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A–Z Media taps Craft, Orme

By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, March 2, 2003

Carlsbad, Calif. — A–Z Media has launched a range of advertising and marketing services for home furnishings retailers and has named two executives to lead the effort.

Lester Craft Jr., former editor in chief of Furniture/Today, is the newly hired vice president of sales. Steve Orme, formerly national director of sales at A–Z Media, has been promoted to vice president of marketing services.

Both will report to Dennis Conforto, president and chief executive officer of A–Z Media (pronounced A-to-Z Media).

The company, created a year ago, is the parent of Internet shopping portal Shop A–Z.com, founded in 1999, and A–Z Magazines, founded in 2000.

Conforto is a former owner of retail software provider GERS, was president of the Furniture Consultant's Center for nearly two decades, and was a retail executive.

Craft left Furniture/Today in 2000 and has worked in publishing and electronic media since then. While at Furniture/Today, he was a founder of the Young Home Furnishings Executives, an industry trade association.

A–Z Media says its services are designed to enable home furnishings retailers to get more out of their advertising and marketing spending, and to improve sales and profitability.

"During 18 months of rigorous market testing and initial implementation, the effectiveness of our services has been validated by leading home furnishings retailers," Conforto said. "We help our retail partners get a lot more for less, and at the same time our relationships are exclusive in nature to ensure our clients complete and total market domination in sales and profits."

He said that because some relationships require nondisclosure, he could not name current retail clients.

A–Z Media's services include:

BroadcastBlast, an ad placement program the company says will increase broadcast advertising by 20% to 30% without increasing spending. A–Z Media provides the service to only one major home furnishings retailer per market area, ensuring a competitive advantage.
PrintBlast, direct mail and inserts. Using its national buying power, A–Z Media says it can drive down costs significantly and increase effectiveness by using proven marketing methodologies and best practices.
Low-cost, personalized e-mail promotions and store newsletters. The company says low-cost e-mail campaigns can effectively reach qualified customers. And with E-mail Match, the firm uses its national database to find the e-mail addresses of the consumers on retailers' own databases.
Integrated EventBlast, combining mass media and personalized advertising to generate cost-effective sales events.
MAPS Reporting, using an A–Z Media ad tracking system to measure performance, and evaluating campaigns under the direction of Britt Beemer's America's Research Group.

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