Several new strategic partnerships helped weight-management company Jenny Craig Inc. increase the offerings in its second holiday gift catalog, Holidays YourStyle 2004.
The book includes new product lines such as apparel, calendars and spa gift certificates. These are in addition to merchandise appearing last year, which included food and exercise tapes.
Jenny Craig, Carlsbad, CA, mailed its premiere holiday gift catalog last year. The 12-page catalog's return on investment was 43 percent, said Robyn Davidoff, director of CRM and integrated marketing for Jenny Craig. This prompted the company to be more ambitious this year.
For the 2004 holidays, Jenny Craig created a 16-page book that offers newly introduced items such as active wear from cataloger Activa, motivational calendars from Calendars.com and spa gift certificates from Spa Finder. Items returning from last year include Double Dutch Chocolate Cheesecake and Iced Gingerbread Man Cookies.
“What we are trying to accomplish with the holiday catalog is to create loyalty by offering variety in food, body and mind,” Davidoff said.
Along with building customer loyalty, Jenny Craig hopes to drive incremental sales during a traditionally slow period for the company.
With the increase in product offerings, Davidoff expects the ROI for this year's catalog to surpass last year's. Results look promising so far.
“In the first two weeks, we've covered half of our marketing costs,” Davidoff said.
This year's catalog was introduced Nov. 7. The distribution plan included:
· Mailing 400,000 copies to inactive clients, encouraging them to return to Jenny Craig.
· Distributing 530,000 copies to active clients at 450 Jenny Craig centers.
· Including copies with 4,000 phone orders that were received through Jenny Craig Direct and with 500 orders received through Activa.
· An online version of the catalog was e-mailed to 164,000 inactive clients.
At first glance, the partnership with Activa — which originated as a jogging catalog — appears unusual. But the Activa catalog now carries a wide variety of active wear. Davidoff said its executives want to bring the Activa brand into the growing market for women's plus sizes, so Activa was receptive to working with Jenny Craig on the recently introduced catalog as a way to test the waters for plus-size apparel.
Items from Activa in Jenny Craig's holiday catalog include the Activa Ultratek Zip Front Bra for $49.99, Activa Loose Drawstring Pant for $49.99; and Merrell Satellite Moc shoes for $69.99. There's also a New Balance Survivor Jacket for $64.99, Bootleg Pant for $43.99 and V-Neck Top for $34.99. Other items from Activa such as heart rate monitors and Nike's Resistance Band Kit also are featured.
Davidoff hopes to learn from the Activa deal whether Jenny Craig customers are interested in buying clothing from Jenny Craig, and, if so, what types of apparel and what price point they are willing to spend with the brand.
The partnership includes a co-branded Web site that browsers can reach by clicking through the Jenny Craig site, jennycraig.com. A wider selection of clothing from Activa can be found there.
Davidoff said that during the first week after the November drop several Activa items were doing well, including Activa's Feel So Good Drawstring Pant, Capri Pant and Moving Comforts Zip Front Bra.
From Calendars.com, the Jenny Craig catalog carries the Yoga Healing Energies 2005 wall calendar for $10.99 and Women Who Do Too Much 2005 daily-boxed calendar for $10.95.
Catalog recipients can buy a gift certificate to a spa through Spa Finder and get $10 off their spa visit when they purchase a $100 gift certificate through Spa Finder. The catalog also offers tips on surviving the holidays and coupons for Jenny Craig food valid through Christmas.
