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Are You Sending Unnecessary Mail?
August 14, 2008

I just received a catalog from Duluth Trading Company, and while I really enjoy looking through these catalogs, I don’t understand why they keep sending them to me. Don’t get me wrong. I love their products, their descriptions crack me up, and I do purchase from the company. I just do it at Christmas, when I’m looking for unusual gifts for all the men in my family.

The cataloger knows this—it’s in their database. I’m a predictable, consistent shopper because I exhibit this pattern every year. These are 115-page, four-color catalogs. Paper is going up. Postage is going up. Good grief, but gas is doubled over one year ago. Yet, they continue to send me catalogs they ought to know that I’m not going to purchase from, filling up the landfill and driving down their margins.

I wonder, how much might the company save by doing a little customer profiling? Dust off that database. What is the profile of the customer who purchases from them most often? What is the profile of the customer who purchases the most by dollar volume?

What if they sent those “best” customers catalogs four times a year, but for the rest of us casual gift shoppers, they cut back to twice per year? Or send slimmer booklets of only the most popular products? How would that impact the bottom line? I wonder if the company has even thought about it?

How about you? Are you sending out unnecessary mail?

Have questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at htollvr@aol.com. For more information on primers for marketers and small businesses on digital, 1:1, and Web-to-print technologies, visit www.digitalprintingreports.com.

Posted by Heidi Tolliver Nigro on August 14, 2008 | Comments (0)