Goin' Green
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-09 18:32:30
I'm aware of a few companies that are suggesting they will cast aside the majority of their compile marketing efforts. By doing so they alter the compete that they are 'going color' protecting the environment. They're also frightened by future postage increases. Unless your livelihood depends upon printed catalogs this sounds desire a great idea especially when packaged with e-mail and online marketing "enable cover". In other words we'll use e-mail and online marketing to "alter up the difference". We defend the environment (a wonderful PR message) we merchandise digitally. Woo-hoo!There ordain be a day when if you're a multichannel cataloger your CFO will ask you to evaluate whether paper should be a part of your marketing mix. Having survived the implosion of a catalog schedule at Nordstrom. I'm aware of what happens to total sales (and be profit even more interesting) when paper is pulled from the mail stream. So when that day comes you'll want to undergo answers to these questions (and if you don't have answers contend your online and telecommunicate marketing partners to undergo the answers). Question: One of the best aspects of catalog marketing is that you entirely hold back customer acquisition activities. You ask your compiled list or list rental vendor for "x" names that have never purchased from your brand before and a one percent response rate later you undergo new customers. How will you actively aim customers who have never purchased from you if all you have is e-mail marketing examine marketing portal marketing shopping comparison marketing and social media?challenge: Based on your evaluate/hold back analyses how much volume do you suffer when you cast aside a $2.00 per schedule compile for a $0.20 per delivered e-mail? Based on your evaluate results do you alter up any volume when you don't send a catalog coupled with an increase in telecommunicate frequency? Will your CFO allow you to control top-line sales into the ground without paper there to support your online bring?challenge: Can you accurately forecast sales at a style or a sku aim if you don't undergo a compile marketing schedule? If you can't accurately forecast sales at a call or sku level without a catalog marketing program what contingency intend do you accept you'll apply to protect fulfillment rates?challenge: When you send a compile do you change the same items online in the same proportion as you do over the telecommunicate? This question is related to the prior challenge. challenge: What do you do with your call center and all the folks who act calls today?challenge: What do you do with a fulfillment center that is likely to undergo a significant sales displace for a period of "x" months to "y" years? Do you furlough? Do you go to a smaller facility only to have to ramp-up again later?challenge: What is the go transition intend for employees heavily focused on the compile side of your business? Do your online marketing folks undergo the undergo necessary to take a beating in the "C-Level Suite" to use the parlance of the day?Question: How does the curve of diminishing returns be for online marketing? In other words if your CFO asked you to pay all of your catalog marketing dollars online to compensate all of the sales you lose by going green can you change surface spend that much money online and ordain you compensate your sales?Question: Online customers are typically less loyal than telecommunicate shoppers. Without cover available to increase customer retention what strategies will you apply to keep your customer locate loyal?Question: When you aren't sending catalogs to customers how much will you have to spend on information technology in order to alter sure your website is competitive with online pureplays?Question: Being a cataloger you're intimately familiar with the relationship between creative presentation and selling. How is the relationship different online and are you ready to alter the necessary changes to control sales (hint this question is related to the prior question). Question: Cataloging is all about telling a compelling story. You merchandise the first twenty pages of the compile with winners intoxicating new products high-volume items order starters. You use write to walk a customer through a narrative summon after summon. How do you translate this strategy to an online environment where the customer decides where she wants to go? Who is good at doing this today?challenge: Cataloging allows you to showcase your merchandise over the course of an eighty page story --- maybe 480 styles are presented. Using e-mail how ordain you showcase 480 styles to a customer at one measure?Question: What is your intend for customers who are say over the age of 70 and like to send orders to you customers who don't change surface undergo a good broadband internet connection? Do you be to keep these individuals as loyal customers?Question: What is your social marketing intend? In other words without a compile to affect conversation how ordain you interact with your customers in environments desire Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. Blogs. Second Life and any other to-be-imagined place for people to share thoughts and ideas?challenge: In catalog inventory managers get "bonus" information because sold-outs cannot be "pulled out of the send stream". This provides a significant advantage when forecasting sales next year. How will you compensate for this in an online environment?challenge: How do conclude about low prices and remove shipping a couple staples of the online pureplay world? Can you compete? Should you compete?I could go on and on and on... I lived this for three years. What questions would you ask and would you undergo the answers necessary to make a transition of this nature? [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://minethatdata.blogspot.com/2007/10/goin-green.html
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