Mailing to Gays and Lesbians

| MCM staff

Mainstream marketers looking for new sources of names should consider the gay and lesbian marketplace. According to Jon Pogact, vice president of Brewster, NY-based list firm Mal Dunn Associates, the gay and lesbian population accounted for more than $485 billion in buying power in 2003. That amounts to $27,000 per person in disposable personal income after taxes.

Marketing to gays and lesbians presents some interesting challenges, however. For starters, while there are more than 15 million identified gays and lesbians in the U.S., only about a third of those names are available for rent or exchange.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Predictive Modeling

| MCM staff

It’s no secret that many catalogers use historical customer information to create elaborate predictive models. But Scott Nuernberger, lead statistician for Lanham, MD-based database marketing services firm Merkle Direct Marketing, says that without a prior plan to influence customer behavior, all the modeling wizardry in the world will fail.

Links

| MCM staff

J. Schmid & Associates A full-service provider of catalog creative solutions, catalog marketing strategy and execution, catalog analysis and planning, catalog consulting and comprehensive catalog development services. Lewis Enterprises Herschell Gordon …

Acing a paper test

| MCM staff

Paper represents more than 25% of a cataloger’s budget, notes Michael Carton, director of print production for New York-based AGA Catalog Marketing and

Still waiting for mail

| Sherry Chiger

Remember how a few months ago the industry cheered a return to increased circulation? We might have celebrated a bit too soon. This past October, Catalog

Workplace What’s New

| MCM staff

Flip-Floppers It seems that people just can’t make up their minds about the U.S. employment outlook. In a survey of more than 8,000 consumers, BIGresearch

NEW WEB CATALOGS

| Heather Retzlaff

Plumpstocking Stockings and stocking stuffers have always been big in Kathleen Vignos’s family. That’s why the former technology and software consultant