing our marketing communications more on our female customers. In general, women control the majority of purchasing for individual consumption, but more important for us, for business consumption, too. However, we noticed that this customer was not being taken care of in the office industry in general. Direct mail gives us the opportunity to send very targeted communications to this customer segment that specifically address her needs. So far, the response rates have been very good.

Deliver: What’s helping you better understand customer needs?

Vero: We’ve updated and refined our modeling efforts in the past year across various customer segments, and even subsegments within these larger groups. It’s helping us better identify the type of offers, communications and messages to send to a particular customer. Working with the customer data provided through our MaxPerks customer loyalty program, we can ascertain a lot about a customer and model them against other customers. This gives us insight into how effectively we have communicated with the customer in the past. We can determine what savings opportunities they’re not taking advantage of, or which ones we should show them. For example, a customer who purchases presentation materials also is likely to need to make copies for those presentations. If those customers aren’t making any copies with us, we can send a relevant direct mail offer with an incentive to try our copying services.

Deliver: Are you getting any surprising responses?

Vero: For years, we’ve been sending out an acquisition letter that comes from me personally. It’s amazing the number of times I get a note back from someone thanking me for sending them a letter and telling me something about their experience with OfficeMax. This is a terrific level of engagement with our customers, and it’s driven by direct mail. In fact, the response to this campaign has increased over time. It’s a reflection of how special it is to get a personalized letter these days.

Deliver: Any other efforts you’re particularly proud of?

Vero: A direct mail campaign we used to bid on the business of a large bank.
We sent top executives a metal suitcase filled with stacks of paper money. The top bill of each pile communicated some of OfficeMax’s services and solutions. Inside there also was an MP3 player loaded with videos we produced of our executives talking about how OfficeMax would serve the bank’s needs. It helped us break through the clutter and get our message in the hands of a number of senior executives at the bank with a targeted communication that spoke directly to them.

Deliver: What new trends do you think will change the way we market?

Vero: I find it inspiring that we’re getting very close to a cost-effective rate for variable data printing for high-volume mailers. There’s been a lot of talk about being able to do true one-to-one direct mail, but so far it’s been more theory than reality. Sure, you could do it from a technological standpoint and get better response rates, but the higher costs meant the return was a lot lower. However, as the costs have compressed and the technology has improved, I’m optimistic that we’re going to achieve true one-to-one marketing on a large-scale basis sooner rather than later.

W.L. Gore scaled new marketing heights by capturing customer data while driving sales and brand awareness

By Natalie Engler

Just before Christmas 2007, Sharon Cook, retail marketing manager at W.L. Gore & Associates in Newark, Del., sat in her home office watching her latest direct mail marketing campaign unfold in near real time.

As she looked on, outdoor adventure enthusiasts who had recently received postcards and e-mails clicked on personalized URLs (PURLs) and completed a survey about purchasing habits and travel plans.

“There was immediate gratification in seeing evidence that the campaign was working,” Cook recalls. “It gave me a clear window into the consumer activity.”

The campaign — titled “Take Me to Everest” — was designed to achieve three goals: to sell more Merrell-brand hiking shoes made with Gore’s waterproof GORE-TEX® fabric, to collect data for future marketing efforts and to build brand awareness.

“The idea originated because we had done direct mail in the past using a database to do a GPS location for someone’s address, and saying ‘Dear X, Come to the store closest to you,’” Cook explains. “Those mailings were successful for redemption and tracking.”

She’d heard that PURLs could make the connection between direct mail and the Web even stronger, and wanted to see if they could help her achieve her marketing goals and generate shoe sales during the busy holiday season.

As it turned out, the results surpassed her expectations. “Take Me to Everest” generated a 16-percent average increase in sales of GORE-TEX® footwear during the two-week campaign timeframe compared to the same period the previous year.

To develop the campaign, Cook enlisted Associates Graphic Services (AGS), a graphic communication company in Wilmington, Del. Because Gore sells its products directly to manufacturers, the company didn’t have direct relationships with end-user consumers. So Gore brought in a retail partner, Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS). EMS had a targeted database of outdoor-shoe consumers a perfect fit for the campaign.

Cook worked with Karen Keenan, director of marketing at AGS, to determine the best approach for the campaign, which ultimately included postcards and an e-blast, each with a PURL. The postcards, e-mail messages and PURLs all had a consistent graphical look and feel. Each piece featured a Merrell hiking shoe and a youthful climber (both male and female) standing before a majestic mountain rising out of the clouds. The campaign featured 30,000 postcards and 30,000 e-mail messages sent to EMS customers.

The visuals were customized based on the recipient’s gender: women received postcards and e-mails showing a female climber (“Catherine”) and a woman’s hiking shoe, while men received materials displaying a male climber (“Anthony”) and a man’s hiking shoe. The text included two different incentives. One was a free gift of an aluminum water bottle or pedometer with the purchase of any shoe containing GORE-TEX.® The second — which was much more effective — was a chance to enter an online sweepstakes to win a free trip for two to Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

The postcards and e-mails also contained PURLs with the recipient’s name followed by TakeMeToEverest.com (e.g., www.JohnASample.TakeMeToEverest.com). When customers clicked on the PURL, or typed it into their browsers, they were greeted with a welcome screen displaying their first names in large outlined letters in the sky over the mountains and the tagline “One small step could take you all the way to Nepal.” Additional text explained how they could enter a random drawing for a trip to Everest Base Camp.

After registering, visitors received a three-question, multiple-choice survey (“Do you own any of the following types of footwear that use GORE-TEX® fabric or technology?”, “Which of the following [activities] did you do in the last 12 months?” and “Thinking about the last trip you took for your own pleasure (not business), how would you best describe it?”). These questions were designed to both measure and build brand awareness and to test whether the category of casual-but-rugged shoes for adventure travel was worth the companies’ continued investment.

For additional personalization, the contest entry screen was pre-populated with the customer’s contact information. If anything had changed or was incorrect, the customers made corrections. “I loved that we could switch images based on gender and customize the site by using the consumers’ names,” Cook says. “That resonated well with customers. It was targeted without being intrusive.”

It can be difficult to reach people during the holiday season, a time of heavy retail marketing traffic, AGS’s Keenan notes. And yet, despite the competition for consumers’ attention, many customers found the chance for a trip to Everest Base Camp well worth the effort required to complete the short survey. In fact, the campaign received an 8.6-percent total response rate (5,160 visitors) with 73 percent (3,766 visitors) completing the survey and updating their profiles — giving EMS the added benefit of a cleaner database.

Keenan says that adding a PURL to the marketing mix makes it easier to measure the success of an individual campaign. With the PURLs, Cook was able to sit back and watch as a backend “dashboard” revealed moment-by-moment how the campaign was faring. Tucked away in her home office, Cook measured the number of people clicking through, reviewed their answers to the survey questions and even collected additional data, such as the number of people who came because they had received an e-mail vs. direct mail, what time people logged in, how long they stayed and what browser they were using, among other things.

Through the answers to the survey questions, Cook also learned of people’s preferred outdoor activities and their favorite types of vacations. She also could determine how many knew whether shoes they had previously purchased contained GORE-TEX® fabric. The results showed that more than half of the customers who responded were familiar with the GORE-TEX® brand and confirmed that travel-appropriate footwear continued to be a promising category. Thanks to these results, Gore’s wholesale brand partners, such as Merrell, are continuing to develop the adventure-travel shoes.

The dashboard also let Cook measure the campaign’s ROI in real time, helping her demonstrate a direct return on every dollar she spent. “The back end of a PURL campaign is a measurement powerhouse,” Keenan says. “You can track whatever you choose, including sales, cost per visit, cost per completed survey, cost per closed opportunity and gross profit.”

What made the “Take Me to Everest” marketing expedition such a success, according to Keenan, was the combination of a targeted database, good creative and a great call to action. The Nepal trip was an enticing incentive. And results of the “Take Me to Everest” contest were the best holiday gift Cook could have hoped for, she says.

The entire promotion cost only around $20,000. And for that investment, Gore was able not only to capture useful metrics directly from consumers, but also present a holiday gift to EMS and Merrell: important retail and wholesale customers. EMS saw increased traffic in its stores and got its database scrubbed. And Merrell saw a lift in sales of hiking shoes.

“The success of the campaign has given us credibility to try new things and present new opportunities to our customers,” Cook says.

And in so doing, Gore has proven that it’s a company that can take its partners to new heights.

Campaign Synopsis

Company Name: W.L. Gore & Assoc.
Marketing technology solution: Personalized URLs
Number of items mailed: 30,000 postcards and 30,000 e-mails
Target audience: Purchasers of outdoor footwear
Total cost: $20,000
Impact of solution: Generated a 16-percent average increase in sales of GORE-TEX® footwear made by Merrell compared to the same period the previous year.

Don’t use PURLs when:
1. You’re doing prospecting or lead generation
2. You don’t have a targeted database of customers
3. You don’t have a good incentive or call to action
4. Your survey has more than five questions
5. Your landing page is hard to navigate
6. Your survey questions are overly aggressive

As catalogs continue to evolve, many marketers are finding success with a new hybrid model.

By Anne Stuart

The target customer for the mark™ brand lives online.

“She’s very mobile,” says Lily DeStefano, director of marketing for mark, the younger, trendier sister division of cosmetic giant Avon. “She communicates via e-mail, texting and social networking sites. She looks to her friends for advice, information and recommendations on products.”

Not surprisingly, then, the youth-oriented brand is promoted on a dedicated Web site (meetmark.com), mark related blogs and popular social networking sites. But the true cornerstone for marketing all those cosmetics, skin-care products, fragrances, accessories and apparel items is a magalog which essentially is a magazine-catalog mash up.

The magalog, also named mark, has been published monthly since the line’s launch in mid-2003. Each 32- to 40-page issue reaches 7 million readers — a circulation greater than that of some of America’s top national magazines.

At first blush, a print publication may seem a counterintuitive choice for marketing to a Gen Y audience. But DeStefano says the magalog is a critical vehicle for marketing mark because their marketing mix must reflect how the Gen Y audience consumes media across multiple platforms. Plus, the brand has no retail outlets and relies on direct sales — both online and through its national network of independent representatives. The magalog does more than just highlight products, DeStefano says. “It communicates what our brand DNA is all about.”

That’s exactly what a magalog should do, says magazine expert Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi. “Like a magazine, a magalog reflects the customer’s lifestyle — or the lifestyle that the customer wants,” Husni says. But a successful magalog goes a step further. “The goal is to make you, the customer, feel like part of a community and to give you the tools to act on that feeling.”

Magalogs also give their sponsors a bigger stage to showcase their offerings, says Craig Huey, president of Torrance, Calif.–based Creative Direct Marketing Group Inc. “In sales, they say ‘The more you tell, the more you sell,’” says Huey, who has produced magalogs for a variety of clients. “That’s what a magalog allows you to do in a readable, enjoyable, non-threatening way. It’s like an infomercial in print.”

Cam Brown, founder and president of King Fish Media, a Salem, Mass.–based custom-media firm, has seen growing demand for magalogs because, unlike traditional catalogs, they include content that positions their sponsors as trusted authorities in those desired lifestyles.

“With a magalog, you tell the story behind the products using magazine-style techniques — bold content, strong photography and graphics,” says Brown, whose company has developed magalogs for several clients, including a series for online retailer Zappos.com. However, he adds, magalogs also differ from magazines in one key way: “At the end of the day, a magalog’s goal is to sell products.”

Because magalogs typically feature eye-catching, magazine-style covers, they tend to “pop” in the mailbox. That’s the case in corporate settings as well as in consumer homes. “There’s a filtering process within the mailrooms of larger companies, but based on responses, we know that a magalog will almost always get through,” Huey says.

Story telling

The magazine-catalog hybrid — sometimes called a catazine has been evolving for a while.

Book-club catalogs have long included editorial copy, such as excerpts, reviews and author profiles. In the 1980s and ’90s, some apparel catalogs went far beyond simple product descriptions, weaving in elaborate stories about how particular products were discovered, designed or developed. Magalogs are just the latest variation on that trend, blending traditional direct-sales copy with editorial content and magazine-like design.

“Part of the mark brand voice is about this editorial angle that allows us to share our knowledge and expertise with the customer,” DeStefano says.

For example, each issue of mark includes makeup artists and stylists discussing trends that are keyed to mark products. “Rather than just showing makeup shades, the magalog builds a story around a certain look, with experts telling the story,” DeStefano says.

DeStefano says mark is a valuable tool during the direct sales process because reps can walk prospects through the publication, pointing out not only individual items, but also the expert tips on combining to create their own look.

That approach, Husni says, reflects another reason for magalogs’ popularity: Many consumers — even hardcore Internet shoppers — still love hard copy catalogs.

“People love to do their shopping online, but they still like to have the catalog in their hands,” he adds.

Communicating culture

While mark uses its magalog primarily to give customers advice and ideas about using mark products, Zappos.com had multiple goals for its publication. First, the company wanted to create awareness about its ongoing expansion into new product categories.

“One of our challenges is that people still think of Zappos as an online shoe store,” says Aaron Magness, director of business development and brand marketing for Henderson, Nev.–based Zappos.

Zappos.com was, in fact, launched as an online footwear retailer in 1999, but today its $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales comes from sales of clothing, handbags, accessories, eyeglasses and housewares, among other things.

In addition, Zappos.com wanted to both acquire new customers and reactivate lapsed ones. Within those broad audiences, Zappos.com decided to target four key segments of its predominantly female, upwardly mobile market.

Zappos.com has produced three editions of Zappos Life in the past year: one designed for “casual-lifestyle” customers, one aimed at “active-lifestyle” fitness buffs and one back-to-school issue intended for students. A fourth issue will target fashion-conscious shoppers. To date, the magalogs have featured the footwear that made Zappos.com famous, but they also show apparel, sunglasses, watches, handbags and backpacks.

For most issues, Zappos works with vendors representing some of its 1,200 brands to choose products that best fit that particular magalog’s theme. Then, with King Fish Media, the company develops content around those selections to carry the theme through the entire 32- to 40-page publication.

“A magalog should be something the recipient wants to read and interact with, rather than just flip through quickly to shop,” Magness says.

He also emphasizes the importance of keeping a magalog’s story cohesive, carefully paced and tightly targeted to its intended audience.

For instance, the casual-lifestyle issue is themed around relaxation, fun and friends. Its carnival-themed opening spread features models in jeans, sandals and cotton blouses, paired with content urging readers to “go back to the days when fun didn’t have to be penciled in between meetings and play dates.”

Zappos.com also uses its magalogs to introduce prospects and customers to its unique culture, based on 10 core values that urge employees to “create fun and a little weirdness.”

Each issue opens with an editor-like letter from Zappos.com chief executive officer Tony Hsieh, peppered with employee quotes describing and praising the company’s culture. “Everything we do is about building relationships with the customer, and the magalog is part of that,” Magness says.

Both mark’s DeStefano and Zappos’ Magness note that — like any full-color magazine — a magalog involves a substantial investment, which both companies think is worthwhile. “Each one has done its job in terms of driving customer acquisition or getting someone who has lapsed to purchase again,” Magness says.

Both companies have tracked sales of featured products directly to the magalogs. Zappos.com tracks which products recipients buy, how much they spend and whether they purchased only from a particular magalog’s featured category or crossed over into other areas.

And both companies plan to continue to use magalogs. “For an online retailer, a magalog might seem kind of yesterday,” Magness says. “But it’s a great way to engage with customers we haven’t been able to attract with other methods.”

DeStefano agrees. “It’s an amazing vehicle for engaging customers and sharing your products — and beyond that, what your brand stands for,” she says.

Quick Look

Brand Name: mark
Founded: 2003
Line of business: Direct seller of beauty products, apparel and accessories
Scope: 300-plus trend-driven makeup, skin care, fragrance and accessory products
Target: Women aged 18 to 34
Marketing mix: Magalogs, social networking sites, blogs, print ads, pop up retail, digital media

Company Name: Zappos.com Inc.
Founded: 1999
Line of business: Online retailer of shoes and clothing, among others
Scope: About 1,200 brands; more than 3.2 million individual products
Target: Upwardly mobile women who are experienced catalog shoppers
Marketing mix: Web site, television, catalogs, magalogs
Annual revenues: More than $1 billion in gross merchandise sales

Customers Want Custom Pubs

Consumers may be bombarded with marketing messages these days, but that doesn’t mean they’ve tuned out. In fact, consumers are more interested than ever in hearing from companies — provided that information comes in the form of a custom publication, such as a magalog or catazine.

A recent Custom Publishing Council poll shows consumers are increasingly attracted to these marketing methods because they include useful information:

68% say it helps them make better purchasing decisions when companies provide product information through custom publications.

78% don’t mind sponsors selling their products and services through custom publications — as long as the information is interesting.

74% say getting information from an interesting collection of articles is more appealing than getting information from ads.

59% read print custom publications, whereas only 36 percent look through electronic custom publications. The message seems clear: If you want to get consumers’ attention, send them your message in the form of interesting and useful information. Oh, and make sure it’s printed.

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 Natalie Engler

A year ago, green was the new black. Eco-conscious marketing became nearly ubiquitous as a growing number of brands sought ways to promote earth-friendly products and initiatives.

Now these same companies face economic challenges. So are they still as committed to reducing their carbon footprints? Or is green something that they can only justify when the bottom line — and the chief financial officer — will allow?

Well, according to green business experts and practitioners, sustainability has lost none of its relevance, despite the economic downturn. Companies like IBM, Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay, a business unit of PepsiCo., are staying the course on green (downturn be damned!) with sweeping initiatives that they hope will earn them a reputation as environmental stewards of the new era, and perhaps even help them thrive through and beyond the recession.

“Green can make sense when times are tough, even because times are tough,” asserts Joel Makower, executive editor of Greenbiz.com. It turns out that going green creates efficiencies that let corporations cut prices — very effective in a recession — as well as differentiate their brand and find new hooks for gaining customers.

Using Green to Capture Efficiencies

As green efforts become increasingly mainstream and economies of scale develop, cost savings are inevitable. And, especially in a down market, it’s important for companies to pass those on — and play them up — to the consumer.

Value players, like Wal-Mart, are proving especially adept at this, not only by putting more affordable environmentally friendly products on the shelves and introducing private-label green products, but by holding suppliers accountable for their environmental practices. Christi Davis Gallagher, senior manager, PR and brand reputation at Wal-Mart, says despite the recession the retailer is definitely not cutting back on investing in its sustainability initiative. “In fact, we are accelerating and broadening,” she says.

Wal-Mart’s Earth Month marketing efforts included print ads for 10 green products for under $10 and “rollbacks” on eco-friendly products. The upshot is that consumers no longer have to spend a premium to have a positive environmental effect.

“At a time when shoppers around the world are watching every penny, this is the time to save money and save the planet — two goals that work together,” says Matt Kistler, Wal-Mart’s senior vice president of sustainability, in a recent press release.

Even some business-to-business companies, like IBM, see the recession as an opportunity to help customers lower costs and increase their efficiency while reducing their carbon footprint. “The economic climate has heightened interest in green,” says Rich Lechner, vice president of energy and the environment. “Our clients recognize the benefits of sustainability, which can be operational, economical and environmental. Being green can also open up new markets and opportunities for new products and services in a marketplace where sustainability is valued.”

Green is an important dimension of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative, which launched in November. The thinking behind Smarter Planet is that individuals, businesses and institutions have a unique opportunity to change the way the world works. For the first time in history, technology is available to make almost any system digitally instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.

Linking green to health pays off with consumers

As brands seek to increase loyalty in a tough market, some have found that you can win by showing your customers that green is good for them.

When market research in 2006 revealed that people who care about their personal health also care about the planet, SunChips, a Frito-Lay brand, engaged in a multimillion-dollar initiative to promote both health benefits to its consumers, says SunChips marketing director Thomas Oh.

Oh and his staff seek to marry the chips’ health benefits — 18 grams of whole grain and zero trans fat — with the company’s dedication to the health of the environment. Marketing campaigns play off the product’s nature-related name and describe the company’s sustainability investments, including a facility in Modesto, Calif., using solar energy in manufacturing, compostable packaging and a $1 million donation to tornado-devastated Greensburg, Kan.

Gwynne Rogers of the Natural Marketing Institute says the strategy is a good one — and one that other brands can use to their advantage. “If consumers are feeling pinched, but still care about the environment, there’s sometimes a tension,” she says. But while consumers might think twice about paying more for something that’s recycled, they are less likely to sacrifice their personal well-being or that of their family. Green cleaning products, for example, are now being sold as safer for the home, the kids and the pet. “People are loath to sacrifice their health, even in times of recession,” Rogers says.

Differentiating the brand

Of course, it helps to be a little creative around your green marketing efforts as a way of making your brand stand out.

IBM has extended the Smarter Planet initiative beyond the usual corporate customers by targeting individuals, students, activists, housewives, government employees and others with a series of short-essay newspaper advertisements (dubbed “op-ads”) on weighty topics like how advances in technology can help manage the planet’s water supply, reduce traffic congestion and build a smarter electrical grid.

The company also launched a series of jams — brainstorming sessions — that invite people from around the world to get together for collective problem solving. And, in partnership with two technology innovation advocacy organizations, IBM is sponsoring a “Congestion Challenge” to identify innovative ideas for combating transportation congestion. The competition is open to entrepreneurs, commuters and researchers in all fields. The winner, who will be announced in September 2009, will receive a cash investment of $50,000, along with development and implementation support for the idea.

The SunChips team also has been very creative when it comes to having marketing efforts emphasize the green theme while improving sales in the process. The company promoted its compostable bags with an online video and TV spot showing them decompose, coupled with print ads that had a tear-off sample of the packaging for people to put in their own compost bins to test the claims.

To drive home the snack’s relationship to the sun, marketers developed a solar-powered billboard with cutouts of letters that spell SunChips suspended above the billboard. When the sun’s rays hit the letters, a shadow of the brand name is cast upon the face of the billboard.

The SunChips brand also teamed up with National Geographic to sponsor a contest that invited people to share their “Green Idea” — an environmentally friendly project that would help their local environment and community. Five winners each received a $20,000 cash prize to be used toward executing their green ideas.

To promote the contest, called Green Effect, the companies set up a dedicated Web site at which entrants could submit 250-word essays describing their ideas. To generate traffic, the company mailed promotional flyers to earth-friendly organizations based in cities on the National Geographic “25 Greenest Cities” list. People in those organizations posted the flyers and distributed them to individuals in the community — in essence, doing the company’s direct marketing for it. The competition generated more than 2,500 ideas.

All of that creative marketing has not only increased environmental awareness and fostered specific action, but it also has helped SunChips become one of the fastest-growing snack brands at Frito-Lay.

Saving the planet and producing results while weathering the most challenging economic environment in decades — that’s what green marketing is all about.

Quick Look

Despite the economy, there’s good reason to keep your marketing focused on green:

• Efficiencies: Companies like Wal-Mart are finding going green can save money.
• Loyalty: Green efforts are helping SunChips retain customers.
• Differentiating your brand: IBM and others have found that being green is a way to make your brand stand out.

Consumers Stay the Green Course

No matter what you do with your company, it’s clear that green issues are of increasing importance to consumers. Nearly seven in 10 Americans (67 percent) agree that “even in tough economic times, it is important to purchase products with social and environmental benefits,” and half (51 percent) say they are “willing to pay more” for them, according to the 2009 BBMG Conscious Consumer Report. That’s a compelling reason not to cut back on your green efforts, and an indication as to why companies that don’t might have a tougher time pulling themselves out of the recession.

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.

New study shows that the time-honored promotion remains a solid marketing tool in tough times

Amid the worst recession in decades, we hardly need a survey to tell us that the majority of Americans are looking for bargains. But a recent study by Pitney Bowes turned up interesting findings about consumer attitudes toward promotional items in the digital age.

Chiefly, the survey found that more than three-quarters of consumers still prefer to receive their coupons in their mailbox. E-mail was consumers’ second preference for coupon distribution, newspaper inserts third.

Also striking was response to promotional mailings. According to the study, a DMNews survey sponsored by Pitney Bowes, receiving information in the mail prompted 37 percent of consumers to purchase a new brand or patronize a new business, while 68 percent were prompted to renew a brand or business relationship. “This (survey) is more validation of the continued strength of direct mail and, specifically, coupons,” says John Schloff, vice president of business development at Pitney Bowes Mailing Solutions.

Other findings: Respondents said their most important consideration for redeeming a coupon is the level of discount. Consumers expect at least a 10-percent discount from coupons mailed to them. And they are most likely to use coupons for grocery purchases and least likely to use them on furniture.
— Samar Farah

Customized mailings help a New England car dealership nudge sales higher

By Bruce Britt

When customers walk into a Prime Motor Group auto dealership to check out its vehicles, they may not drive off with a new car — but they haven’t heard the last of the dealership’s pitch either.

Rather, as part of an aggressive follow-up campaign, Prime Motor dealerships get their messages back in front of customers within days, this time in the form of a cutting-edge and highly personalized mailing that is winning rave reviews for its immediacy and detail — and winning the dealership business with its savvy.

Indeed, at a time when many companies are slashing their marketing due to economic uncertainty, Prime Motor franchises are raising the ante on their direct mail investment. Along the way, the Massachusetts dealership group is proving that smart and consistent customer communications, not fewer, can offer businesses distinct advantages over competitors too skittish to maintain vigorous marketing efforts.

Dubbed the “Thank You for Visiting” campaign, the Prime Motor effort centers on a 5 1/2-by-8-inch postcard that the franchise mails to prospective customers within days of their visit to one of the import dealership’s showrooms or its Web site. Made of heavy, high-gloss stock, the card naturally features the prospect’s name, a minimum for customized mailings. But in an even deeper dive into the personalization pool, the card also provides the names, contact information and photos of the specific salesperson who pitched the prospect and of the sales manager who assisted. Further, the card includes a photo of the exact model, color included, that the mail recipient test drove (or showed interest in online) and a savings coupons for that particular auto.

The card bears a message from a Prime Motor Group general manager: “Thank you for your recent visit to our dealership. I hope you found your sales consultant to be helpful and informative. I want you to know that we are committed to providing you with a buying and ownership experience truly ‘like no other.’” The message concludes with direct contact info and an invitation for the customer to call or e-mail with any questions, comments or suggestions.

When the franchise implemented the campaign, the idea was to make deeper inroads into the finicky Boston luxury car market and to reinforce brand perception of Prime Motor as an industry leader. “We’re trying to give that customer some enticement to return to the dealership and make a purchase,” says Anthony Monteiro, former director of business development at Prime Motor Group and the brains behind the “Thank You” campaign. “It’s absolutely an attempt to establish a relationship and trust, but it’s also an attempt to wow the customer, to receive this postcard and basically run in the house and say, ‘Holy mackerel! Look at this!’”

DMA strengthens efforts to give mail recipients more choices

List Hygiene

By: Chris Caggiano

As part of its ongoing effort to enhance consumer control over marketing mail and e-mail, the Direct Marketing Association has created an enhanced mail-preference-suppression initiative, DMAchoice. The technology enables consumers to go online to opt into or out of mail based on company, brand or entire categories.

The effort also is a key reason why DMA officials insist that Do Not Mail legislation is unnecessary. In 2008, 12 state legislatures had 15 Do Not Mail bills under consideration, including seven states that carried bills over from 2007 and five dealing with newly introduced proposals.

The DMA has expressed concern that the bills could threaten the more than $702 billion in increased sales that advertising mail contributed to the U.S. economy in 2008.

“DMAchoice is about empowering consumers to identify what they like and do not like,” says Senny Boone, DMA’s senior vice president, corporate & social responsibility. “It allows marketing professionals to do their jobs more efficiently, and that’s good for both consumers and marketers.” For more information, visit dmachoice.org.

By: Paula Andruss

Reaching out to your current customer base while tapping into new prospects can be a tricky endeavor for any marketer. Executing such a campaign cost-effectively is even more of a challenge, requiring innovative thinking and a strategic media plan.

So when premium scented-candle manufacturer and retailer Yankee Candle Company sought to both acquire new purchasers and bring its current customer base back into its stores, the company challenged Valassis, one of the nation’s leading marketing services companies, to come up with a plan. The solution was a media strategy that combined precise consumer targeting with a nontraditional media mix of freestanding inserts in both mail and newspapers.

According to Yankee Candle officials, the integrated program reached the right target audience, increasing new customers by more than 15 percent and boosting the average purchase by more than 10 percent. The successful campaign also delivered an impressive ROI of more than 300 percent. “Our main goal was customer acquisition,” said Heidi Partain, director of retail marketing for the candle maker, based in South Deerfield, Mass. “We use mail for catalogs and customer relationship marketing, and those are all one-to-one customer interactions with a known mailing list. But to get a cost-effective customer acquisition, you need to go to the folks you don’t go to today.”

Yankee Candle chose to test the integrated media program in the Boston market, the company’s strongest geographic sector. Roughly 1.2 million die-cut inserts ran in four separate shared mail and newspaper drops during the holiday season. The offer was $10 off any in-store or online purchase of $25 or more.

Therese Mulvey, vice president of marketing intelligence for Valassis, explained that the approach combined shared mail, a lower-cost way to employ direct mail initiatives, with optimal sub-ZIP™ code coverage of Yankee Candle’s target retail demographic. The candle manufacturer generally defines its core audience as women ages 24 to 45 with children at home, a higher than median household income and interest in home décor.

“We used their customer database to look at the geography around their Boston locations and decide, based on the penetration of the newspaper, where to use newspaper inserts and where to use shared mail inserts,” Mulvey added. “We did it on a sub-ZIP code level, which allowed Yankee Candle to optimize both its spend and the coverage of its target audience.”

Identifying and understanding that audience was crucial to allowing Yankee Candle to find additional shoppers who might be similar to its core customer base, said Partain.

“There are people out there who are potential customers who we’re not currently talking to, and the best way to figure out who they are is to find those who look a whole lot like our current customer base, and give them an easy reason to try us,” she added.

That detailed front-end analysis allowed Yankee Candle to reliably reach its current customers as well as extend the offer to those customers’ mothers, sisters, friends and neighbors.

“Because we have a strong data set and a strong relationship with Valassis we could look specifically at our customers — what they look like and where they live — and then say, ‘Three houses down is another woman who looks a whole lot like her and isn’t on our list, so let’s find that woman,’” Partain explained. “You can’t do that if you’re only dealing with the syndicated information or only dealing with your own internal data; you have to have collaboration to get there.”

Mulvey added, “We were able to take the company’s data and then find look-alikes — new people for them to talk to. We have a lot of capability to find look-alikes at a neighborhood level and target them at a sub-ZIP code level. It’s not as expensive as targeting at a household level, and at the same time it eliminates duplication and waste.”

Once those potential customers were found, the integration of shared mail and newspaper distribution was an innovative and effective way to make sure the insert and an offer made its way to them.

“We used newspaper and mail because they were the right mechanisms to get us where we wanted to go,” stated Partain. “The program is not focused on where we are; it’s focused on where the customer is.”

This particular media mix also allowed Yankee Candle to allocate mail and newspaper inserts based on the local market. For example, some areas would use a bigger proportion of newspaper inserts because these areas typically have a higher newspaper readership. In other areas, however, shared mail inserts were more effective because those customers were less likely to see them in the paper.

“It’s a pretty data-intensive process, and you have to be willing to change your media mix to suit the market,” commented Partain. “In New Hampshire we had a different blend of newspapers and mail than we did in Cape Cod. The customers are different and their consumption rates are different, so we had to be willing to break the mold of doing all or none to get to that blend. That worked for us, because it let us go where the customer is.”

Once they were reached, customers responded in droves. The program has been so successful that Yankee Candle is not only repeating it in Boston, but also expanding the campaign to new markets. Though the company is reluctant to give additional specifics about the campaign, Partain is confident that the campaign garnered a response rate that’s higher than both the industry average and the company norm. It also boosted retail activity, particularly coupon redemption, both online and in-store.

“Not only does this offer drive affordable new customer acquisition, it also drives a higher ticket for existing customers,” Partain asserted. “We broke even very early and identified strong enough performance to exceed our return on investment goals and expand the program, too.”

The next generation of the campaign features a free-standing insert with a slightly different creative. The company plans to double the number of ad pieces it sent out last year as part of the program.

One thing that won’t change, however, is the blend of newspaper and mail, stated Partain.

“Targeting is what got us to those customers, the creative is what gave them the easy reason to come see us, and the integrated mix between newspaper and shared mail is the thing that made the return on investment work,” she explained. “Could we have reached all those customers if we went only through newspaper or only through mail? Probably. But our return on investment would have been significantly lower had we chosen all of one or all of the other.”