Brookstone Selects VerticalResponse For Self-Service Email Marketing

National Specialty Retailer Brings Email Marketing In-House with Affordable, Easy-to-Use Campaign Management Service

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Oct. 9, 2001 - VerticalResponse™, the emerging leader in self-service email marketing, today announced that Brookstone has adopted their self-service email marketing solution. Brookstone, a national specialty retailer with over $300 million in annual sales, will use VerticalResponse's self-service campaign creation and management product, iBuilder™, to send their customers targeted sales offers via email.

Like many other large retail businesses, Brookstone previously outsourced their email campaign management and delivery to a direct marketing agency. With iBuilder, Brookstone's direct marketing team can manage the entire campaign from creation to delivery in minutes over the Internet.

"Delivering email campaigns to hundreds of thousands of customers used to require marketers to make a choice between staying at work late to send email over internal servers with the help of IT staff or handing direct control of the campaign delivery over to an outside agency," said Donna Edgar Marketing Promotions Manager for Brookstone. "With iBuilder, I can affordably create and send HTML email campaigns in minutes over the Internet. Beyond their excellent customer service, VerticalResponse offers unmatched ease-of-use and functionality at a price point that is attractive for any business."

Brookstone will use iBuilder to create and manage email marketing campaigns that introduce new products and alert customers about upcoming events. Since July, Brookstone has sent email campaigns using iBuilder to introduce items ranging from a $29 chef's fork to premium Tempur-Pedic(r) mattresses for as much as $1,600. Sales resulting from these campaigns have been well above expectations. Brookstone plans to send an average of two emails per month.

"Since 1965 Brookstone has been a retail success story offering unique, quality merchandise direct to consumers. We are proud to be a part of Brookstone's ongoing history of innovation in the direct retail industry," said Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse. "VerticalResponse was founded to make email marketing easy and affordable for businesses of all sizes. Companies as large as Brookstone and as small as home-based consultancies can affordably create and send professional email campaigns in minutes."

Introduced in May of this year, iBuilder makes it easy and affordable for businesses to create and manage email marketing campaigns. With no upfront investment, businesses can sign-up for service on the Internet and create a campaign in minutes. For a fraction of the cost of traditional email programs, businesses purchase blocks of email credits based on their needs. There are no additional costs for technical support, list storage, hardware or software.

About VerticalResponse

Based in San Francisco, VerticalResponse was founded by industry veterans who set out to revolutionize email marketing with affordable, easy-to-use products. iBuilder, the first product from VerticalResponse, helps companies of all sizes create and execute email campaigns as well as manage customer contact lists. Built on the self-service model, iBuilder is available directly over the Internet with no software to purchase, maintain and upgrade. Customers can register on the VerticalResponse site and purchase email credits online with their credit card.

For more information about VerticalResponse or iBuilder log onto www.VerticalResponse.com.

About Brookstone

Brookstone, Inc. is a nationwide specialty retailer that operates 237 stores in 38 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Typically located in high-traffic regional shopping malls and airports, the stores feature unique and innovative consumer products. The Company also operates a direct marketing business that consists of three catalogs, Brookstone, Hard-to-Find Tools and Gardeners Eden, as well as an e-commerce web site at http://www.Brookstone.com.