Catalog Doctor: Avoid the ‘Lazy Syndrome’ Epidemic
Prescription: Try to eliminate the need for key letters. Those little A/B/Cs that match copy with product are an extra slow-down step for customers. Ask yourself, “Can I reorganize this spread clearly enough to eliminate the extra step of key letters?”
Don’t know how? Look at Norm Thompson’s Solutions catalog of organizers for the home, where the layout always visually connects copy to image, or the high-end steaks catalog, Allen Brothers, where good layouts combine with photo captions for clarity and scannability.
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
