Circulation Theory, Part 4

Yesterday we came up with our circulation grid ... predictions for each page count and circulation depth cell.

Then I gave you cost and profit data.

• Cost of a 32 page catalog = $0.26 each.
• Cost of a 64 page catalog = $0.45 each.
• Cost of a 96 page catalog = $0.59 each.
• Cost of a 128 page catalog = $0.71 each.
• Cost of a 160 page catalog = $0.85 each.
• 38% of your $-per-book converts to profit.

With this information, I asked you to calculate profit for every cell ... which of course is a straight-forward exercise.

This is the process that smart companies go through to know what the best strategy is for any in-home date. We had these grids for our mailings at Eddie Bauer way back in 1998 ... two decades ago for crying out loud!!

Ok, let's offer you one final quiz question ... which mailing strategy is "right", based on the dollar-per-book table and the profit table? Strong hint - the answer should not be straighforward, and if you think the answer is straightforward, spend more time thinking about what the data tells you!!