By Al Moore
Who could say no to a cute little frog waving a peace sign? No one, apparently, according to Catesby Jones, who launched his successful Peace Frog clothing line from his college dorm room back in 1985.
With the Internet in its infancy, the then-UVA college student launched the Peace Frog brand by going door-to-door convincing T-shirt shops and other retailers to carry his product. Funding his business with his credit card, Catesby backed up his personal marketing efforts with an “extensive” advertising campaign: a one-quarter-page ad in Rolling Stone magazine. This was financed by pooling the resources of high school and college friends who invested in his concept.
It didn’t take long for the Peace Frogs enterprise to get up and running as a robust catalog business—but that doesn’t mean it was all smooth sailing. The young entrepreneur had a lot to learn. While the company brought in $30,000 in sales the first year and $80,000 the second, Catesby was sometimes selling his clothing at a loss.
That didn’t discourage him, however, and on graduation he moved his company out of his dorm room and back to his hometown of Gloucester, where it remains today. He had successfully achieved a 20 to 25 percent annual growth rate when, in 1998, he decided to expand the business by moving into the Internet sales arena. Part of his decision to move into E-commerce was the realization that online orders needed a lot less effort to process, and were simple compared to the process required to handle phone orders.
Catesby’s first experience with advertising in Rolling Stone had taught him that marketing didn’t have to cost a fortune. He went back to his entrepreneurial roots when he considered expanding to the Internet. After asking himself, “How much money can I afford to lose if this doesn’t go well?” and answering with “not much,” he spent only $29 to set up his first Web-based store.
His online venture earned a profit right away, and from that point forward he relied on in-house talent and a trial-and-error approach to E-commerce. In addition to minimizing his start-up expenses, this approach allowed Catesby to develop personal, in-depth knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work in online marketing, providing a platform on which Peace Frogs continues to grow. Over the years, the company has expanded from the basic shorts and t-shirts it started with to offering everything from Peace Frog jewelry to spare tire covers.
Another important finding that Catesby made was how much Internet marketing differed from marketing through print ads and catalogs. He found that he had much more flexibility when posting online content than he had had with print ads and catalogs. Copy could be changed at will in order to meet the demands of the day or week. Mistakes could easily be corrected. This was impossible on the catalog side of the business.
Even though the Internet has many advantages for a company like Peace Frogs, Catesby still sees challenges. Marketing, in particular, can be difficult when “there is so much clutter out there on the Internet,” he says. “Breaking through is the hardest thing about E-commerce.” Peace Frogs is now active in the social networking arena, with about 1,200 friends on its Facebook Fan page. “Social networking is a viable medium for retail sales,” he affirms, and is actively seeking new ways for social networking to improve sales performance. Social networking has another appeal for Catesby—its low cost means he can take a patient approach and learn as he goes.
But Catesby doesn’t rely only on the Internet for his company’s sales. Online sales actually represent only about 5 percent of the Peace Frogs gross. Wholesale distribution still makes up the bulk of the company’s business. Online retail orders usually hit a peak of 2,000 per week during the most active seasons, but Catesby sees the potential to increase in volume as his biggest opportunity. After all, who can resist a cute little frog?
