INFORMATION NOTES

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"Guidance notes on how to complete the Catalogue Exchange registration form"
Introduction - Does my Catalogue qualify for membership? Before completing The Catalogue Exchange member registration form please check that your Company's catalogue qualifies for membership. You need to be able to answer yes to each of the following four questions:

	a) Do you have an active Catalogue business in the U.K.? In other words, has your Company traded actively in the U.K. using a catalogue during the past 12 months? The Catalogue Exchange wishes to be inclusive and does not wish to exclude from membership any catalogue that may be offering services rather than products. There must however be the opportunity for customers of the catalogue to purchase direct by post, fax and telephone as well. Catalogues whose role is solely to support retail outlets do not qualify for membership as they do not have 'direct' customers. Equally, web businesses that do not publish a mail order catalogue and rely solely on on-line sales do not qualify for membership.
	b) Does your catalogue have a minimum of 5,000 active marketable catalogue buyers net of all opt-outs? This is the minimum qualifying size of customer list. If the size of your net customer file is less than 5,000 customers who have purchased at some time in the last 24 months, then essentially you have insufficient names to swap with other catalogue companies. Catalogue enquirers (potential customers who have applied for a copy of your catalogue) should not be included in any total of catalogue buyers and indeed, should be kept entirely separate from your catalogue buyers.
	c) Is your Company able to comply with Catalogue Exchange guidelines for data hygiene and security? Full details of the guidelines for data hygiene and security will be found on the web site. Essentially however, you need to be able to warrant that your list of catalogue buyers has been: fully de-duplicated; updated with the details of new buyers at some time in the last 6 months; checked against the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) suppression file prior to release or at some time during the last 6 months; and that your list has been postcode-corrected using a Postal Address File (PAF) enhancement solution such as that provided by Quick Address Systems. (QAS).
	d) Does your Company have a list warranty number? If you are already renting your customer file through a list manager or broker you will have had to provide details of your list warranty registration. Further information about list warranty registration is available on the DMA web site.
	e) Can you confirm that all customer data has been healthily obtained under the terms of the Data Protection Act? If your company has not provided its customers with the option to opt-out of third party mailings then you may not engage in list swaps or rentals as your company is not permitted to pass any personal data to third parties.

Registration form - Guidance notes

1) Catalogue Name:

Insert the name of your catalogue. Please note that a separate registration form is required for each catalogue title.*

2) Catalogue Web Site:

Enter the URL of your web site here, if you have one.

3) Short description of catalogue:

Describe your catalogue in a manner that will allow others to understand your catalogue proposition and your target market (30 words only please).

4 to 10) Contact Details:

Enter the name and contact details within your organisation who you wish to be the main points of contact with industry colleagues who may be seeking list swaps or general co-operation.*

11) Willing to Discuss List Swaps:

************

12) Willing to Discuss Cost Price and Supplier Information:

************

13) List Owner Warranty number:

See above - This detail may be obtained from your list broker. *

14) Date Catalogue established:

The year in which this catalogue title was first published within the UK.*

15) Dimensions of Catalogue:

Catalogue page width and height (in millimeters).

16) Average number of pages per issue:

Catalogue pagination.

17) Number of issues P. A.:

The number of issues you publish per annum.

18) How often is your list MPS screened?

All customer data should be run against the mailing preference scheme suppression file on a regular basis.

19) How often is your Customer Records Updated:

Updates are the routine by which new customer data is assimilated to your catalogue buyer database. If your total database is 10,000 names and you record that you update anually, you may create a credibility gap with your industry colleagues. Large mail order companies update monthly or weekly, most smaller catalogue companies update quarterly or less frequently.

20) Product Categories:

If your catalogue features products from a variety of product categories, please check all categories applicable.*

21) Average age of buyers:

If you don't know, if not please estimate and do bear in mind that the average age of catalogue customers is usually much greater than we imagine.

22) Percentage of female buyers:

Enter the percentage of your customers who are known to be female. If a proportion of your customers are 'gender unknown', then apportion these customers in an appropriate manner. List swap partners need to be able to assume that if you have indicated that 60% of your customer file is female, then 40% is male!

23) Average Annual income:

Unless you have provided samples of your customer data to a third party lifestyle-database company like Claritas for benchmarking, you will not be aware of the average annual household income of your customers. An estimate would be useful though and bear in mind that the average income in the U. K. is between £10,000 and £20,000 p.a.

24) Predominant socio-demographic grouping:

If you are not familiar with this classic scale for defining socio-demographic groupings, then please refer to other sources for precise definitions. Suffice it to say that the predominant social group purchasing Rolls Royce and Bentley vehicles would be A, B, and the average customer of a traditional agency mail order catalogue would be C2, D, E. Most specialist catalogues tend to be A, B, (very up-market); B, C1 (upper middle sector) C1, C2 (mass market) or C2, D, E (relatively down-market).

25) Customer's average order value:

The average gross sterling value of customer orders placed on your catalogue. Average order value should be calculated by taking total gross catalogue sales turnover including VAT for each campaign, and dividing by the number of orders received.

26 to 34) Please indicate your Company's preference for management of list swaps.

Most list brokers offer a 'list swap management' service. The names of list brokers specialising in catalogue marketing appear in the suppliers' section of the web site. If you are uncertain as to how you wish to manage swap arrangements check the third option and enter the contact details of someone within your Company who will handle all swap enquiries. If you prefer swaps to be managed, please enter the contact details of your chosen list broker or other agent.

36) What is the maximum negative swap balance your Company will tolerate?

Catalogue companies mail at different times during the year and this may result in an individual list swap partner owing your Company a significant number of names for a period of 3 - 6 months. You should indicate here the maximum 'swap-debt' or negative swap balance you are prepared to extend to new swap partners.

37) In those cases where a swap is unacceptable to your Company will you consider renting data?

In cases where a list swap is working for one partner but not the other or where one partner has accumulated a high negative swap balance, rental of a list is often considered a suitable alternative to a list swap. Please indicate whether you will consider renting customer data in such circumstances.

38)List rental management

Although a small number of companies choose to manage their own list rental sales, most catalogue companies choose to use the services of an established list manager/broker. The names of list managers specialising in the catalogue sector appear in the suppliers section of this website. Catalogue companies wishing to rent your customer file need a contact point, whether it be the contact details of your list manager(s) or those of the person within your Company charged with responsibility for list sales. If you wish to handle list rental enquiries from your catalogue industry colleagues on a direct basis, you should ensure that this does not breach the terms of your list management agreement. If all such list rental enquiries are to be handled by an external list manager/broker, please ensure that you have provided the list manager in question with details of any catalogue companies to whom you will not rent your customer file, on the basis that they are too competitive with your own catalogue.

39) Are you prepared to discuss other data routines... ?

Certain bilateral agreements between catalogue companies now provide for mutual house file modeling and data enhancement. Such routines tend to be for more advanced practitioners and catalogue companies with very large customer databases. These types of agreement generally need to be regulated by formal written agreement between the parties and undertaken by third party bureau acting on common instructions.

40) Preferred method of data transfer/reciept?

If you are uncertain, consult your in-house database manager, IT department or external database bureau/consultant.

41) Number of days required for production/despatch of swap data?

Indicate the total number of days your Company requires between receiving a list swap order and delivering customer data to your swap partner's nominated bureau by CD or e-mail.

42) Price per name per thousand names

Your published prices.

43) Charges for selection parameters £?

Enter the rate per thousand charged for each of the standard selection parameters detailed in the section below.

44) Which of the following selection parameters are available in your file?

The key to maximising profit on mailings to your own catalogue customer file is to utilize the frequency and monetary value of your customers' purchases to determine how deep you can penetrate your customer file on the occasion of each mailing. If you need the guidance notes as a prompt as to which selection parameters may be available on your customer file, best to have a word with your database manager, your data consultant or your list broker. Selectivity is the key to profitable catalogue mailings and please bear in mind that if you indicate that you have average order value, gender and frequency of purchase as selectable parameters on your file, a member of the Catalogue Exchange may invite you to swap 5,000 female multi-purchasers with an average order value of £75. If you are less than sure that you are able to offer any of these selection parameters, leave that box blank.