Catalog Doctor: The Page-Smart Catalog
2. Adding a new product? Look for something “proven” about it. Buyers live with product lines day after day, so it’s easy to grow tired of old products, and it’s fun and exciting to experiment with new ones. But experiments are risky in down times.
Prescription: Analyze the elements that make your proven products successful. Only test a new product if it includes one or more “proven” elements. Example: You’ve found a gorgeous new print fabric for a blouse; introduce it first on your best-selling blouse body style. Similarly, if you want to test a brand-new body style, introduce it in your best-selling colors.
- Places:
- Portland, Ore.
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.
