After years of selling its footwear and apparel to retailers and in its own stores and Website, Timberland has launched a print catalog. The Stratham, NH-based company dropped 750,000 copies of a 32-page catalog on Nov. 8 to its existing database of offline and online customers.
“The catalog is designed to create awareness of our products and our brand while giving the consumers an easy shopping experience,” says Argu Secilmis, director of marketing, consumer direct. “We are a fourth-quarter brand, meaning we do well in winter and holiday season due to our rugged outdoor-driven products, and most of our competitors use catalogs as a commerce or as a marketing vehicle. We thought, Why not build both in one execution and try it out for fall 2006?” Timberland plans to drop the catalog twice a year, during the back-to-school and the fall/holiday seasons.
The target customer is what the company calls the “engager,” a casual outdoors-minded consumer, about 30 years old, and with an above-average income. Average order size is expected to be $75-$100 based on sales at Timberland’s stores and Website, says Secilmis. About 60% of the catalog items are geared to men, with the remainder for women.