Chief Marketer Staff

• CheetahMail to Announce it is DomainKeys Compliant

  CheetahMail, Experian

• Agencies

  Jenny Craig Pursues Life Event Marketing

  Birthdays can be bittersweet for individuals looking to lose weight. Not only are there extra candles on the cake, the guilt can be overwhelming as the butter cream frosting melts in the mouth. That is, of course, if you

• Despite Ruling, Gander Mountain Still Planning to Go Direct

  Despite a ruling by a federal judge last week that it can’t use its own brand or logo in direct marketing, Gander Mountain is nonetheless planning to reenter the catalog and e-commerce arena.

• InfoUSA Board Kills Special Committee

  InfoUSA Inc. said Friday today that its Board of Directors had dissolved the Special Committee of directors that was formed to review a bid proposal from CEO Vinod Gupta to acquire all outstanding shares of the firm.

• How Home Depot Makes Inconsistency Work

  Among marketers that use multiple selling channels—stores and the Internet, for instance—consistency is a top goal. But some multichannel companies live by the adage “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Home Depot is one of them.

• Sears and Lands’ End: Your Take

  Last week I asked why Sears hasn’t been able to benefit from its association with more upscale brand Lands’ End in the same way that, say, Target has benefited from its association with Isaac Mizrahi or Michael Graves

• Agencies

  Want to Reach Hispanics? Four Reasons to Try Direct Mail

  You’ve already read the stats about the explosive growth of the Hispanic population and the importance of reaching out to this market, so we won’t bore you with them again. But you may be wondering about the best way to get in touch with these buyers.

• Agencies

  Target Marketing and the 4 R’s

  If you haven’t budgeted for an increase in your database management or e-mail marketing expenditures, bear in mind that your competitors probably have. In “Target Marketing Priorities Analysis,” a report by Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer, the partners with research firm CSO Insights and underwritten by direct marketing services provider Harte-Hanks, a survey of 281 marketing executives showed that more 70% of respondents

• Why Marketing Matters When Introducing Self-Service

  So your company is installing an interactive voice response (IVR) system to reduce the number of customer service reps needed in the contact center, or it’s encouraging customers to find their answers online rather than by contacting a salesperson. As a marketing exec, such moves toward encouraging self-service don’t affect you—or do they?

• Sears Seeks Gilt by Association

  It’s worked for Target, J.C. Penney, even Kmart. So why can’t Sears get it to work? “It” is gilt by association, in which a higher-class brand raises the image of a hoi polloi brand.