Two years ago, when U.S.-born Jennifer Grimes founded Dublin-based home products catalog Grimes & Co., Ireland represented a mail order frontier. “I had no way of researching the mail order market and no empirical evidence to support my projections,” says Grimes, a Dublin resident since 1994.
Nonetheless, Grimes & Co. hit the mails late in 1997 with 12 pages, an initial circulation of 60,000, and plans to drop quarterly. “All my projections flew out the window in the first six months. It was a steep learning curve,” Grimes says. The task was further complicated by the scarcity of Irish mailing lists. “I still don’t rent other people’s mailing lists because I’m dubious about their effectiveness,” she says. The catalog has built up a list of 15,000 names – about half in the U.K. – largely from space ads in magazines. But free press has been the key advantage, Grimes says. “We’ve inserted the catalog in magazines, and we’ve run postcard promotions as well as placed ads in targeted magazines,” yet it’s editorial mentions in magazines like Vogue and Elle that have boosted business. Although the catalog doesn’t have a toll-free number, customer have no problem paying for the call, she says.
Creating a book that stood out from others was fairly easy in the largely untapped Irish catalog market. “Mail order here was typically a U.K.-based bargain clothing catalog,” explains Grimes, while Grimes & Co. sells a high-end selection of home and garden products, from kites and toasters to linens and glassware.
The catalog’s launch coincides with Ireland’s booming economy. United Nations statistics show an average increase of 8.9% in Ireland’s real gross domestic product between 1994 and 1997 (compared to an average increase of only 3.1% in the U.K. and 3.0% in the U.S. during that span). Still, Grimes & Co.’s sales are less than $1 million.
To reach her goal of tripling the mailing list, Grimes will seek other investors in the next year, although she won’t reveal details. In the meantime, she plans to maintain the catalog’s quarterly mailing schedule, adding a post-holiday sale book. Grimes will also add furniture to the catalog over the next year, another reason to increase the house file. “When you’re selling big-ticket items, you have to have enough of a customer base to know you’ll move them.”