Catalog Doctor: Avoid the ‘Lazy Syndrome’ Epidemic
Prescription: List all the product’s features, then all its benefits. Look at your list and imagine the customer saying, “So what?” It’s your job to answer “so what” and overcome each objection — overcoming objections has always been key for salesfolks.
After this process, you have an entire page of product features and really convincing benefits. Now you need to prioritize it all and condense it into a powerful headline/subhead with maybe 35 words to 100 words of copy. Think it can’t be done? See Vermont Country Store or Levenger. Even fashion has function, and copy needs to address fabric, fit, comfort, care and why your customers will look good.
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.
