July 2005
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Op-Ed Columns
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| False Negatives |
Nothing brings to mind H.L. Mencken's old line that “journalism is not an exact science” like reading stories about your own company. For...
RAY SCHULTZ |
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| Merchandise Metamorphosis |
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS AS IF TODAY'S MAIN CATALOG GROWTH strategy is, “We'll just give them a lot more stuff to buy and watch the sales pour in.”...
KATIE MULDOON |
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| Will the Legitimate E-mailer Please Stand Up? |
An ancient joke: Someone at the Louvre in Paris spotted Diogenes, carrying his lantern. “Diogenes, what are you doing here?” The answer:...
HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS |
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General
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| A Measure of Satisfaction |
What's the Web worth to your company? Many marketers that sell through the Internet can rattle off their online sales. But is revenue alone the true...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| Accelerated Analysis |
THE NEED FOR SPEED HAS reached Hoffman Estates, IL. After relying for decades on a mainframe database with limited analytic capabilities, Sears Customer...
BY RICHARD H. LEVEY |
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| Ask ‘Why?’ |
THESE DAYS BUSINESS owners are forced to act quickly to increase profits, create effective customer acquisition programs and reduce customer defection....
BY PAUL SQUIRES AND ARTURO COTO |
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| B-to-B Firm Gets a Few Good Leads |
Carter & VerPlanck Inc. clearly is seeking quality, not quantity. The company generated three qualified leads for multimillion-dollar water treatment...
BY LARRY RIGGS |
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| Black and White and Re(a)d All Over |
The folks at Pantone Inc. have forgotten more color theory than I'll ever know, so when the results of their consumer color preference survey, which...
RICHARD H. LEVEY |
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| Call at Your Own Risk |
IF YOUR BUSINESS DOES telemarketing of any sort, stop reading this and check your database immediately to see if it contains the name Ryan A. Swanberg....
BETH NEGUS VIVEIROS |
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| Chella Chases Abandoned Carts |
Chella Professional Skin Care began selling its anti-aging solution on the Web in December 2003, about three months after the company itself was founded....
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| CLARIFICATION |
The article “Retirement Services Firm Gets Personal” (Database Marketing, May 1) neglected to mention that Financial Engines Inc. used Exstream...
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| DIYes or DINo? |
SHOULD YOU MANAGE your list in house, or farm the job out to a list management firm? The size and scope of your file — and your business —...
BY BOB CASTLE |
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| Doing What's Right for the USPS |
THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEmen, is the 11th year the U.S. postal world has been considering legislative reform. At this point we're about where we left off...
GENE DEL POLITO |
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| For Catalogers, Print Rules |
Go figure. Print catalog sales remain the highest priority for most catalog companies. But just a minority intend to invest in increased mailing frequency,...
BY RAY SCHULTZ |
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| Fruit of the Vine for Sale Online |
WINE.COM'S BUSINESS IS built on a product requiring slow growth and constant nurturing. But in recent years its sales have looked less like a tender...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| FTC Proposes E-zine Relief |
WEBSTER MIGHT NOT AGREE with the Federal Trade Commission's definition of the word “sender.” But direct marketers now have every reason to...
BY RAY SCHULTZ |
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| Goldstein Is 2005 List Leader |
Deb Goldstein has been named the 2005 List Leader of the Year by the Direct Marketing Association's List and Database Council. Goldstein built IDG List...
Ray Schultz |
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| HoneyBaked Ham's E-mail Recipe |
IF EVER THERE WAS A MULTICHANnel merchant, it's the HoneyBaked Ham Co. The venerable firm sells home-style food through catalogs and over 300 retail...
BY RAY SCHULTZ |
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| How to Slice a $4.6 Million Pie |
The bricks have embraced the clicks. Retailers generated 5% or more of their total sales online last year in only 12 product categories. And by the end...
Richard H. Levey |
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| Huggies Has Pregnancy Covered |
Kimberly-Clark has a new relationship Web site that's designed to get its Huggies brand name in front of expectant mothers long before they have to make...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| Is Sony's Cyber-shot Ad Condescending to Women? |
It could be argued — very well, then, I will argue — that Sony's ad for its Cyber-shot digital camera is just a bit sexist. I don't have...
THOMAS L. COLLINS |
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| Legal (Un)ease? |
YOU CAN'T DO THAT! We'll get sued!” “Trust me, you simply cannot use another company's trademark.” “The Can Spam Act doesn't...
By Mark Young |
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| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
GOOD READING I loved Katie Muldoon's recent column (Direct From Muldoon, May 1). It's smart to compare catalogs to compelling literature.Arnold HowardParagon...
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| LISTLINE |
NEW LISTS Performance Plus The 16 enhanced Performance Plus lists identify consumers who recently received a new bank or retail credit card and made...
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| Oodle Helps Buyers Search Local Ads |
TWO TRENDS — ONLINE SHOPPING and local search — come together in Oodle.com, which aggregates local classified ad listings across a number...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| Pay-per-Call Clicks for Cruise Firms |
ELEVATED KEYWORD PRICES IN the search engine market have led CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. to turn to pay-per-call advertising, where marketers pay for...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| Pfaltzgraff Sets a Custom Table |
TASTES IN HOME DÉCOR and entertaining are changing, becoming more eclectic and informal than ever. While Pfaltzgraff — founded in 1811 and...
BY BRIAN QUINTON |
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| Podmarketing |
In his book “The World Is Flat,” Thomas Friedman describes how companies that haven't laid one strand of fiber-optic cable have benefited...
BY FRANK SALERNO |
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| Pursued by Jaguar |
The Jaguar gets its name from yaguara, a South American word meaning “the animal that kills in a single bound.” If a jaguar does not nail...
BY RICHARD H. LEVEY |
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| Ready to Rock — and Broker, Too |
Ladies and gentlemen, the Nixie Chicks. Nope, that's not a typo. The three-piece band, led by American List Counsel senior account manager Tom McCulloh,...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Ripe for the Picking |
TELEVISION, MAGAZINES AND JUST ABOUT EVERY FORM OF media are bursting with fashion advertising targeting women in their tweens, teens, early 20s and...
BY BETH NEGUS VIVEIROS |
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| Stores Face E-mail Learning Curve |
RETAILERS ARE BOTH BEHIND and ahead of the curve when it comes to e-mail. That's the conclusion of a new report from e-mail marketing services firm Silverpop....
BY RAY SCHULTZ |
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| TIMELINE |
June 14, 2005 INTERMIX MEDIA INC. agreed to pay $7.5 million over three years and discontinue distribution of its adware, redirect and toolbar programs...
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| Try Personalization — It Works |
IT'S GOOD NEWS FOR THE NONprofit sector that the U.S. Postal Service's effort to restrict charities' use of the Standard Mail rate for personalized marketing...
BY CARL BLOOM |
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| Vary the Dosage |
THERE ARE MANY REASONS why growth in the pharmaceutical industry will slow to single digits for the first time in over a decade. The patents for numerous...
By Kristie Sells and Tony Kieffer |
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| We're Hiring |
Looking for work? Go into database marketing. That's just one of the many gleanings to be found in Direct's 2005 database survey. More than a fourth...
BY RICHARD H. LEVEY |
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