Advanced Topics in French Poetry

Jennifer Williams

MKTG 4500

Homework #4

www.saksfifthavenue.com

As the internet has quickly taken over a large part of the retail market, it has become a battle to maintain an open communication with customers with all the Ð''noise' that the Internet creates. Among these retailers is Saks Fifth Avenue, a New York icon that has branched out across the United States and into your own home. Prior to 2000, they did not operate a website or any type of on-line purchasing operation. This month they launched the saks.com catalog. The Saks Fifth Avenue catalog has been a favorite of mine for many years because of the thick paper it is printed on and the luxurious photos of far away places that appear on its pages. The catalog is not bulk mailed to everyone who signs-up for their customer mailing list and is never addressed to Ð''Resident.' They have carefully selected their clientele to receive this sign of opulence. The magazine has been a means of reaching out to consumers who do not live within a reasonable driving distance of a retail location.

This week signifies the launch of the saks.com catalog now available to web-shoppers around the world. It does not have the same impact as the heavy, color magazine the company mails out seasonally, but it introduces many to their first glimpse of such a publication. Their intended receiver is a casual shopper, possibly not familiar with the Saks catalog, or possibly a new visitor to their site. An individual unfamiliar with the site may not make the connection between the publication and the site. In many ways it resembles a number of other on-line retailers who have posted versions of their mailings on-line for e-shoppers to peruse. This site is intended to introduce the receiver to high-end, luxury goods with the eventual purpose of purchasing said goods. Ideally, the introduction of the catalog will create a return customer with a taste for designer items such as those offered by Saks.

Despite the beautiful design of the Saks website, it has a tendency to create noise for itself by overloading the start page with lots of advertisements. It also may be difficult for the receiver considering the numerous other sites offering similar goods, sometime at a lower price. The market in which Saks operates creates noise because