Catalog Doctor: Break Out of the Catalog Mold
Study Noncatalog Brands
You can enhance your catalog's brand communication by studying what general brands are doing. Don't just look at your product categories — go wider afield. For example, say your brand has some history behind it, and you think leveraging that history might sell: Study what great history-?based brands are doing, like Steinway and Stickley.
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.
