Attention, retail store owners: Have you considered asking for merge/purge output counts broken out into trade areas versus non-trade areas by quantity using store zip codes?
Asking for this before you make your final mail selects will give you more control over your selections.
For example, a 36-month, one-time $10 to $49.99 buyer might not typically make your mail plan cutoff criteria because the recency, frequency, and monetary characteristics are not strong enough on their own.
However mailing trade area quantity from this segment might be successful if the catalog is used as a marketing tool to drive customers to your stores.
Perhaps only the trade area quantity will be mailed and the non-trade area quantity will be omitted.
Anna-Lisa Ulbrich is a Marketing Manager with San Rafael, CA-based catalog consultancy Lenser.