Fair Indigo CEO Bill Bass Speaks of Style with a Conscience at 25th Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants

Orlando, FL, May 20, 2008 — Fair Indigo Chief Executive Officer Bill Bass today keynoted at the 25^th Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) in Orlando. Co-produced by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT, ACCM concludes on May 22.

In introducing Bass, DMA President & CEO John A. Greco, Jr. told ACCM delegates, “Fair Indigo is a very successful new brand with a unique value proposition and a business model based on direct merchandising. They sell moderately priced, natural fiber men’s and women’s clothing, all produced under fair trade practices. In short, Fair Indigo embodies the spirit of doing well by doing good.”

Bass began with an overview of fair trade, and the evolution of socially conscious products from the fringe to the mainstream. Organic foods, for example, which was once only available in farmers markets, have since migrated to large companies such as Wholefoods, and even to giants such as Wal-Mart, Bass explained.

Observing this marketplace evolution, Bass said he set out to take socially responsible clothing into the mainstream. “We saw a big gap, and thought, ‘why not us?’” Today, Fair Indigo is a fair trade multichannel retailer of its own apparel and accessories brand, targeted to socially conscious women and men, ages 35 to 55.

Bass stressed that taking environmental responsibility is vital for the catalog industry, especially in the face of possible Do Not Mail legislation. “Do Not Mail is a real threat and will have significant emotional impact on our industry,” Bass told ACCM delegates. “To stop this from happening, we need to be more conscious about the environment.”

One of the steps Bass has taken at Fair Indigo is to print facts about the company’s environmental efforts — including the percentage of post-consumer waste on which the catalog is printed and the natural resources saved by doing so — on the back of each catalog. “It doesn’t take up a lot of room on the back of the catalog, but people notice this and get the message that catalogs are not evil,” Bass said. “As an industry we need to change our brand, and take credit for what we are doing.”

In conclusion, Bass urged the growth of more free trade companies. He is currently working to develop a fair trade calculator with the hopes of having it adopted as the standard. “The more companies adopt fair trade,” he said “the better off everyone in the world is.”

Prior to co-founding Fair Indigo in 2006, Bass served as senior vice president of Lands’ End and vice president/general manager of Sears Direct. In addition to his role as Fair Indigo CEO, he also is chairman of the company’s parent Black Wolf Group.

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents nearly 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2007, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $173.2 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $2.025 trillion in incremental sales. In 2007, direct marketing accounted for 10.2 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2007, there were 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported nearly 9.0 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.6 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

About Multichannel Merchant

MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT helps executives manage all facets of their businesses by providing superior analysis of successful strategies across all areas of multichannel marketing — print, catalogs, e-commerce, merchandising, operations, retail, and more. It’s the one source that helps professionals capitalize on opportunities in their core businesses, and integrate strategies to maximize their successes in each channel. MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT’s franchise includes MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT magazine; the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants (ACCM); MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT Weekly, List & Data Strategies, and Searchline e-newsletters; www.multichannelmerchant.com; the Annual Multichannel Merchant Awards; and much more.

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