Hillstrom's Personas + Hillstrom's Catalog Marketing PhD

Well, the most popular project request right now is a combination of both booklets.

In Hillstrom's Personas, we tackle the task of determining the target audience for catalogs and email marketing campaigns.

• Print (color) on Amazon, $14.95.
• Amazon Kindle, $4.95.
• Or read various content on the blog, for free.

Do you remember when I used to talk about "the organic percentage", the percentage of demand that is generated independent of catalog marketing?  Well, that research from 2009 - 2011 became the basis for Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine, the three ladies we've been talking about for the past three months.

Many CEOs/EVPs are now asking to combine the concepts in Hillstrom's Personas and Hillstrom's Catalog Marketing PhD (Print for $7.95, Kindle for $2.99).

Good idea!


Remember, in our Catalog Marketing PhD framework, customers are evaluated as follows:

• Likelihood of Buying, Next 12 Months.
• Amount Spent, Next 12 Months.
• % of Total Demand Catalog Driven, Next 12 Months.

By multiplying each of the three metrics above, we arrive at the amount of demand, annually, that is driven by catalog marketing.  Then we run a profit and loss statement at each level of catalog marketing investment, grading customers as follows:

• A = Mail MORE Often!
• B = Mail 7 to maximum number of in-home dates, per year.
• C = Mail 3-7 times per year, on average.
• D = Mail 1-3 times per year.
• F = Mail 0-1 times per year.

Many of my larger clients ask me to predict the actual number of catalogs to mail to each individual customer ... and to predict the actual number of email campaigns to deliver to a customer, on an annual basis.  We get some very interesting results when we do this!

The result of these projects is about $1,000,000 of annual profit for a $100,000,000 catalog business ... maybe $500,000 of annual profit for a $50,000,000 catalog business.

Sound good?  Sure it does!

Contact me now for your own customized project (click here please).

Sevenly.org

In Hillstrom's Personas, we talk a lot about Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine, right?

• Purchase Kindle version, $4.95.

Well, each persona is aligned with various business models.

Give Sevenly.org a visit ... go ahead, I'll wait while you take a look at the website.

Justin Palmer mentioned on Twitter that 70% of new customers are sourced from Facebook.  Justin is the Marketing Director at Sevenly, so he is probably a reliable source for this metric.  He also tweeted the following sentence to me ... "Facebook can be used to drive sales, most brands just don't know how."

Now, pretend that you are Chicos.  Take a look at their online demographic profile (click here).  Does anybody honestly believe that Chicos could drive even one or two percent of total online sales via Facebook?  Why would a 61 year old woman go to Facebook first, then make a decision to purchase something online at Chicos?

Judy is not going to buy something because of Facebook.

Jennifer is going to hunt for the best products and the best prices and the best promotions.  If Facebook is part of that equation, she'll use it.  If Facebook is not part of that equation, Jennifer will still accomplish her mission, she won't be stopped.

Jasmine fully expects social and mobile to be built into her experience.  If you target Jasmine, it should not be a surprise that 70% of new customers come in via Facebook.


Marketing channels are not the issue, the issue is the target customer.  If you target Judy, don't expect Facebook to make a dent.  If you target Jasmine, don't expect old-school methods to work as well as they work when marketing to Judy.

Hillstrom's Personas!!!!

Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine have made a difference!


For three months, we've talked about how our wonderful ladies define the future of marketing.  We have Judy, a traditional shopper who still adores catalogs.  We have Jennifer, an online maven trained to adore free shipping.  And we have Jasmine, the future of marketing, a social/mobile/local shopper with limited funds.


Now, our thoughts are captured in a fifty-eight page booklet titled "Hillstrom's Personas"!!


There are three ways to learn about Hillstrom's Personas.

1. Purchase a color booklet on Amazon, $14.95 (to be available in the next few days).
2. Purchase the Kindle version, $4.95 (available right now).
3. Read older blog posts for free.

Of course, you'll want the souvenir, right?

This has been the most popular series ever written on this blog.  In some ways, it represents a unifying theory ... there's room for catalog marketing to matter (Judy), there's room for online marketing to matter (Jennifer), and there's room for social/mobile/local to matter (Jasmine).  We reinforce the concept of segmenting an audience.  We reinforce the concept of applying a relevant strategy to a target audience.  We reinforce the notion that product matters.

If you're walking in to an Executive meeting and you want ammunition for explaining why your direct mail program doesn't work, or why your Twitter presence only has 339 followers, bring a copy of "Hillstrom's Personas" to the meeting ... heck, have a copy ready for everybody in the room!