Best Catalog adds two new books

February 5, 1996 by Strategy Staff

Toronto-based Best Catalog Company is launching two catalogues and continuing a third that allow merchandisers to work co-operatively in marketing directly to consumers who shop by mail.

Last fall, the company launched The Hampshire Collection, a catalogue of upscale gifts and decorative products directed towards shoppers looking for Christmas gift ideas.

This spring, The Health and Well Being Catalog will be launched, and will contain self-care products, health supplements and fitness equipment.

Bell & Carson, a catalogue of clothes and accessories will be launched next fall.

The catalogues are designed to cater to merchandisers who want to take advantage of direct mail but would not normally want to commit to their own catalogue.

Space in the catalogue is shared by a number of merchandisers and its production and distribution is handled by the Best Catalog Company.

‘The reasons for doing this include testing the mail-order channel in a more cost-effective way than doing it on your own, testing product, getting wider distribution with a product that maybe doesn’t get the distribution in retail, and also gives an opportunity to learn about the end-consumer,’ says Barbara Canning Brown, president of Best Catalog Company.

Canning Brown says the program also gives u.s. marketers a chance to test the Canadian market, and cites the example of u.s.-based merchandiser Lillian Vernon as an example.

‘That company had tried the Canadian market with their own books and u.s. pricing and hadn’t done very well,’ Canning Brown says.

‘With this foray, they actually did as well as with their own domestic catalogue,’ she says.

There are about 250,000 recipients of each title, the target being women mail-order buyers with a household income of $50,000 and up.

The four-color glossy catalogues are 8.5 inches by 10 inches and 24 pages.

Canning Brown says the first catalogue was successful relative to other rental list initiatives, and returned promising results for the other catalogues.

‘It was a full launch, but we were obviously testing the concept,’ she says.

There were 12 clients involved in the first issue, and comparable or greater numbers are expected to take part in future issues.

The Hampshire Collection will be seasonal and will come out twice a year.

The second is scheduled for this March.

Canning Brown expects the other catalogues will also come out at least twice yearly.