Take The Great Catalog Marketing Quiz!

Time for a little fun ... take the following quiz ... answers and grading are found at the end of the quiz.


Question 1: Are you ...

1. A merchant who uses catalogs to sell merchandise to customers.
2. A cataloger who uses merchandise to keep mailing catalogs.

Question 2: How old is your average customer?

1. Under the age of 55.
2. Age 55 or older.

Question 3: Do you take existing catalogs, change the cover and back page, then "remail" the catalog to the customer?

1. Yes.
2. No.

Question 4: When a customer purchases online, what do you do?

1. Match the order back to a catalog.
2. Dig into the marketing channels that caused a purchase, looking to optimize the marketing mix.

Question 5: When business is down 10% to plan, who gets the blame?

1. The person who created the plan.
2. The catalog.
3. The online marketing team.

Question 6: Your paper rep and your print vendor is ...

1. A trusted advisor.
2. A paper rep or a print vendor.

Question 7: When your co-op creates a new model, do you ...

1. Enthusiastically test the new model.
2. Question your co-op how they are using data from the new model to sell digital solutions that integrate your data with social / mobile activity from other companies.

Question 8: When a catalog is in-home on a Monday, do you ...

1. Measure catalog performance on an hourly basis.
2. Wait patiently for a month for results.

Question 9: Do you measure the profitability of your online marketing activities with the scrutiny that you measure the profitability of your catalog marketing activities.

1. Yes.
2. No.

Question 10: You probably have a report that tells you how many new customers you acquired in the past year. Do you have a report that tells you how many new items achieved best seller status in the past year?

1. Yes.
2. No.

Question 11: You have three managers. Which manager is most likely to be promoted to the Vice President of Marketing position next year?

1. Manager of Catalog Circulation.
2. Manager of Online Marketing.
3. Manager of Mobile / Social / Community Strategies.
4. We don't have a Manager of Mobile / Social / Community Strategies.

Question 12: When we attend NEMOA, we attend NEMOA because ...

1. Of the parties and the people we get to see.
2. Because the content is better than what you see at Shop.org, Internet Retailer, or the DMA Conference.

Question 13: If the cost of postage were to increase by 15% in 2015, what would you be most likely to do?

1. Yell about how messed-up our Government is, then accept the cost increase as a "cost of doing business" while publicly stating that the USPS is putting you out of business.
2. Re-engineer the catalog strategy with fewer pages per contact, less circulation in prospecting, and reduced circulation to marginal housefile customers.
3. Move toward an online-marketing-centric business model.

Question 14: What is your "go-to" source for new customers?

1. Online Marketing.
2. Co-Ops.

Question 15: If you spend a half-hour in a one-hour meeting talking about catalog marketing issues, how much time do you spend talking about email marketing issues in the same meeting?

1. A half-hour.
2. Five minutes to a half-hour.
3. Less than five minutes.

Question 16: Which website are you more likely to frequent?

1. DMNews.
2. re/code.

Question 17: Which strategy is most appealing to you?

1. Adapting your merchandising assortment to aging baby boomers.
2. Adapting your merchandising assortment to appeal to the children of baby boomers.

Question 18: What is more important to you?

1. The merchandise featured on the first spread of the catalog.
2. The merchandise featured on your home page.

Question 19: What is more important to you?

1. Deciding whether a catalog will be 64 pages, or 68 pages.
2. Deciding what merchandise to feature on key landing pages.

Question 20: In the future, a cataloger will ...

1. Convince today's 45 year old shopper on Amazon to embrace catalog marketing.
2. Evolve and change.

Ok, go ahead and tally up your point total ... here are the points earned per response.

Question 1: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 2: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 3: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 4: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 5: 1 = 0 points, 2 = 5 points, 3 = 2 points.

Question 6: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 7: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 8: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 9: 1 = 0 points, 2 = 5 points.

Question 10: 1 = 0 points, 2 = 5 points.

Question 11: 1 = 3 points, 2 = 2 points, 3 = 1 point, 4 = 5 points.

Question 12: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 13: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 2 points, 3 = 0 points.

Question 14: 1 = 0 points, 2 = 5 points.

Question 15: 1 = 0 points, 2 = 2 points, 3 = 5 points.

Question 16: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 17: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 18: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 19: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Question 20: 1 = 5 points, 2 = 0 points.

Now, how many points did you earn?

• A = 90 or more points. You are a die-hard cataloger who will defend your craft to the last days of catalog marketing. You have a set of skills that are likely unparalleled in today's marketplace. You should have your own exhibit at the Catalog Hall of Fame, located just outside of Rutland, Vermont.
• B = 80 to 89 points. You are a strong cataloger who thoroughly believes in the craft. You are going to adapt to changes by finding ways to make catalogs relevant.
• C = 70 to 79 points. Your catalog marketing passion is very high, but you have a toe in the online marketing world. If anything, you might be labeled an "omnichannel" marketer, with catalogs at the core of the customer experience.
• D = 50 to 69 points. Still a catalog marketer at your core, you can clearly see that the world is changing, and you are interested in taking your company and customer on a journey into the future.
• F = 0 to 49 points. You are a marketer, not a cataloger. You care about merchandise, selling, and profit.

How did you do? Why not leave a comment with your score, and your opinion of the quiz?