Retailer Casual Male turns to sophisticated analytic software from SAS

Nothing casual about retail clothing chain’s six-figure ROI on its first direct-mail campaign

NRF 95th Annual Convention and EXPO, NEW YORK   (Jan. 16, 2006)  –  With consumers spending less but expecting more, retailers like Casual Male Retail Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CMRG), the leading specialty retailer of men’s big and tall apparel in the U.S., Canada and UK, must squeeze more profit from every dollar they spend on marketing and information technology, and must maximize existing resources like customer and sales data. 

Software from SAS, the leader in business intelligence, is helping Casual Male drive more precise marketing, refine operations and save money. SAS also will help the operator of the Casual Male Big & Tall clothing chain determine the most profitable locations for new stores in the U.S., Canada and the UK, and the ideal allocation of merchandise for its more than 528 stores worldwide. 

In addition to its retail stores, Casual Male also operates a direct-to-consumer business, which includes a catalog and e-commerce sites. Maximizing return on database marketing is a priority for the company. 

“One of Casual Male’s major initiatives is to increase sales without increasing marketing dollars,” said Geoff McGehee, director of database marketing at Casual Male. “We’re achieving this through our use of SAS to segment our customer database and select customers based on lifetime value and response models rather than the traditional industry standard of recency, frequency and monetary value.” 

Convincing Casual Male that SAS^® retail software would be a boon for business wasn’t a difficult proposition. According to McGehee, “We mail 30 to 40 million pieces of direct mail annually and the costs are substantial. Our expectations regarding the use of SAS were realized with the very first mailing we did using the software.” 

Looking ahead, Casual Male is not limiting its use of SAS to the marketing department. SAS retail software can become  an important determinant of the retailer’s real-estate selection and store location merchandise assortment planning.  

McGehee is also pleased with the support that SAS provides. “If I have a question, I always get a quick response.” 

SAS has nearly 30 years of working with retailers worldwide to turn raw data into intelligence to run their business better, understand their customers more completely, and compete effectively. In addition to Casual Male, SAS customers include hundreds of leading retailers worldwide, such as Bakers Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Burger King, Carrefour, Casino, The Children’s Place, Circuit City, Fakta, Federated Department Stores, Karstadt, Kohl’s, Li & Fung Retailing Group, The Limited, Lowe’s Companies, Luxottica Retail, Marks & Spencer, Newport News, Office Depot, Sainsbury’s, Sport Chalet, Staples, Tesco, Too Inc., Waitrose Limited,  Williams-Sonoma and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. 

SAS is demonstrating its retail intelligence solutions in NRF Booth #111. 

About Casual Male

Casual Male Retail Group Inc., the largest retailer of big and tall men’s apparel with retail operations throughout the U.S., Canada and London, England, operates 484 Casual Male Big & Tall stores, the Casual Male e-commerce site, Casual Male catalog business, 13 Casual Male at Sears-Canada stores and 24 Rochester Big & Tall stores and a direct-to-consumer business. The company is headquartered in Canton, Mass. and its common stock is listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol “CMRG.”

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