'A New Game Plan for Growth' on ACCM Agenda

NEW YORK, NY, April 3, 2006 - The 23rd Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants (ACCM), taking place May 8 - 10, 2006, at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, will feature keynote addresses by Bill Crutchfield, founder, Crutchfield Corporation, and Barry Schwartz, author and Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. The ACCM agenda will also introduce two new Intensive Sessions.

Presented by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Multichannel Merchant magazine, ACCM is the world’s largest event for catalog, Internet, and multichannel merchants, featuring a comprehensive education and networking experience. ACCM 2006 will feature more than 175 faculty members, 100 educational sessions, and 300 exhibitor companies.

Stellar Lineup of Keynotes

Tuesday, May 9
Building a World-Class Customer-Centric Organization by Creating an Exceptional Organizational Culture

In 1974, with only $1,000 in capital, Bill Crutchfield founded Crutchfield Corporation in his mother’s basement. Thirty-two years later, Crutchfield Corporation has grown into one of the nation’s largest specialty direct retailers. Known for its incredible customer service and customer satisfaction, Crutchfield Corporation has collected awards from organizations such as Time and US News & World Report, and has won BizRate’s Circle of Excellence Award for five consecutive years, an honor reserved for the top 20 leading e-retailers in the nation.

In his keynote address, Crutchfield will share how he built a world-class, customer-centric organization and will relay what he believes today’s merchants should be doing to ensure a successful future. This is a rare opportunity to hear from an innovative industry pioneer.

Wednesday, May 10
Think Giving Your Customers More Choices Is Good for Business? Think Again. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

In his most recent book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Barry Schwartz, Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College, will discuss how consumers are becoming paralyzed by the bewildering array of choices in the marketplace - and what that means to your business. Schwartz’s research combines psychology and economics to reveal how businesses, customers, and prospects make choices, create value, and find satisfaction.

New Intensive Sessions

The intensive sessions on Monday, May 8, will include two new additions to the ACCM 2006 conference. The Online Metrics Intensive will focus on the improvement of Web-site performance through the analysis of online metrics and building a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

A second new intensive, Multichannel Retailing as a Competitive Advantage, will provide a clear understanding of the benefits of multichannel retailing, organizational and brand management implications, marketing options, and important metrics to measure.

In addition to these two new intensives, other ACCM intensive sessions will focus on Business-to-Business, Creative, Circulation, E-Mail Marketing, Merchandising, Search Marketing, and Small & Start-up Multichannel Merchant.

Additional Information

For detailed ACCM program information and to register, please visit www.accmshow.com.

About Multichannel Merchant

Multichannel Merchant (www.multichannelmerchant.com) provides a complete focus on integrating front-end and back-end operations, and everything in between, from e-commerce to marketing to warehousing. Readers include senior-level executives of catalogs, online merchants, retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and more.

The Multichannel Merchant franchise includes: Multichannel Merchant Weekly, O+F Advisor, Searchline, and List & Data Strategies e-newsletters; the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants (ACCM); the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment (NCOF); the Multichannel Merchant Awards; multichannelmerchant.com and opsandfulfillment.com; benchmark research; Webinars and e-special reports; and more.

About DMA

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of business and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates industry 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 entire direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today has more than 4,800 corporate, affiliate, and chapter members from the US and 46 other nations, including 55 companies listed on the Fortune 100.

In 2005, companies spent an estimated $161 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated an estimated $1.85 trillion in increased sales in 2005, or 7% of the $26 trillion in total sales in the US economy (which includes intermediate sales). All together, direct marketing accounted for 10.3% of total US GDP in 2005.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

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