Several weeks ago, I spoke with an Executive about online and catalog marketing strategy. The conversation went something like this:
Executive: I'm not sure you can help me. Heck, you probably haven't even requested a copy of my catalog, have you?
Kevin: No, but I visited your website.
Executive: See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. How can you possibly offer me useful insights if you haven't had a chance to thumb through my catalog?
Catalogers are different than other marketers. You don't see e-mail marketers walking around with printed copies of their favorite e-mail campaigns.
For some catalogers, the passion is about "the catalog", not "the product". And there's nothing wrong with that. I wish the e-mail, search, and general online marketing community had the level of passion and intensity that many catalogers have.
Next time you meet with a catalog executive, see if s/he asks if you want to take home a copy of the most recent catalog. If the executive gives you a copy of the catalog, see if the executive also asks you to visit the website.
This passion can blind catalogers. Sometimes, there's profit laying all around a cataloger, just waiting to be picked-up, if one is willing to look beyond the catalog.
Helping CEOs Understand How Customers Interact With Advertising, Products, Brands, and Channels
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Catalog QuickScores and Gift Buyers
One of the challenges faced by Catalog Brands is dealing with a Gift Buyer. A Category Development project shows that these customers are un...
-
It is time to find a few smart individuals in the world of e-mail analytics and data mining! And honestly, what follows is a dataset that y...
-
As is my tradition, I'm going to take a long weekend. No posts until early next week. I've been doing this for almost twenty years, ...
-
Sometimes you think "people already know this stuff". Sometimes you realize that Google Analytics give smart analysts almost no op...
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteWhat was your response to the executive? Mine would have been along lines of "Why should I, as a consumer, view your catalog? What separates it from the other catalogs I receive?"
He is obviously proud of his catalog, and his reply would give you something to work on==="how can you carry that same intended effect to other channels?"
K
For the most part, I shut down the conversation. We continue to be in an interesting transitional period for catalogers, folks have to want to listen to a message in order to hear the message.
ReplyDelete