A Real American Cataloger
Freeland, WA-based Cotswold Collectibles Inc. has some ambitious New Year’s resolutions.
The cataloger, which offers a line of military action figures including vintage G.I. Joes, hopes to upgrade its photography, move from a Web press design to all glossy, change its mail frequency and increase the page count from 36 to about 48.
And, while traditionally sending out its frequent buyers’ catalogs via first class mail, the company intends to switch to third class, all without stepping on a marketing land mine.
“If we get much resistance to the change or see lower sales, we’ll switch back,” says co-owner Tina Windeler.
Approximately 5,000 frequent buyers (those who order at least once every three months) have received a catalog mailed first class each month, gaining a jump on purchasing items often in short supply. Another 5,000 or so prospects and customers who purchased at least once within the last year get the book third class.
Early next year, Windeler will switch all mailings to third class and send out the book every four weeks instead of monthly. That adds an extra catalog mailing to the cycle.
In making the switch, which won’t be announced, Windeler will monitor frequent buyers’ reaction, if any, to the change.
“More people perceive third class as a punishment and first class as a reward, so we don’t make a big deal about it,” she says.
With plans to increase the number of pages and move to a glossy format, which add weight to the book, Windeler can no longer hold the catalog to 2 ounces; that factor had helped control postage costs. “We’ve kept the book at 2 ounces to keep first class postage from eating us alive,” she notes.
The company also is redesigning its Web site (www.whidbey.net/~cotswold) using “contemporary” technology such as shopping carts.
The site has been the “single best source of new leads,” Windeler says, bringing in some 700 prospects each month via catalog requests. Twenty percent are converted to buyers.
Cotswold’s advertising budget of $1,000 per month is spent on quarter-page, black-and-white display ads in national collectors’ magazines that produce fewer but stronger leads. Windeler says that 50% of the 200 to 300 prospects generated by the ads become buyers.
The target? Men ages 30 to 50 who played with G.I Joe during its heyday in the ’60s. The cataloger mails 120,000 books a year, 10% to markets in Japan, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. To date, Japan has shown the strongest sales. Collectors spend an average $110 to $120 per order.
Cotswold’s private database of 25,000 includes past and present buyers. It’s mined for local and regional postcard mailings prior to G.I. Joe shows and events where Cotswold exhibits.
The company’s first “catalog,” launched in 1989 as a two-page word-processed list, was mailed to 150 customers.
