Catalog marketers have been combining marketing with technology (MarTech) since the Internet was moving on 14.4kb modems. Let’s explore how catalogers pioneered this movement and are still leaders today. Catalogers discovered the raw power of large amounts of transactional data, and became the early adopters of scoring models. Catalogers developed models and still lead the… Continue reading Catalogers: Pioneers in Marketing Technology
Tag: Geoff Wolf
A Christmas Story for Marketers
T’was two weeks before Christmas, and all through the night The CMO was thinking “What can we do better? What are we doing right?” A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the person who sits up at night worrying about the customer journey and brand messaging – especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The… Continue reading A Christmas Story for Marketers
Yes, You Can Reduce Catalog Costs and Grow Sales at the Same Time
Two J.Schmid clients recently made dramatic — and successful—changes to their catalog programs. Take a look at these case studies! Case Study #1 Challenge: A B2B marketer offering innovative merchandising solutions had a mature catalog program. Management’s goal was to transition marketing dollars to ecommerce and grow catalog sales. Solution: J.Schmid recommended a two-pronged approach.… Continue reading Yes, You Can Reduce Catalog Costs and Grow Sales at the Same Time
Change is Dangerous. And You Must Do It.
Serious car accidents spiked by 17% the Monday after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, proving that even a one-hour change can be painful and risky. How dangerous is change within our marketing world? Well, it’s actually life-threatening to our marketing programs. But we can’t stop change itself, so we must learn to adapt. The biggest… Continue reading Change is Dangerous. And You Must Do It.
STOP and Challenge Your Assumptions
We make big decisions every day based on assumptions. When it comes to investing significant marketing dollars, we have to be very wary of these assumptions. Since we don’t have time to verify every piece of information that informs our marketing processes, we must create a system for determining which information is important enough to examine… Continue reading STOP and Challenge Your Assumptions
“Alexa, can you help me work smarter?”
Oh my. I just read an article about the future of search marketing called “What Amazon Echo and Google Home mean for online retailers.” The next thing I see is a UPS package on my doorstep with “voice shopping with Alexa and Echo” printed right above “Prime” on the packing tape that seals the box.… Continue reading “Alexa, can you help me work smarter?”
Choice
Catalogers have a choice to make in the coming weeks. In this case, there are only two possibilities: Do something or don’t do anything. The choice involves good and evil. In this case, “good” is defined as spending a lot less money and “evil” as spending a lot more money. Do I have your attention?… Continue reading Choice
There’s a dinosaur loose in E-commerce land!!
Ecommerce has been changing at digital speed since it showed up in the marketing world 25 years ago. Print marketing has taken 100 years to evolve from the early days of newspaper to magazines, then to direct mail and finally catalogs. Catalog circulation is the sturdy bedrock art of targeting what records to mail, when… Continue reading There’s a dinosaur loose in E-commerce land!!
What Is a Chief Marketing Technologist?
“Marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most technology-dependent functions in business.” In 2012, consulting firm Gartner predicted that by 2017, a company’s chief marketing officer will be spending more on technology than its chief information officer.” (Harvard Business Review, July-August 2014) Wow, technology expense as a variable marketing cost is quite a concept! It… Continue reading What Is a Chief Marketing Technologist?