State of the catalog marketing industry--Direct Marketing, Mail Order, Direct Mail, Television and Infomercial Marketing, E-commerce News

Direct Marketing, Mail Order, and E-commerce News from the National Mail Order Association

====================================================
Newsletter Sponsor

16th Annual 'State of the Catalog Industry'
62% of Respondents Use Catalogs as Primary Sales Channel

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) released the “State of the Catalog Industry, 2008 edition.” Now in its 16th year, the report has continued to evolve since its first publication. There have been numerous changes in technology, techniques, and the industry as a whole. DMA’s survey and report has changed accordingly, although its purpose to present baseline metrics for companies who sell goods to consumers and businesses from a remote location, has remained the same.

“Since the report’s inception, DMA has surveyed and benchmarked the catalog industry as it has expanded from a single channel to the multichannels we see today,” said Anna Chernis, senior research manager. “Because of DMA’s consistent approach, we are able to present trend data over the last three to five years regarding multichannel issues, and have enhanced the overall value of the report with the participation of Abacus.”

This year, as well as last year, Abacus has participated in this report by providing a detailed analysis of the billions of transactional records from 100 million households in their Abacus Alliance database, summarized in the report’s Appendix.

“Most of our respondents continue to use catalogs as their dominant or secondary channel of marketing and sales,” continued Chernis. “And our data suggests a consensus among successful marketers that there are consistent and integrated standards across all channels, as virtually all use some form of Internet marketing to supplement their catalog channel.”

DMA’s report contains four chapters on the following topics: Profile of Respondents and Industry Overview; Multichannel Marketing Practices; Sales Results and Strategies; and Circulation Statistics. It is also broken down by three segmentations: expertise (survey participants rated their own level of expertise in multichannel practices — beginner, intermediate, or expert); revenue size of the company (three revenue subgroups were created — small companies up to $10 million; medium $11 to $250 million; large $251 million or more); and type of market (three primary market break outs — businesses, consumers, or both equally).

Additionally, the 2008 report revealed:

· The paper catalog is still the largest revenue generator among all channels with an average of nearly 50% of sales in both 2007 and 2008, although web sales continue to grow.

· Survey respondents experienced increase in sales in 2007 and expect increases in 2008.

· There was a large increase in circulation from 2003 to present, likely a result of more companies using catalogs to drive web business.

· With the catalog industry using more than one channel to sell their products, almost 90 percent of respondents track response rates for online buyers separately from offline buyers, compared to around 60 percent in 2005 and 2006.

· When asked which media respondents use to cross-sell offline buyers online, in addition email promotions and web offers, 32 percent of respondents also use search marketing.

· 50 percent of all respondents report they have fully integrated marketing functions, but between 60 and 70 percent of respondents report being fully integrated in operational, consumer facing functions.

DMA conducted this survey in April and May of 2008 through an email invitation sent to multichannel companies, including catalog, retail, and internet merchants. When the survey was closed, 106 respondents were included for tabulation.
###

How Do You Ensure Growth in a Multichannel World? Is Your Strategy Solid?

DMA’s new State of the Catalog Industry report acts as your roadmap for best practices and will help you improve channel integration to provide a unified user experience.

You’ll find updated benchmarks and new trends in:

* Marketing Practices
* Channel Integration
* Cross-Selling
* Circulation

This new edition marks the 16th consecutive year that DMA has surveyed and benchmarked the catalog industry. During that time, the emphasis has adapted with the multichannel nature of industry from a catalog only focus to dual-channel (Internet) and some triple channel (catalog/retail/Internet).

This report will answer some of your most pressing questions:

* Which channel is producing the largest proportion of revenue?
* Which factors influence sales and which influence circulation?
* What percentage of respondents increased the number of pages in their catalog in the past year?
* Which marketing and operational functions are integrated across multiple channels and which are not?
* And much more!

What's New?

* This edition presents the most updated trend data and analysis and breaks down respondents by market size, type, and expertise.
* A special summary report from Abacus is included based on hundreds of millions of transactions from over a million households

The report is available by calling 612-788-4197 The cost is $445.00
###

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents nearly 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2007, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $173.2 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $2.025 trillion in incremental sales. In 2007, direct marketing accounted for 10.2 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2007, there were 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported nearly 9.0 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.6 million US jobs.

Newsletter Sponsors