ACCM 2008: Lehman's Country Life And Lenser Marketing

Glenda Ervin, VP of Marketing at Lehman's, shared information about a blog that supports her business in a presentation hosted by Lenser Marketing.

The Blog: Lehman's Country Life.

The most popular question I fielded this week was "... how can I save money mailing catalogs to online shoppers?"

The second most popular question I fielded this week was "... does all that social media and blog stuff really work?"

I'll address the latter question in an upcoming post, illustrating how a small business generates leads via a blog.

And I will say this about Lenser Marketing. I often disagree with their views on Multichannel Issues. But they do take a leadership role on the topic, and they do a reasonable job of measuring multichannel issues. They deserve to be commended for that.

Their newsletter is also worth a read (click here for the Lenser Newsletter).

ACCM 2008: Channel Sales

Bill Bass of Fair Indigo shared a fact "... half of our online sales are driven by catalogs".

He also quoted the distribution of sales by channel.

We combine the two pieces of information for the following table:

Fair Indigo Sales Distribution
	Online	Catalog	Store
Channel Recording The Sale	70.0%	25.0%	5.0%
Channel Driving The Sale	35.0%	60.0%	5.0%

This is typical of many Multichannel Forensics projects I work on. It is popular to assume that catalogs drive 80% or more of online sales (via matchback analytics). Multichannel Forensics often illustrate trends comparable to those at Fair Indigo.

When this happens, there's cost-savings "a plenty" when executing catalog marketing to online customers.

ACCM 2008: Encouragement

I will say that the majority of the attendees I've spoken with have a certain pluckiness to them, a positive attitude.

Sure, there's some frustration and sarcasm. But by and large, folks have a general determination to persevere.

Most folks speaking with me about Multichannel Forensics projects are interested in mailing fewer catalogs to online customers. If a cataloger mailed twelve catalogs a year, they are looking to mail between four and eight catalogs to online customers, the full complement of twelve to pure catalog buyers using the telephone channel. Gone are the days of "Lands' End tried that in 1999 and it didn't work".

By and large, folks are talking about not saving money, but reinvesting it in various customer acquisition activities. Attendees learned plenty about online acquisition activities during the conference.

Whether it be green initiatives, huge increases in postage, third party opt-out services, or a lousy economy, the folks I spoke with are ready to take on challenges with a mostly cheerful attitude, are ready to begin the process of limiting mailings to those not interested in catalog marketing. A confluence of events appear to be moving multichannel folks down a path of advertising re-allocation, spending money online instead of in traditional print.

And some vendors are ready to help. Numerous exhibitors offered variable print solutions as well as print-to-digital conversion services. There is the possibility that catalogers will go beyond e-mail, using alternate digital technologies to communicate with customers interested in something beyond the static e-mail campaign.

Many other vendors appear to be struggling to "defend turf". Hearing that attendees are looking to cut catalog marketing expense, some vendors told me they are encouraging catalogers to not cut expense, but instead, mail catalogs smarter.

And all you e-mail bloggers and vendors, here's some encouragement for you --- you basically had no presence at this conference, in the exhibit hall or among hosted sessions. An industry looking to become more green, more digital, needs your help. You have an opportunity to help folks, I encourage you to get involved!

Many attendees talked about landing page merchandising --- sensing that customers are overwhelmed with choosing one item out of 248 that are available within a merchandise line. Landing page merchandising is highly correlated with catalog merchandising --- offering your best products and services, merchandised the way a customer likes to shop. One can see a future where catalog expertise transforms drill-down or search-based e-commerce. The combination of paid search and landing page merchandising is ideally suited for the direct marketers in attendance.

Many attendees told me that their focus is on "the brand", not "the catalog". This is a fundamental change from years past. Folks told me that customers feel connected to a brand that operates with honesty and integrity. A shift in focus appears to be in the early stages of development.

Overall, the attendees left me feeling encouraged about where things are heading. Three or four shocks to the system in the past year have some catalogers moving in new directions. That's encouraging!

ACCM 2008: Multichannel Marketing

I continue to sense a disconnect between the perception of multichannel marketing between conference attendees, and vendors.

An attendee told me that he likes testing different concepts in different advertising channels and different physical channels. Each channel offered unique opportunities for the customer.

A vendor told me that we must offer the same merchandise at the same price in all channels. Another vendor mentioned that all customers are multichannel customers.

A speaker told the audience that products should be available in all channels, then mentioned that various items are not advertised in catalog because you cannot afford to market all products.

A vendor told me that the vendor community must lead the attendees on this issue, because attendees struggle with the multi-dimensionality of this topic.

So many attendees shared unique quirks in their business model that require multichannel marketing strategies that are fundamentally different --- different by business, different across channels, different across price points.

I become more convinced that the attendees are actually ahead of the vendors on the topic of multichannel marketing. While vendors make theoretically accurate arguments about "silos", attendees deal with the realities of a world that doesn't easily accommodate sameness everywhere. Vendors may be accurate in wishing that brand better measure multichannel activities. Attendees appear much farther ahead in testing strategies without the constraint of "sameness".

ACCM 2008: Social Media

In one session, the speaker asked the audience of about one-hundred catalog/retail/online (aka Multichannel) marketers if they used Google Alerts to tell them when customers or other individuals were speaking about their brand.

Not one person raised their hand.

An attendee told me ... "I just don't understand this viral stuff. I'm supposed to just trust that customers will spread my message via word of mouth?" When we've been raised to push a message to customers, it isn't easy to trust that others will do the work for us, if the message is worthy of spreading.

Another attendee told me ... "We jumped all over e-commerce ten years ago. We're going to be the last to jump on social media."

This theme came up several times ... "Why would I plunge into social media when we can't even get the resources to manage our website properly?"

Monitoring your brand is free and it is easy. Assign one person the job of monitoring what folks are saying about your brand. Oftentimes, it is good to pick a gifted person in your contact center. These folks listen to customers every day. Change the focus of this person --- to listening to customers via social media instead of customer complaints submitted via existing channels.

The attendees who spoke with me suggest social media is down the list of priorities, but is high on the list of things to pay attention to. And that is a shame, given that monitoring social media is free, and participating only requires time.

More than anything else, I sensed that the attendees were so buried under other topics that social media represented another competing priority --- one that isn't guaranteed to generate a positive ROI.

And catalogers love generating positive ROI.

ACCM 2008: Changing Focus

It's been six years since I attended this conference. The range of speakers and topics changed over time.

• 23% of the sessions focused on circulation strategy and data.
• 21% of the sessions focused on multichannel marketing.
• 15% of the sessions focused on website design and website issues.
• 13% of the sessions focused on online marketing strategy and execution.
• 10% of the sessions focused on B2B marketing.
• 8% of the sessions focused on small businesses.
• 6% of the sessions focused on Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Rich Media.
• 4% of the sessions focused on e-mail marketing.

Less than a quarter of the sessions focused on pure catalog strategy.

The folks I spoke with, an albeit biased sample of catalog marketers, were generally interested in attributing online orders to catalog marketing, were interested in e-mail marketing (a disconnect with the sessions focusing on e-mail marketing), were interested in the interaction of marketing strategies that help create an order, and were interested in cutting catalog marketing expenses.

Attendees tell me of a disconnect. They are doing the things they've always done. They're mailing the same number of catalogs they've always mailed. But as illustrated in the content of the sessions above, they're required to know three times as much information as they used to have to know. Several folks communicated the stress of this situation to me --- they have sixty hours a week to do their old forty hour a week job plus the other one hundred and twenty hours of work that has been added. And then they have to listen to folks praise this new world as being "multichannel".

Vendors have an opportunity to help overwhelmed marketers manage this quagmire. The quagmire appears to be exhausting some attendees, turning still others somewhat sarcastic about the current trajectory of the industry.

ACCM 2008: Catalog Choice

As best I can tell, Catalog Choice was not in the exhibit hall.

Attendees overwhelmingly shared with me that they were willing to speak with or work with Catalog Choice --- only a few individuals expressed frustration with constant calls from Catalog Choice to accept opt-outs.

There may be folks from Catalog Choice who are in attendance, and I simply haven't run across them. I'd have loved to have seen the DMA have the courage to invite Chuck Teller of Catalog Choice to speak at this conference, allowing their message to be heard along with the message of self-regulation offered prior to the keynote address.

Overwhelmingly, attendees told me they wanted to do "what is right" for their customers.

ACCM 2008: Green Initiatives

We'll probably become tired of the concept of brands "going green" in the near future. Until then, there's tension in the air, as evidenced at the ACCM Conference today. Here's a summary of the competing forces I identified from my conversations.

• Third party opt-out services "imposing their will upon brands" or "representing the wishes of the customer", depending upon whom you survey. Solution = Third Party Opt-Out Service.
  

• Garden-variety employees want to "do what is right". Solution = Mail Fewer Catalogs and Use Eco-Friendly Paper.
  

• Business leaders who want to "do what is right" while "maintaining or growing sales" and not wanting outside forces "imposing their will" upon them. Solution = Use Eco-Friendly Paper and Replace Catalogs (see the vendor bullet point).

• The DMA wants self-regulation. Solution = "DMA IS GREEN" theme, using "DMA Choice" instead of third party opt-out services.
  

• Vendors want to use technology and analytics to "replace" catalogs ... meaning that you take catalogs away from the audience that hates them, giving them instead to customers who like them. Solution = Replace Catalogs and Use Digital Media To Replace Paper.

At the start of a movement, there are many camps, and many solutions. The audience today told me that we're at the start of a movement. It will be fun (and painful) to see how this evolves.

ACCM 2008: On The Ground

Within ninety seconds of entering the Gaylord Palms here in Orlando, I met a half-dozen folks that probably attended this conference in 1993.

This fact is going to be part of a theme I hope to explore over the next two days. How does an industry with deep roots and strong loyalty face adversity?

My goal is to share with you how real people deal with real multichannel problems. You won't hear an overview of keynote speeches, you won't read about glitzy products that promise to increase ROI by 243%. I will try my hardest to illustrate how human beings are dealing with an industry being assaulted by online pureplays, postage increases, co-op colonization, channel shift, declining response, economic woes, increased foreign labor costs, increased delivery costs, and the inclusion of third-party opt-out services to the business model.