Catalog Doctor: Avoid the ‘Lazy Syndrome’ Epidemic
Prescription: Analyze your company the same way you analyze products. Think about your company’s experience, special knowledge, product quality, service, guarantee and special programs. Make a features/benefits list, and again, imagine customers asking the question, “So what?”
Your result could be an intro letter or short copy blocks about special areas of interest. The right motto can say a lot. So can small, relevant editorials sprinkled throughout the catalog. And don’t forget that you can weave your expertise or other differentiators into product copy, too.
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.
