09/30/2026
A favorite from the archives, sparked by a recent conversation. It's not 1999, but time-tested strategies yield similar results today.
In late 1999, Robert Wildrick took the CEO seat at Jos. A. Bank, a century-old menswear chain that was sliding fast: a third-quarter net loss, sales down, and a business that had leaned harder into casual dressing right as the market shifted away from suits.
Wildrick didn't chase one silver bullet. He read where his customer actually was - men still wanted to look sharp, just with more range - and leaned the merchandise into casualwear and higher-margin add-ons like belts, growing the size of every order. At the same time, he found that the printed catalog, the company's core acquisition engine for decades, had quietly been cut back. He reversed that immediately and committed to never shrinking circulation again.
The combination worked fast. Within two months, Jos. A. Bank posted its best December in company history. The following quarter closed with a 5.5% sales gain over the year before - and the momentum didn't stop there. By the time Wildrick retired in 2008, annual sales had grown roughly threefold and net income had climbed more than thirtyfold.
That's the real lesson: no single tactic saves a business. It's knowing your customer well enough to shift what you sell, paired with a mailing strategy sharp enough to consistently get the offer in front of them. Every business hits a moment where the old approach stops working - the ones that survive are the ones that pivot the product and keep showing up in the mailbox.
Source: Multichannel Merchant, "STRATEGIES: More Bank books, more Bank bucks" and "Bank tries to get casualwear right"; Multichannel Merchant, "Succession Plan in Place at Jos. A. Bank"
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