Marketing

The latest Mokrynski Catalog Industry Update indicates that well over 80% of mailers had met or exceeded their holiday 2004 numbers, says Steve Tamke, senior vice president for Hackensack, NJ-based list services firm MokrynskiDirect. Indeed, with the exception of a brief soft period during September, 2004 produced encouraging results.

That said, during the past several years most mailers had reduced their prospecting efforts, instead increasing contacts to house file names. As a result, fewer

Direct marketers put a huge amount of time and money into examining, testing, analyzing, and fine-tuning their marketing on a campaign-by-campaign basis. The results of a single campaign are judged by response rates, average spend amounts, and often, the ROI generated by that campaign.

But less attention has been given to the long-term behavior of customers, says Don Austin, Ph.D., director of client strategy at Greenwich, CT-based list services firm Direct Media. In general, the amount of the first transaction predicts the amount of subsequent transactions. But Austin a variety of other variables can be used to segment customers into low long-term value and high long-term value groups.

When the 109th Congress convened in Washington on Jan. 4, catalogers received some encouraging news. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) wasted no time in reintroducing the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (H.R. 22), which calls for postal reform.

After six years of selling to both consumers and businesses, Portland, ME-based Planet Dog is putting its consumer catalog in hibernation for a year.