StORES Magazine - August 2007 - (Page 55)

ONLINE MARKETING 2003, Hancock Park Associates, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, bought Right Start’s assets and got to work adding stores, growing online sales and reincarnating the Right Start catalog. “We needed a vehicle to be able to talk to all our customers across all of our channels of distribution, and to develop a brand that allowed us to build a relationship with the customer,” Neiman says. Among the assets Hancock Park purchased was a mountain of names and contact information. How many of those were of any use, however, was anybody’s guess, Neiman says. As it began using RightNow, that list was whittled down dramatically. It has grown again, but this time Right Start has confidence in its relevance. Still, even that can be overwhelming. “There’s so much data in there that you can make yourself crazy unless you really concentrate on what matters,” says Neiman, who tries to keep things simple Sophisticated e-mail system helps Right Start for herself and the Right Start shopper. She typically sends two to four promomaintain brand loyalty tional e-mails per month. BY REBECCA LOGAN “I try not to over-mail,” she says. ids grow up so fast. And doesn’t Hope Neiman know it. Fewer than 0.1 percent of recipients opt out of the As senior vice president of marketing and strategy for of shoppers browse Right Start mailings, and Right Start, Neiman has an abbreviated window of a retail website after online sales have more opportunity in which to bond with parents. “Our sweet receiving an e-mail than doubled — and that’s spot is prenatal to three or four years old,” she says, “so Source: Harris Interactive before taking into account Neiman’s tailored marketing messages must be on target.” a recent partnership with “It’s not unlike Telco with that kind of churn,” says Danielle Wanderer, director of Amazon.com, Neiman says. industry and partner solutions at Bozeman, Mont.-based RightNow Technologies. Testing has been critical. “We’re conNeiman actually worked for a telephone and high-speed Internet service provider stantly testing, for example, the most before joining Right Start. She valuable times for us to send out an eused RightNow’s sales and marmail,” she says. Even e-mail headers are keting tools in her former posisubject to frequent pulse checks. tion, and recognized the potenNational Potty Training month (June) tial they held for selling potties offered Neiman a chance to highlight reand pacifiers. lated products, so Neiman tried out a Some sort of kick-start was few headlines on sample groups. Some needed at the company, which were silly, but the one that achieved the had been through a few years of highest click-through rate was straightdramatic change. Right Start forward: “It’s National Potty Training started as a catalog retailer, evenMonth.” tually expanded into stores and “That was the one I’d expected to be e-commerce and was, for a brief last,” Neiman says, “but you can’t argue time, blended with FAO Inc. In with success.” Marketing Grows Up K 68% WWW.STORES.ORG STORES / AUGUST 2007 55 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of StORES Magazine - August 2007

Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Upfront NRF News Retail People Concept2Watch Supermarkets Cover Story Online Marketing In-Store Marketing RFID Data Management Payment Systems Software Loss Prevention E-Commerce Risk Management Communications Loyalty Marketing Human Resources Mobile Commerce Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View Advertising Index Retail Industry Calendar

StORES Magazine - August 2007

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