Any seasoned direct marketer the importance of understanding the numbers side of the business. You have to know both the left-brain (analytic) and right-brain (creative) rules for maximum success. My philosophy is “know the rules before you break them.” Read more.

A response curve is the historical calculation of orders — and percentage of orders — received weekly from a direct response campaign. Years ago, when catalogers had to maintain order information by hand, it was difficult to manually reconstruct response curve order information at the end of each campaign. Read more.

In June we looked at the profit and loss statement, discussing how a catalog P&L or income statement is different from that of a manufacturer and reviewing what is meant by cancellations, returns, exchanges, cost of goods, and gross margin. Now we'll look at what goes into the fulfillment, advertising, and general and administrative aspects of the profit and loss statement. Let's start by examining the remaining cost centers. Read more.

During the past several months we have looked at financial formats for catalogs and the Internet from a global or financial model standpoint. We contrasted the differences between consumer and business financial models, and last month we looked at the financial model and impact of the Internet on direct sellers who have a strong Web component. Read more.