CASE STUDYTHE KING-SIZE COMPANY

David E. Bell Research Associate Dinny Starr

Gordon prepared this case under
Dinny Starr Gordon the supervision of Professor David
E. Bell of the Harvard Business
f School as the basis for class
discussion rather than to illustrate
either effective or ineffective
handling of an administrative
situation. Rev. August 11, 1998

Copyright © 1994 by the President

and Fellows of Harvard College. To
In January 1994, Jessie Bourneuf (HBS ’75), president of The order copies or request permission
King-Size Company, was reviewing statistics on her “big guy” to reproduce materials, call 1-800-
customers. King-Size, an apparel and accessories mail order firm, 545-7685, write Harvard Business
catered to the needs of the big and tall man. Bourneuf wondered School Publishing, Boston, MA
02163, or go to
how she could continue to serve her existing customer base,
http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No
offering new, branded products in larger sizes and, how she could part of this publication may be
reach out to the millions of other men who might be interested reproduced, stored in a retrieval
in King-Size’s merchandise. Recently, the company had diverged system, used in a spreadsheet, or
from its traditional marketing strategy and tested a 60-second spot transmitted in any form or by any
on cable television. The preliminary results seemed promising means— electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or
but were not yet conclusive. She mused about the advantages of
otherwise—without the permission
cable television advertising over other methods King-Size was of Harvard Business School.
using.
On another front, Bourneuf contemplated her competitive
environment. With the withdrawal of Sears from all of its catalog
businesses in the spring of 1993, a major gap was left in the mail
order environment. In particular, the Sears Big and Tall Catalog
that had been estimated to produce $150 million in annual sales
was now extinct. What steps should she take to gain advantage
from Sears’ departure?

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and

Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc.
CCC 1094-9968/99/010066-19
f

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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
COMPANY BACKGROUND
The King-Size Company, with annual sales of
approximately $22 million, was a division of the
WearGuard Company (sales of $160 million), a
direct marketer of men’s work clothes. King-
Size, however, was originally founded as part of
the Knapp Shoe company in the 1950s, but had
gone through a number of different ownerships
prior to its purchase by WearGuard. In 1986,
The King-Size Company purchased Jerry Leo-
nard retail stores with the stores retaining the
Jerry Leonard name. By the late 1980s, the com-
pany consisted of both the King-Size catalog
and a number of these Jerry Leonard retail
stores. In 1989, WearGuard purchased the cat-
alog and the company’s list of mail order cus-
tomers. (Jerry Leonard King-Size stores were
ultimately sold to another company which had
recently filed bankruptcy.) See Exhibit 1 for
selected financial information about The King-
Size company.
In the summer of 1992, the WearGuard Cor-
poration, including its King-Size and E.T.
Wright divisions (E. T. Wright was an executive
shoe direct mailer) was purchased by ARA ser-
vices, a $5 billion food services corporation.
According to King-Size management the rela-
tionship with ARA had been very amicable and
successful, with the parent company maintain-
ing an arms length relationship with Wear-
Guard and its divisions.
THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
WearGuard purchased the King-Size company
after many months of searching for an acquisi-
tion. Bourneuf spearheaded this search and
when the purchase was finalized she became
president of the division. Both Bourneuf and
the President of WearGuard, Bruce Humphrey,
wanted to find and purchase a direct mail com-
pany that would benefit from the marketing
know-how and technological advancements of
the WearGuard Corporation. They believed
that the King-Size catalog was just such an op-
eration; presenting significant opportunities for
better management and expansion.
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When purchased, the King-Size mailing list
included 450,000 names. After four years as a
division of the WearGuard company, there were
now 1.3 million names on the list. Of these,
120,000 had made a purchase in 1993, 60,000
had made a purchase in 1992 but not in 1993
and 220,000 had made a purchase sometime
prior to 1992 but not since. The remainder had
requested a catalog but never made a purchase.
UNDERSTANDING THE KING-SIZE
BUSINESS
After acquiring the King-Size business, Bour-
neuf took several steps to understand this new
market and to revitalize the company. First,
Bourneuf and Cindy Connelly, the company’s
Advertising Manager, conducted a number of
focus groups of customers. In these sessions
many issues became clear. According to Con-
nelly, the management team was really sur-
prised at the “emotional well-being of these re-
ally big guys—not like women, who would
rather be on a diet.” The participants in these
initial focus groups made clear that they be-
lieved that the manufacturers and retailers had
fallen short in their ability to service the big and
tall man’s apparel and accessory needs. One of
their biggest criticisms was the lack of choice.
Customers thought that the product line should
be fresher and more comprehensive, and that
the catalog needed updating. They believed
that King-Size should be able to select and man-
ufacture merchandise that suited their larger
and taller frames, and that they should be able
to provide both basic and fashion items that
were of high quality and at prices that reflected
the value of the product.
As part of the initial understanding of the busi-
ness, Bourneuf also established an on-going advi-
sory panel of customers so that management
could hear on a regular basis what customers
thought about King-Size products and services.
According to Connelly, King-Size management
was able to get a clearer picture of their customer
base as well as receive both new product sugges-
tions and product modifications from this advi-
sory group. As a result of these initial conversa-
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 JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING
tions, in the first year of operations the King-Size
catalog format was changed, the product line was
expanded, merchandise quality was improved,
and prices were raised. Exhibit 2 shows pages
from old and new catalogs.
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THE KING-SIZE CUSTOMER
King-Size defined its potential customer as any
man at least six feet two inches tall, weighing
225 pounds or more, or both. In 1993, approx-
imately 12%–15% of the male population of the
United States (about 10 million men) was in
this category. From a survey performed each
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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY

EXHIBIT 2a
Page from King-Size Spring 1990 Catalog

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EXHIBIT 2b
Page from King-Size Spring 1993 Catalog

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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
year, some general information about the
King-Size customer was extrapolated by the
company. The King-Size customer tended to
be older (over 40) although there was repre-
sentation from all age groups. About 60%
tended to fall into the “big and tall” category,
while about one fifth were considered only
“big” and one fifth were considered only
“tall.” Over 60% of customers were married.
The customer’s average income was approxi-
mately $45,000 per year. The customer read a
lot and was involved in a number of hobbies
such as gardening, fishing and hunting. Bour-
neuf described the typical King-Size customer
as follows: “He’s white collar, he’s in sales or
management, he drives an American car, he
reads a lot, he has above-average investments,
he probably went to college, his kids go to
college, he’s married. So he’s Mr. America,
but with above-average income and dispos-
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able income.” For more information on big
and tall men in the United States see
Exhibit 3.
KING-SIZE PRODUCTS
King-Size carried an array of branded and pri-
vate label men’s apparel, accessories, and shoes.
This included casual shirts, pants and shorts;
dress shirts (with monogramming available),
pants, suits, blazers, and ties; athletic clothing
and sneakers; dress and casual shoes; and, ac-
cessories and gifts such as sunglasses, umbrellas,
and suitcases. The branded products included
labels such as Dockers, Cutter & Buck, Boston
Trader, Arrow, Reebok, and LA Gear. All prod-
From DNR: The Men’s Wear Fashion/News Magazine, vol. 22, no. 30
Monday, February 15, 1993.
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 JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING
ucts were manufactured with the requirements
of the larger sized man in mind. The products
were designed according to body shape, either
Tall or Big, —llowing for extra length in the tall
merchandise and extra breadth in the big items.
T-Shirts, for instance, were available in TALL
sizes (the numbers refer to chest size in inches);
L(44 – 46), XL(48 –50), 2XL(52–54), 3XL(56 –
58), and 4XL(60 – 62), and in BIG sizes;
2XL(52–54), 3XL(56 –58), 4XL(60 – 62),
5XL(64 – 66), 6XL(68 –70), 7XL(72–74), and
8XL(76 –78). If a customer was unsure of his
exact size or if he had unusual sizing require-
ments, telephone order representatives had siz-
ing charts for all products in the catalog to assist
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the customer in making his merchandise selec-
tion. (Exhibit 4 shows size charts for two prod-
ucts.) In addition, in-seams on some pants, and
sleeve lengths on dress shirts, were custom tai-
lored for each customer. The most frequently
purchased items from the King-Size catalog in-
cluded various types of shirts and pants. Other
important categories were shoes, underwear,
outerwear and socks.
THE TELEPHONE ORDER SYSTEM
The in-house order entry department received
an average of 250 orders a day on a slow day in
July to 2,000 orders a day 10 days before Christ-
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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
mas. Of these, approximately 75% were re-
ceived via the telephone or fax machine, and
the rest came in by mail. The telephone lines
were open from 7:00 am to 12:00 midnight,
seven days a week. The company had an 800
number to service its customers placing orders.
The number was printed on all catalogs. There
was a separate 800 number to service inquiries
about damages and returns. About 40 tele-
phone representatives were on the King-Size
payroll with about 75% of these employees
working on a part-time basis. The seasonal na-
ture of the catalog business forced swells in the
telephone order taking workforce to about 100
people just before the Christmas holiday pe-
riod. The representatives were paid on an
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hourly basis but could augment their salary by
selling weekly promoted goods. Traditionally,
the Monday and Tuesday after a catalog drop
were high volume days on the order taking
floor. The busiest hours tended to be around
lunch time, from 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. A sum-
mary of order taking results for a one-week
period, called the Daily Tally report, is shown in
Exhibit 5.
When a customer called, a telephone repre-
sentative greeted the customer and asked for
their customer number listed on the back of the
catalog. The customer was also asked for the
catalog number. This six digit number identi-
fied not only the particular catalog that the
customer was looking at but also the marketing
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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
basis on which that customer received it. Inven-
tory and pricing information for that specific
catalog came up on the order entry screen as
the order was taken.
As the telephone representative continued
through the order taking process, much infor-
mation was available on her screen. Customer
height and weight specifications, purchase his-
tory including total amount of purchases over
time, most recent purchase amount, and past
orders in detail could be accessed as necessary.
In addition, the telephone representatives
could change any “ship to” or “bill to” data that
was incorrect.
THE MERCHANDISING DEPARTMENT
Given the recent growth in the business, the
merchandising area at King-Size was undergo-
ing some changes. In the past, the buying re-
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sponsibilities had been divided by category of
product, with buyers purchasing groupings
such as all tops, all bottoms, or all accessories. In
the current restructuring, however, products
were bought on a more “ensemble” basis, (for
example, button down shirts and matching
khaki pants manufactured by the same vendor
were purchased together). There were three
buyers, or product managers, as they were
called at King-Size. One product manager was
responsible for shoes, accessories, all branded
products, and outer-wear. The second product
manager purchased the King-Size private label
brand of casual knit and woven tops and bot-
toms (pants and shorts). These items were con-
sidered the “bread and butter” of the full prod-
uct line. The third product manager took care
of the “dress apparel;” better, higher-end cloth-
ing and accessories such as sports coats, dress
shirts, and ties. This third area included both
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 JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING

TABLE A
Catalog Drop Dates

Catalog Drop Date Circulationa

Fall Preview and Spring II Clearance August 239,000

Fall Full Book September 328,000
Fall II Full Book October 479,000
Christmas Book November 336,000
Christmas II Book Late November 282,000
Winter Clearance January 174,000
Spring Preview and Winter II Clearance February 226,000
Spring Full Book March 578,000
Spring II Full Book April 207,000
Father’s Day Book May 486,000
Spring Clearance July 249,000

a
Circulation indicates the number of catalogs sent out. The amounts are planned figures for Fall 1993 and Spring 1994. The figures exclude
prospect books sent out in response to initial requests received from cable and other media.

private label and nationally branded merchan-
dise.
The product manager’s responsibilities at
King-Size were numerous. They included un-
derstanding the unusual size requirements of
their customers; educating suppliers about their
big and tall business; finding new, and better,
resources for their products; creating successful
working relationships with their vendors; and,
negotiating prices and quantities with these ven-
dors. King-Size’s experience was that its rela-
tively low buying power combined with what
manufacturers perceived as an unattractive cat-
egory of business made it difficult to obtain
attractive prices and terms.
The product managers also had to stay on top
of what was going on in the men’s fashion en-
vironment by visiting men’s apparel and acces-
sory stores, the fashion markets in New York,
and vendors from around the world. When mer-
chandise arrived at King-Size, it was also the
product manager’s responsibility to check the
quality and size specifications of the items and
highlight the features and benefits to the cus-
tomer service representative so they could bet-
ter serve the customers.
One aspect of the product manager’s posi-
tion which was unique to a catalog company was
understanding the critical issues of timing and
forecasting. Unlike a retail environment where
no commitment was made up front to the cus-
tomer about the products available in the store,
mail order houses had shown their merchan-
dise, in print and with unalterable prices, well
before the merchandise arrived in their ware-
house. This made forecasting customer demand
essential to the company’s buying decision. A
product manager, therefore, had to have a keen
sense of her product’s appeal to the customer.
The whole merchandising area was overseen by
the Merchandise Manager, Colleen Cheney,
who, outside of her supervisory responsibilities
of the department, bought the swimwear and
pocket t-shirt lines of clothing. She had chosen
to keep these lines of products as her responsi-
bility because they had “hard to deal with” ven-
dors.
CATALOG/BUYING CYCLES
For King-Size, like most mail order compa-
nies, the catalog and merchandise buying cy-
cles were a critical driver in the operations of
the business. Products pictured in any given
catalog might be purchased up to 12 months
or more in advance, forcing everybody to
think at least one year out. For example, pri-
vate label flannel shirts, an indispensable of-

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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY

fering in the King-Size catalog, had to be overseas and required a year’s lead time.
purchased a full year in advance of the sell Other items, however, such as basic slacks
date because the fabric was manufactured which were available from a domestic manu-

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 JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING
facturer, could be ordered only a month or
two before the selling season.
The King-Size purchasing cycle was different
than other apparel mail order companies. Un-
like regular men’s apparel, the fashion ele-
ments of the big and tall men’s business were
generally a year behind that of his “regular
sized” counterpart. As the King-Size customer
became more demanding, however, more
timely evaluation and decision making by the
merchandise group might be necessary.
Once commitments were made to the ven-
dors there was some flexibility, but not much, to
alter or cancel the orders. It was critical, there-
fore, that the merchandising team was confi-
dent of their product selections and quantities
made for the coming season. For about 60%-
70% of the products King-Size could reorder
the merchandise during the season. If a product
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was not successful, King-Size traditionally put it
on sale at the end of the season and still covered
their costs.
Most fall products would arrive at the King-
Size warehouse at the end of August or begin-
ning of September. This would insure that in-
ventory was available for sale when the first fall
catalogs reached the customers. In total, there-
fore, it took close to a year for the merchandis-
ing department to research and analyze sales
trends, receive sample products from vendors,
choose product lines, colors and styles, negoti-
ate prices and minimum quantities, finalize pur-
chases, and ultimately receive merchandise for
the fall season.
The catalog development process is de-
scribed in Exhibit 6. The first fall catalog was
printed and distributed, “dropped,” in mid-to-
late August. A full size catalog usually had
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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
around 70 to 100 pages, whereas a prospect
catalog might have as few as 36 pages. Normally,
only the cover pages and a few critical interior
pages were changed during a season. If, how-
ever, items had sold out during the season, that
would be noted in the next printing of the
catalog. For the schedule of catalog drop dates
see Table A, below. The variable cost of a typical
catalog was about 70 cents; 45 cents for printing
and 25 cents for postage. For a full breakdown
of Fall 1993 catalog costs see Exhibit 7.
MARKETING RESEARCH
Since the acquisition of the company in 1989,
King-Size management had used a number of
ways to understand and stay in touch with their
customers. As mentioned above, the company
established an advisory council of key customers
and King-Size executives. The board was made
up of at least eight customers and was convened
twice a year. Board membership changed each
year depending on where the meetings were to
take place. The group was made up of better
customers with an emphasis on achieving a
cross-section of customer type such as varying
clothing sizes, income levels, and psychographic
characteristics. The purpose of the meetings
was to let decision makers at King-Size get closer
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to the customer, as well as allowing for customer
feedback on product and service issues. Some
ideas that had been generated from the advi-
sory board meetings included: 1) New product
suggestions—sunglasses for larger size heads; 2)
Enhancements to existing products—additional
belt loops for bigger waist pants; and, 3) Sug-
gestions on how to feature clothes in the cata-
log—showing models wearing a polo shirt with
a denim shirt over it like a light weight jacket.
Another way that King-Size received feedback
from its customers was through a written survey
sent out in customer packages. This survey at-
tempted to identify customer demographics
and customer opinions about King-Size prod-
ucts and services. Questions asked included is-
sues of merchandise satisfaction, other places
they shop, new product ideas, favorite activities,
magazines read, TV programs watched, and oc-
cupations.
For the previous three summers, King-Size
had contracted an outside research firm to con-
duct a telephone survey of a number of its
customers. The objectives of the survey were: to
try to predict general sales trends for the re-
mainder of the year and the coming 12 months;
to track buying patterns of key customer types;
to identify dimensions on which company
changes in the past had had a positive impact;
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FIGURE A

and, to isolate areas where improvements were CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

still needed. For the survey 229 customers were King-Size used both conventional and more cre-
identified and contacted. About two thirds of ative mail order acquisition techniques for find-
those surveyed (169 customers) were chosen ing new customers. Traditionally, catalog com-
because they had made purchases since January panies acquired customer names from lists of
1993. The other 60 people, considered an “aug- other mail order company customer names.
ment sample,” were included to ensure base These acquisitions were usually made through a
sizes for key subgroups of customers, including list broker who tried to segment the character-
customers with marginal sizes (those with very istics of the purchasers. Some list brokers tai-
tall/big sizes such as 7XL or 8XL); those with lored lists based on a company’s specific re-
key attitudinal profiles; and, sale buyers. A sum- quests. A mail order house rented a list and paid
mary of some of the results of the survey can be for each name that converted into a sale. Lists
found in Exhibit 8. were usually rented on a one time basis.
Another focus of the telephone survey was to
better understand King-Size’s competitors. The
telephone survey asked where else they TABLE B
shopped for their apparel and accessory needs. Advertising Schedule—Mail Order Business, Year-to-
From the survey and other sources it was clear Date December 1993
that King-Size competitors included J.C. Pen-
ney, Sears, and several Big and Tall retail stores. Public Relations $ 105,752
The principal specialty retail chain was Casual Advertising Agency 0
Male (called simply “Big & Tall” in some parts Space Advertising 137,199
of the United States) with about 250 locations. Sunday Supplements 97,674
Unlike Sears and J.C. Penney, Casual Male had Card Decks 223,949
no catalog. Recently Edison Brothers had been Package Inserts 484,623
acquiring many smaller Big and Tall retailers Market Research 55,451
including King-Size’s own one-time outlets. See Other 53,178
Exhibit 9 for additional survey information on Total Mail Order $1,157,826
King-Size competitors.

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 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
For King-Size renting lists was uneconomic
since there was no way to segment the names by
height or weight. An exception was that state
Registry of Vehicles recorded height and weight
information for inclusion on drivers licenses.
About 20 state registries had made this informa-
tion available for purchase. The last time King-
Size rented this information, in October 1992,
the company spent $30,000 for about 100,000
new names. Each was sent a postcard offering to
send a King-Size catalog. Of the 6,600 people
who requested a catalog, 12% made an order.
King-Size also had package insert programs
with several mail order companies including,
among others, their fellow divisions, Wear-
Guard and E.T. Wright. Other exchanges were
with non-competitive catalogs thought to have a
similar customer base, such as the Omaha
Steaks, Hanover House, or Hammacher
Schlemmer catalogs. In programs such as these,
King-Size would either exchange package insert
programs with the other catalog company or
would pay to have their marketing materials
inserted into the other company’s packages. In
1993, King-Size spent $480,000 on package in-
sert programs.
An alternate method for finding customers
was through “card deck” advertising. In 1993,
for instance, card decks accounted for almost
$224,000 of King-Size’s budget. Card Decks
were postcard size advertisements that were
mailed to consumers homes in packages of
30-60 cards at a time. Figure A, below, shows a
typical King-Size card deck advertisement. Each
card usually was an advertisement or request
form for a company’s catalog or product. The
marketing companies that put together these
card decks could segment the demographic and
buying characteristics, and area of interests, of
the recipient consumers. This allowed the mail
order company to designate who they thought
would be interested in their catalog.
Similar to a card deck was a “Valpak” adver-
tisement. Like card decks, Valpaks (value pack-
ages) were sent directly to customers in their
homes. Valpaks tended to be more coupon ori-
ented than a card deck package, offering some
amount off a purchase if the card was filled out
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TABLE C
King-Size Cable TV Campaign: Budget Summary
Production
TV commercial production $ 48,000
Talent (shooting session 1 5-week cycle)a
4,212
Travel expenses 1,436
Customized edit (5 phone numbers) 1,880
Dubs 762
Music 150
$ 56,440
Media
5 week schedule National Cable $144,200
a
Talent costs for each additional 5-week cycle is $2,003 (first
year).
and sent in. Valpaks were considered part of the
King-Size card deck budget.
Another avenue for reaching potential cus-
tomers was through space advertising in maga-
zines and newspapers. King-Size promotions,
usually block advertisements, were often found
in the back pages of magazines such as The New
Yorker, Smithsonian, Golf Illustrated and American
Gardener, and newspapers such as USA Today
and The Wall Street Journal. The ads were usually
a brief description of the merchandise available
and offered a toll-free number to call to request
a catalog. Space advertising represented about
$140,000 of the 1993 advertising budget. Sun-
day Supplements, such as Parade Magazine and
The New York Times Magazine, were another ad-
vertising option for King-Size and were pur-
chased every few months. In 1993, $97,000 was
spent on Sunday Supplement campaigns.
The 1993 budget also included approxi-
mately $105,000 for public relations. Public re-
lations materials included: press releases to var-
ious industry journals and trade publications;
information created for trade shows and other
events; and, a newsletter sent out to King-Size
customers on a quarterly basis. For more infor-
mation on advertising expenditures for 1993,
see Table B, below.
In 1993 catalog requests from these sources
totaled about 200,000, about 15% attributable
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81
 THE KING-SIZE COMPANY
to space ads, 40% to package inserts, 20% to
card decks, 10% to Sunday supplements and
15% for unrecorded reasons.
CUSTOMER RETENTION
When a customer contacted King-Size to re-
quest a catalog, either via a mailed-in card, or
from an 800 number listed in an advertisement,
the customer’s information was entered into
the computer system and then he was sent a
copy of the most recent catalog. From that time
forward, that customer’s name was always asso-
ciated with the way it was acquired. This let
King-Size track the value over time of the media
used to reach potential customers. For instance,
a customer name that was obtained through a
space advertisement in the Wall Street Journal
might be more valuable in the long term than a
customer reached via a card deck advertise-
ment.
After the initial catalog request, King-Size
sent new customer names two or three more
catalogs during the first 12 months on the mail-
ing list. Following that, customer names were
evaluated based on the frequency and amount
of purchases made during that time. If a cus-
tomer did not buy often or at all, or if the value
of their purchases was low, they might receive
fewer catalogs than a better customer during
the same time frame. King-Size frequently ex-
perimented with its mailing strategy, sending
catalogs to specific groups of customers to see
how to more efficiently and effectively increase
sales. To date, King-Size had not purged any
names from their in-house customer list.
THE CABLE TV EXPERIMENT
In the beginning of 1992, King-Size conducted
its first foray into video advertising. At that time,
with the help of an ad agency, Bourneuf and
Connelly developed a promotional video whose
primary objective was to familiarize men’s fash-
ion editors and the press with King-Size. The
secondary goal was to create a video piece that
presented merchandise to customers in a differ-
ent format than normal. They hoped that the
video would stimulate interest in and trial of
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TABLE D
Service Bureau Charges
Labor—taking calla $1.35
Postage—first class .98
Fulfillment .12
Catalog printing cost—prospect .20
a
This figure included an additional $.35 which King-Size was
charged by the service bureau to record and transmit the height
and weight information of the callers.
King-Size products. The videos were promoted
in the 1992 spring catalogs. They could be pur-
chased for $10 which was then credited towards
a customer’s purchase of merchandise. Al-
though the video was not very successful (“thou-
sands of videos were left over” according to one
executive), it was considered an important step
for the company. It was, in fact, the precursor to
the development of King-Size cable advertising
the following year.
Bourneuf had seen other retailers promoting
product through cable television and thought
that it might be a good and viable advertising
medium for King-Size. Furthermore, King-Size’s
penetration of the mass market was very small.
She believed the potential number of custom-
ers, however, given the huge population of men
who fell into the “big and tall” category, was
great. The obstacle remained; how to reach a
large portion of these men in an economical
way. Traditional mass market vehicles such as
People or Newsweek, were much too expensive for
a company like King-Size. Bourneuf, therefore
was searching for an alternative.
Bourneuf, Connelly, and the advertising
agency which had produced the 1992 video,
met to discuss the cable option. Together, they
developed the idea for the commercial and
then the ad agency established a proposed bud-
get and media buying plan. The preliminary
budget is shown in Table C below. With this
information, Bourneuf came to the following
conclusions about cable advertising: first of all,
she found that producing a cable TV advertise-
ment could be done with a small budget, espe-
cially if the commercial was not too fancy or
complex; second, unlike other advertising me-
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diums, cable TV spots could be purchased in
small units, limiting the up front investment
and risk; and third, the ability to reach a much
larger mass market than other mediums such as
package inserts was increased. With these com-
pelling reasons and the proposed budget in
hand, Bourneuf approached ARA senior man-
agement with a plan for a King-Size Cable TV
test promotion. Once they understood both the
potential and the ability to discontinue the ven-
ture, and thereby minimize exposure, they
agreed to the funding.
The television spot was designed to promote
trial of the King-Size catalog. The commercial
showed a man talking about King-Size merchan-
dise and flipping through the most recent catalog.
The spot stressed the extensive selection of big
and tall sizes, the wide variety of branded and
private label merchandise, the range of apparel,
shoes, and accessories available, and the ease and
privacy of shopping from home. The commercial
was very straightforward, appealing to the cus-
tomer to call the toll free number on their TV
screen to receive a free King-Size catalog. The
commercial was aired on five stations, TBS, ESPN,
CNN, A&E and Family. The initial results of the
cable experiment were very positive. The number
of catalog requests received over the six week
period exceeded 66,000. In addition to the sheer
number of respondents, the program was de-
signed to capture as much information as was
possible from these potential customers. For in-
stance, each cable network had its own specific
800 number, helping King-Size identify which TV
programs were the most successful for attracting
customers. When the customer called to order the
catalog the telephone representatives asked not
only his name and address information, but also
his height and weight. When the Cable TV pro-
motion was complete it had cost King-Size approx-
imately $144,000 to show the commercial over a
five week period in September and October 1993.
Preliminary results and cost breakdown of the
campaign can be seen in Exhibit 10.
In order to handle the flood of calls gener-
ated from the cable promotion, King-Size con-
JOURNAL OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING
tracted an outside service bureau to answer the
telephone calls and fulfill the catalog requests.
In addition, King-Size created a special “pros-
pect” catalog for these customers. This catalog
was only 36 pages in length, shortened so that it
could be mailed quickly via first class mail. The
costs for order processing and fulfillment can
be seen in Table D, below.
DECISIONS
When compared to other promotions and ad-
vertising occurring at the same time, the results
of the cable experiment seemed very positive.
(Exhibit 11shows the breakdown of the costs,
the number of requests, and conversion rates of
the cable campaign and other media used at the
same time.) Jessie had also compared and ana-
lyzed the socioeconomic differences between a
sample group of the cable TV catalog requesters
and the traditional print media catalog request-
ers at the same time. The results of this investi-
gation, which were based on the zip codes of
those who requested catalogs, can be seen in
Exhibit 12. Jessie wondered what role cable TV
should play during 1994.
Jessie had also wondered if it would make
sense to approach a chain like Casual Male with
a view to a strategic alliance. Casual Male could
extend to King-Size its buying clout with manu-
facturers in return for King-Size’s help in run-
ning a Casual Male customer catalog. What ap-
proach, if any, should she make to them?
Finally, Bourneuf had not yet taken any ac-
tion about Sears’ abrupt departure from the
catalog business. Though their “Sears Big and
Tall” catalog featured noticeably less-expensive
goods, it was reasonable to suppose that many
of their “abandoned” customers could be
coaxed into buying from King-Size. Sears had
already made it clear that it would neither sell
nor lease its customer list; since it continued to
sell catalog products through its retail stores, it
wished to avoid diverting its customers to com-
petitors.
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