Christmas turkeys

This morning the BBC had a segment in its news programme on how to disguise one’s disappointment at ill-conceived Christmas gifts. However, no amount of eye widening could make us pretend we like any of the following:

McDonalds Drive Thru Food Cart Playset

I’m not a parent, but I am sure that “When I grow up, I want to work in McDonalds” isn’t the phrase you’d want your eight-year-old to utter. Then there’s the associated childhood obesity concerns. Dear Toys R Us, whatever happened to stethoscopes, or if it has to be retail—fruit and veg?

Velform Hair Grow Plus

Hair-loss is often a traumatic experience; I have close friends and family members who lost all their hair through chemotherapy. And consider this too, if you have a receding hairline, would you really appreciate the Velform Hair Grow Plus for Christmas? This seems to me more fitting as a product you would buy at a pharmacy and test its efficacy in private, not in front of your entire family. It might be an excellent product, but as a Christmas present, I find it more than slightly tactless.

Multi-cat Toilet Seat
Seven out of seven cat owners I know would not like this for Christmas. I just don’t see why anyone, cat lover or not, would want the “multi-cat toilet seat”. But you’ve got to love The Cat Gallery’s copy accompanying the product: “The cat image is on both sides of the lid so you get to see it all the time.”--MT

Catalogue copy we love: Silver By Mail

While its prices may be far lower than those in Tiffany’s range, Silver By Mail does not skimp on descriptive product copy.

Copy in the Tiffany Christmas catalogue is functional: “Venetian link bracelet in sterling silver, £130” or “Tiffany Woven bracelet in sterling silver, narrow, £280”. In contrast, Silver By Mail, a name not as established as Tiffany, has to use more emotive copy--relying on feelings and senses to sell its wares. Virtually each one of the products in its latest catalogue is given at least two sentences of copy containing benefit and highlighting special features. A few examples:

Twistour Ring: “Silver liquid beauty, the gentle twist in this plain silver bans adds lush feminine curves to wear 24/7. Divine with that wrap dress and twisted straps”.

Autograph Bangle: “Slim and curvaceous, this slice of chic silver is so comfortable you’ll forget you’re wearing it until someone says they love it, again and again.”

Wedge Silver Earrings; “Petite hoops with a wedged profile to team with our favourite fashion shoes. Hinged at the base, they close around your lobe with no thread on show for seamless, go anywhere style.”

Silver By Mail then includes the dimensions of the product and available sizes. As a final nice touch, the catalogue also points readers to the website where matching items can be found and the whole range can be explored.--MT

November Catalogue Log

Christmas is coming and with it a rush of Christmas catalogues. In November we received and logged 167 catalogues, up 19.3 percent on last year’s 140 catalogues, and up 34.7 percent on November 2008, when we tracked 124 catalogues.

As volume increased, the number of special offers decreased. In November, we noted that just 46 of the catalogues we received, or 27.5 percent, promoted a discount or sale on the cover. This represents the lowest percentage of catalogues offering a special price promotion recorded in 2010. In fact, it’s the lowest percentage recorded since we began compiling the Catalogue Log back in late 2008. Up until now, April 2010 held the record for lowest percentage of sales and discounts, with 29.2 percent.

Clearly, cataloguers are watching their margins; sales and discounts were not the only promotion to decline during November. The number of catalogues promoting a free gift was also at its lowest for 2010, with just 8.4 percent, or 14 catalogues doing so. My favourite free gift promotion was from cosmetics retailer L’Occitane, which offered a goodie bag worth £25 with purchases of £35 or more.

Cataloguers were also shifting away from free shipping, with just 18 percent of front covers promoting free p&p. Among those offering free delivery, most opted for setting a spend threshold. Gifts marketer Aspen & Brown set quite a low threshold of £20, whilst craft supplies catalogue Baker Ross required customers to spend £75 online in order to qualify for free shipping.

Overall, more than half, 53.3 percent, of the catalogues we received last month did not promote any sort of special offer on the cover. Instead of special offers, some catalogues such as Lakeland, made customers aware of last order deadlines. Classicalia, the new brand from gifts cataloguer Nauticalia, opted for using the cover to highlight some of the products within, possibly to establish its range for new customers. Toys and games cataloguer/retailer Hawkin’s Bazaar, the self-proclaimed “Suppliers to Father Christmas since 1973”, went for a picture of a retro-looking, blast-of-colour snow globe full of toys on the cover. Toning it down for Christmas was homewares and gifts cataloguer Cox & Cox, which decided on a simple image of a mince pie tower and cocktail stick decorations.--MT

Snow chance to get creative

In January this year, we chided direct marketers for failing to make the most of the cold snap to boost sales. So with temperatures plummeting again, and much of the UK hit by blizzards and ice, have marketers learnt their lesson?

As we pointed out last year, consumers are well aware of the difficult driving conditions, and expect that deliveries may take longer. Most retailers, for their part, are reassuring customers with up-to-date delivery information. Ethical Superstore, for example, suspended its next-day delivery option on 29^th November until further notice due to adverse weather conditions in the north-east of England. Whilst John Lewis, Mark & Spencer, and Argos amongst others, all display notices of possible delays on their home pages. But, just as we said last year, inevitable delays will not deter people from shopping online. Indeed, as Alison Quill, managing director of toys and games cataloguer BrightMinds, posted on Twitter, rainy weather contributed to a significant rise in sales last month, “Will snow gave same effect as rain on mail order, or will customers be nervous about deliveries? Time will tell”.

So how exactly are direct sellers attracting those who are snowed in to visit their website? An email from Hotel Chocolat received this morning urged recipients to “Avoid the snow and order Christmas gifts online TODAY + Free Gifts Offer‏”. This, however, was the only mention of snow in the entire email. It was as though Hotel Chocolat had planned a Christmas-themed email and added snow to the subject line as an afterthought.

An email from the Fish Society, with the jolly subject line “Let it snow”, was actually rather brusque: “We will NOT despatch your order if delivery is threatened by snow”. Of course it makes perfect sense not to despatch perishable goods if they are unlikely to reach their destination before they spoil, but I feel the email could have had a more reassuring and sympathetic tone.

Another email, this time from gifts and gadgets etailer I Want One of Those, buried the snow theme halfway down its email titled “Give better gifts with IWOOT & 10% off Photogifts”. Another rather bland example is Crew Clothing which sent an email titled “Snowed in? Buy your Crew Winter warmers online!”. Exclamation point aside, there wasn’t much to get excited about.

So far, I haven’t received a snow-related email that was truly engaging. Perhaps retailers are all too busy trying to work around the snow in the run-up to Christmas to really get creative.

However, I did get an email from the dedicated folks at Derbyshire-based Dolls House Emporium. Most of them had been out in the car park this morning with shovels and makeshift snowploughs to clear and grit the way for the delivery vans. They even sent me a photo to prove it.--MT

Where’s all the Wills and Kate merchandise?

Here at Catalogue e-business we were very happy to hear the news that Prince William and Kate Middleton are to get married on 29th April next year. Not only is it a very joyous occasion for all Great Britain to celebrate, we also get an extra bank holiday. I am a little surprised—and dare I admit, disappointed— though, that there isn’t more “Wills and Kate” merchandise out there, at least not judging from the emails and catalogues I have received lately.

While Tesco’s £16 version of Kate’s dress sold out within minutes, and replicas of the engagement ring are boosting trade at jewellery shops, I’m struggling to find any kitsch memorabilia. Since the engagement was announced on 16th November, I’ve received just one (yes, one!) email promoting royal wedding merchandise, from pottery brand Emma Bridgewater.

I’m sure as the wedding date draws closer I’ll receive more promotions for commemorative souvenirs. In the meantime, and in the absence of any really bizarre royal wedding products, I’ll leave you with a little frivolity from Firebox and Twitter. The gifts and gadgets etailer asked its followers on the social networking site to suggest Wills and Kate merchandise befitting Firebox’s quirky style. One respondent suggested barbeque gloves, another said racing Wills and Kate in the style of the Racing Grannies, and another liked the thought of a Wills and Kate-themed double Slanket.—MT

Most popular articles September, October

If you missed them first-time round, here’s your chance to have a read of our five most popular news and articles in September and October.

1. Unions pledge to resist Royal Mail privatisation
Direct sellers braced themselves for possible postal strikes as the Communications Workers Union (CWU) vowed to fight the government’s plans to privatise Royal Mail.

2. Catalogue e-business interview with Peter Higgins
Catalogue e-business’s Miri Thomas talks to Peter Higgins about preparing Cath Kidston for sale, his chairmanship at apparel cataloguer Joe Browns, and his plans for Charles Tyrwhitt.

3. Prospecting by retargeting
One of our highlights from this year’s ECMOD: how Screwfix is using personalised recommendation engines and tracking technology to drive online sales.

4. Boden: More markets, not more channels
The key to Boden’s future success is not opening up more retail stores, but rather expanding internationally, says the company’s eponymous founder.

5. Confetti acquired by north-west entrepreneur
Wedding-supplies business Confetti is offloaded by Findel to The Hut, which sells it on to IT entrepreneur George Buchan.

Catalogue e-business’s news is free-to-read online, but to access our insightful subscriber-only content you need to join our list of satisified subscribers. To guarantee your copy and the key to all the locked-down content on our website, subscribe today by calling 01271 866221, emailing our subscriptions department or filling the form online at www.catalog-biz.com.

Another look at The Linen Press

In our July/August 2010 edition, our contributor Anne Hadfield of Brahm (now Brass), reviewed the spring edition of The Linen Press catalogue (below). She found it charming and full of potential, but the creative lacked “brand personality”.

This month I received The Linen Press’s Autumn catalogue (below), so let’s see if anything’s changed.• At 44-pages and A5, the catalogues are the same size and pagination. However, while the spring catalogue featured a green jacket and headscarf on the cover, the autumn edition doesn’t feature product on the cover at all. It could be argued that this is a backward step, as Hadfield writes, “it’s proven that when products are showcased on the cover and are easily identified on the inside pages they inherently experience a great uplift in sales.” Instead, the autumn cover is an image of a grey cloth, with the words linen, silk, cotton, and cashmere made to look stitched in. The cover lacks a call to action—something Hadfield says is a missed opportunity.

• In her review, Hadfield criticises The Linen Press for failing to substantiate the relevance of the dog motif. She says that the use of a brand icon “would create and reflect a genuine point of difference”. Happily, this is something The Linen Press has done with its autumn catalogue. “You may be wondering ‘What has a little dog got to do with The Linen Press?’”, begins the letter from Christine (who I assume is the company’s founder). The letter goes on to reveal that the dog’s name is Betty, and she was the inspiration for the catalogue’s marque because “she is much more memorable than the other suggestions we had!”

• Another point Hadfield picks up on is that information about product sourcing should appear on page two, and The Linen Press has taken that advice. Continuing her letter, Christine lets customers know that the linen is from Ireland, and the majority of the products are manufactured in Portugal, adding “nothing is too well travelled and no child labour is involved (unless you count my nieces & nephews stuffing envelopes from time to time…)” This helps build credibility and makes a friend of the customer through the chatty and friendly tone of voice.• Seeing as the cover didn’t feature product, the next best thing would have been to include a table of contents so that customers receiving the catalogue for the first time aren’t in the dark as to what’s on offer. As with the spring edition, The Linen Press decides against a contents page. A recipient flicking through the catalogue has to wait until page 22 before encountering anything other than apparel. However, The Linen Press does mention its by-the-metre fabric on the back cover, indicating that there are more than just clothes within the pages.

• It seems that more has been made of the models in the autumn catalogue. While in the spring edition Hadfield says the “photography is disappointing—cold, in-shadow, underpropped, and largely faceless,” the autumn edition has more faces—and more smiles. I particularly like the image on page 7 of the model with the cashmere fingerless gloves (above). The product is clearly visible, and the model looks natural, relaxed and happy. The Linen Press does use some of the same images from the previous catalogue, but I can accept that due to budget and time constraints, not every product can be re-shot.

• The Linen Press’s autumn catalogue also makes more of an effort to cross-sell, something Hadfield addresses in her review. The Linen Press apparently took heed. On pages 8 and 9, for example, the models are pictured wearing tunics and coats matched with a spotty scarf. A callout on the spread points to page 12, where the scarf can be seen in all its colourways.

• The review also mentions that The Linen Press misses the opportunity to upsell by not making it obvious that the company can offer bespoke sheets. In the autumn edition, The Linen Press uses page 37 as a stopper, with bold lettering that states “We can make your tablecloth to any size”. Now that’s more like it!

It appears to me that The Linen Press has implemented some of our suggested tweaks, without comprising on the friendly personality we liked in the first place.--MT