Billings made her mark in the early 1990s by overhauling Pottery Barn's catalog business. As far as Billings is concerned, all retail marketing shares certain principles, no matter what the medium. It is an emotional experience for your customer to connect with your brand. The online environment poses a particular challenge. The postage stamp-size product photos on the Web site, dictated by technology limitations and the need to keep download times to less than seven seconds, don't help.
Catalogs can compensate nicely on that score, and apparently they do.
In Red Envelope's case, there was another compelling reason to publish catalogs. One of the more lucrative results of the holiday shopping blitz was the load of new names it brought in - both gift purchasers and recipients. But the latter posed a problem for follow-up marketing efforts. With Valentine's Day on the horizon as the next big gift occasion but with little money left in the marketing budget after Christmas, the Red Envelope team got creative. The response, according to Billings, was terrific - although she would not divulge details.