RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:
Norm Thompson, 12/27 — Good news we can't resist sharing!
On a regular basis I write about retailers that exhibit poor permission and privacy practices—be it Gap Inc. sending Piperlime emails to their Banana Republic, Old Navy and Gap lists (see April 5 AM Inbox); or Drugstore.com sharing their list with their partner, VisionDirect (see July 12 AM Inbox); or Road Runner Sports sharing their list with Peak Running (see Sept. 7 AM Inbox). However, this is one of the worst I’ve seen.
In this case, Norm Thompson is being acquired by Orchard Brands, which is owned by private equity firm Gold Gate Capital, and is sharing their list with all of Orchard Brands’ brands, which include nine other brands: Appleseed’s, Blair, Draper’s & Damon's, Haband, Gold Violin, Sahalie, Solutions, The Tog Shop, and Winter Silks. However, in this email, Norm Thompson seems to go out of their way not to tell their subscribers any of this, saying only that they’ve “become part of a larger family of premier retailers.” It’s hard to sell this as “wonderful news” when you’re too ashamed to even say what the news is with any specificity. Indeed this is bad news for Norm Thompson’s subscribers’ inboxes as they’ll soon start receiving emails from all the other Orchard Brands brands. Assuming that each of those brands sends two emails a week—which is what Blair sends—then that’s 18 more emails a week that Norm Thompson’s subscribers will start receiving, on top of the 3+ sent by Norm Thompson each week.
Now Norm Thompson does give their subscribers an opportunity to opt-out of some or all of these emails, but you have to clickthrough just to see who all you’d be receiving emails from. Also, giving that this email was sent during the week of Christmas when many people are away traveling, it’s likely to be seen by fewer subscribers than usual. That means that they’re likely to report the impending emails from the other Orchard Brands companies as spam when they arrive, which is going to hurt the sender reputation of all those brands. Since Norm Thompson doesn’t name any of the other Orchard Brands companies in this email, that also increases the chances that subscribers won’t recognize the brands and will report them as spam.
The responsible and respectful way of doing this would have been to allow subscribers to opt in to these other brands, using Norm Thompson’s emails as a platform to introduce subscribers to these other brands. Norm Thompson could have also highlighted complimentary products from these other brands in their emails, or created banners that introduce readers to these other brands and allow them to opt in to their email program. That takes some extra effort, but it’s a way to demonstrate the value of the other brands products in a way that’s relevant to Norm Thompson’s subscribers.
Crutchfield, 12/27 — End-of-year savings, plus Free Lifetime Product Support
It’s Tweak Week at Crutchfield, that time of the year when Crutchfield wants to make sure that you get the most out of your presents from Crutchfield. If you have complex products and articles, how-to pages or other information, this is a create way to build your brand as a trusted source of information. It also shows that you care about the purchase after it has left the store or warehouse.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Abercrombie & Fitch, 12/27 — Take Off Those Clothes; It's Time For A New Season. [promoting spring apparel]
Lands’ End, 12/27 — $10 worth of New Year's cheer: a gift for you
1-800-Flowers, 12/27 — No Bull! 25% OFF Sitewide Sale!
Barnes & Noble, 12/27 — Save 50% in our After Holiday Sale
KB Toys, 12/27 — Holiday Clearance Deals Plus New Learning Software
Sharper Image, 12/27 — The world's first ever Zero Gravity Massage Chair.
Bloomingdale’s, 12/27 — Resort: See What's New From Nanette Lepore
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