The Big Fat Marketing Blog

It has certainly been a challenging year for the U.S. Postal Service. And those challenges won’t disappear in 2010. more

Score one for e-commerce over bricks and mortar.

I managed to short out my Samsung BlackJack II PDA last week, getting out of my car and heading into a meeting. I scraped my car keys against the keyboard and after a quick flash, it was history.

So as an AT&T subscriber, I knew I could go online and check out which upgrade I was eligible for, and how much it would cost. Knowing my wife wanted an iPhone for herself, I was fine with the free PDA AT&T offered me: The Nokia E71x. The reviews and ratings were great, and the phone had everything I wanted and needed, but I wanted to physically test it out before I bought it. more

Big Book catalogs may be over, now that J.C. Penney has decided to kill off its giant catalog. But old holiday Big Books remain hot sellers on eBay, according to a release from eBay market research firm HammerTap.

In the past 30 days, 153 of these Big Book catalogs were placed up for bid on eBay; 73% of them successfully ended in a sale. Vintage Sears Roebuck Christmas catalogs from the 1950s and 1960s were the top sellers, HammerTap says. more

No more letters to Santa Claus in North Pole, Alaska?

The Mayor of North Pole, AK is up in arms with a decision made by the U.S. Postal Service regarding letters sent to Santa Claus in his town.

In my November editor’s note, The power of interruption, I advise catalogers to start mailing again to grow via prospecting and reactivating lapsed customers.

Little did I know I when I wrote the column, I was about to be reactivated by a catalog mailing myself. Here’s how it happened. more

Giving back to the community means something for cleaning supplies and home improvement products merchant QCI Direct, which mails the Home Trends, Sleep Solutions and Picket Fence catalogs. more