Leap to it

A friend of mine, who I’ve known for more than 20 years, is convinced my birthday is 29th February. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him my birthday is in January, the notion has taken on a tradition status, that I now look forward to the leap year to receive birthday greetings from him.

Email marketers have also cottoned on to the fact that an extra day is sort of special and have been sending me offers to ensure I spent my “spare” day shopping with them. I tallied a dozen emails in the past few days promoting leap year deals. And some were executed much better than others.

Lingerie etailer Figleaves.com sent me an email with a 29 percent off discount code, making it the most generous marketer of the bunch. Similarly, Presents for Men also offered 29 percent off, but customers had to shop from a special “leap year” range. Other offers included “up to” 29 percent off, with an additional 10 percent discount code from Asos, while apparel and maternitywear specialist Isabella Oliver included a free mystery gift to leap year shoppers. 

As well as the best offers, Isabella Oliver and Figleaves also stood out in my selection of 12 as having the most enticing subject lines. Isabella Oliver went for “Fashion for free, TODAY ONLY! Receive a special gift with every order” while Figleaves went straight for my wallet with “Because it only happens every 4 years! 29% off - Email Exclusive!”

Beauty and cosmetics etailer CheapSmells, seemed, well, cheap in comparison. The subject line was punchy enough: “One Day Only Leap Year Saver - 5 Percent Off Everything Voucher Code”. But upon opening the email, the code only applied on orders of £50 or more. As it only happens every four years, perhaps CheapSmells could have pushed the boat out a little more.

Clearly keen to capitalise on the leap year concept, QVC also sent a themed email. But I felt it missed the mark: “Miri, spread the cost of your favourite brands with QVC this Leap Day”. My first thought was “what, no special offer?” The email copy went on to say: “Leap Year only happens once every four years so to help you celebrate in style we are offering all on-air items and selected online items in 4 Easy Pay instalments. Enjoy a full day of your favourite shows and brands, including beauty from Laura Geller, home electronics from Bose and much more”. Is it just me, or does this email leave you feel a bit deflated?  Have we all become “too trained” to expect money off?

Another marketer I wanted to see more from was The Last Detail, which sells wedding favours and table decorations. Its email was definitely on the right tracks—with plenty of calls to action for subscribers to get involved in its debate as to whether women should propose to men (well, it is a leap year tradition). There were links to The Last Detail’s Facebook page, where subscribers could take the quiz to see if they’d found Mr Right (I have, it says), videos including “Our top 5 Wedding Proposals” and a blog post on the “Top 10 places to pop the question to your man...” Plenty going on in the email, but it wasn’t selling me anything. I would have liked to see at least a couple of product offers—after all, we have a whole four years to wait until the next leap year.--MT

September Catalogue Log

Nearly one-fifth of the 1,081 catalogues tallied in the first nine months of 2009 were received in September. For the same period of 2010, we received just 953 catalogues, but September’s share remained roughly the same—we logged 185 catalogues last month, representing 19.4 percent of the total catalogues received to date.

There are further similarities between the data gathered in September 2009 and last month. Not least that in both years we noted a significant increase in volume compared with the previous month—no surprise there as many cataloguers are ramping up distribution in the run-up to Christmas. Each September saw catalogue volume almost triple compared with August. Based on the last two years, I’d hazard a guess that this pattern is likely to be repeated next year.

While the number of catalogues we received had rocketed, the percentage promoting sales and discounts dropped appreciably, from 41.0 percent in August to 34.1 percent in September—almost an identical percentage to last year, when the number of catalogues promoting a sale or discount was 34.4 percent. Among the 63 catalogues promoting a sale or discount on the front cover or carrier sheet, were nightwear catalogue Charlotte & Co, which offered 20 percent off the customer’s first order, and apparel catalogue Fife Country, which gave customers a time-limited offer: those who order by 16th October receive 15 percent off any order of more than £50.

The percentage of catalogues offering free delivery remained almost unchanged from last year, rising marginally to 24.3 percent; however it represents the highest rate so far this year. Almost a quarter of all catalogues tallied in September offered conditional or unconditional free p&p, including business-to-business catalogue BT Business Direct, which promoted free delivery on online orders of more than £149 plus free delivery on all inks and toners until 8th October, and maternity wear cataloguer Isabella Oliver, which offered free standard delivery for all orders of £99 or more, and free express delivery for orders of £139 or more.

The number of catalogues not using their front covers to tout special offers was also up on August. In September we recorded 80 catalogues without an offer, representing 43.2 percent, or almost a 10 percent rise on the previous month.

Looking back to October 2009, 41.3 percent of catalogues highlighted a sale or discount on the cover, and 21.7 percent offered free shipping. Going forward, I’m going to make another prediction based on that data: as we get closer to Christmas, free delivery will become an even more popular offer as cataloguers strive to make service, rather than price, the key differentiator during the festive season.--MT