Catalog Success recognizes five professionals named to the top honors in the catalog industry.

By Reported Donna Loyle

3. Tie your catalog and your Web site together, and allow customers to choose by which method they want to buy from you. “Remember, the Internet doesn’t create business; your print catalog does. The goal should be to bond those two channels together.”

The Industry’s Greatest Challenges

1. Generic-looking catalogs. “I believe that 95 percent of today’s catalogs are doomed to failure,” says Helford. “They’re following the one-size-fits-all model that simply won’t work in the future. Those that will survive will offer products that are unique to a customer’s needs. Why run 14 pages of toner products and send that catalog to a customer who doesn’t even own the machines that use those types of toner? The future is in individualized and personalized catalogs. If a customer wants to see only certain types of fashion that’s all that should be included in the catalogs you mail to her.”