The Lobby

You enter the lobby of a catalog brand. There are tables surrounded by leather chairs. On top of each table is a veritable plethora of recent mailings. The February catalogs is there, and the February remail is there as well, just in case the 80 pages in the February catalog didn't resonate with you.

Mabel is at the lobby desk. After you sign in, she gives you a name tag. Your contact (the Chief Merchandising Officer) arrives five minutes later. She asks you if you had a pleasant trip? She asks you if you enjoyed thumbing through the February Catalog? Then she hands you a copy of the March Catalog.

You ask how the mobile channel is performing? She stares at you like you have lice crawling through your hair.

• "There's not enough acreage on an iPhone screen to share the assortment my team curated via our March Catalog."

Later, when you ask why the core customer is 66 years old, you are told that the Marketing team "doesn't know what they're doing".

Your lobby says a lot about the channels that you prioritize. Do you make sure that every visitor downloads your app, or do you hand the visitor a copy of your catalog? How you answer the question says a lot about who you are as a brand.