Creative & Copywriting: 5 Cost-Cutting Danger Zones

Trimming expenses is top-of-mind for everyone producing a catalog or e-commerce site today. But it can get you into trouble if not approached with some extra knowledge.

Creative is often management’s target for cost trimming, even though creative is rarely a high percentage of total expenditure. When you add printing to that, however, it’s a big piece of change — and opportunities for savings abound. But danger can lurk when paring creative and printing costs. So, here are five danger zones to avoid:

1. Writing It Yourself
It’s easy to lay off a copywriter or stop hiring freelancers. But merchants and marketers rarely look at a product from the consumer’s point of view. When copy is written by novices, it often becomes lists of features culled from manufacturer product sheets with no benefits to tug on customers’ emotions. Copy without emotional drivers never sells as well as it should. A pro writer is a great salesman.

2. Cramming Spreads
Stuffing more on each spread while reducing page count is a bad idea. If you really need to trim by a signature, do a fresh square-inch analysis to see which products are paying for their space and which aren’t.

Use that information to remove underperforming products. Otherwise the weak will weigh down the catalog, and the whole thing will suffer. By removing duds, you can give best-performers the space they deserve. This will yield better sales.

Cramming too much on a spread also makes your catalog a flat, gray crush of too much copy and too small images. You have a Web site — use that cheap Web space to sell underperformers. A dynamic catalog with heroes on each spread and no junk is
more appealing.

3. Tantalizing Gatefolds
When trying to reduce a catalog by less than a full signature, it’s tempting to try the gatefold — a doubled-over page that creates a full-page flap to the inside. Your printer can do it, so why not, right? Well, one of my painting mentors gave me great advice that’s relevant here: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

With a full-page gatefold, the flap completely covers what’s inside. Static electricity holds the page flat against its other half. Guess what? Nobody notices the gatefold.

In addition, opening a gatefold is actually inconvenient. At three pages wide, it’s cumbersome. Readers must fold it in again before turning the page. I’ve watched studies where readers tear off the offending flap and throw it out. It becomes invisible to the reader. You end up hiding product in what you thought was prime space.

4. Too Many ‘Big Sales’
Shouting that every issue is the biggest sale EVER makes you the cataloger who cries wolf. Explore interesting and different offers — not just discounts — to continually tease and tantalize your recipients. Alternate offers and creative treatments.

5. Keep Your Photographer
Replacing your photographer with someone in your office who owns a “nice” camera is a mistake. There’s little chance your novice’s photographs will make products look desirable.

A good photograph that really sells your wares requires special lighting and photographers’ reflective surfaces to model and define your product. When you make the product look better than your competitor does, people often are willing to pay more for the belief they’re buying a better product.

Conclusion
Don’t let this economy become a catalyst for creative decisions that impede response. Discuss cost options and savings with your creative resource and printer, and do a little homework before you start. Your best defense in tough times is stronger sales.

Carol Worthington-Levy is partner, creative services, for LENSER, a catalog consultancy. Reach her at (408) 269-6871 or carol.worthington-levy@lenser.com.