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At the DMA's recent Catalog on the Road Day in Cambridge, MA, Jack Rosenfeld told the audience that decades ago someone asked him what direct marketers' three biggest challenges were.

Simple, he said. “Postage, postage, postage.”

Today — alongside other factors like privacy and competition from brick-and-mortar retailers — postage remains a key hurdle.

“The more things change, the more they remain the same,” said Rosenfeld, Potpourri Group founder and former CEO of Hanover Direct.

He was quick to add, though, that the biggest changes have been brought about by the Internet: “We've all become multichannel marketers.”

Rosenfeld cautioned that the struggling economy doesn't bode well for catalogers that want to be aggressive and ramp up circulation. “Obviously, you can't cut out all prospecting. But you need to be careful.”

One way to stay afloat is to make your company larger, say by making acquisitions. Bigger organizations, he reasoned, have the advantage of economies of scale when buying things like paper and printing services.

Rosenfeld said mailers should evaluate all possibilities when it comes to ensuring profitability in tough times. Even though no one likes to do it, marketers have to consider raising prices to cover escalating costs. And while traditionally many retailers never dreamed of operating a retail store, they now need to consider having a physical presence to expand their brands. Co-mailing is another thing catalogs should consider, he said, as well as pricing out different paper weights, grades and trim sizes.

Regardless, he concluded, catalogers shouldn't forget things like proper list hygiene. These bread-and-butter duties help separate industry survivors from the also-rans.