Longer Road Needed to Go Hollywood

Hollywood Gadgets has a wonderful assortment of products. Unique and interesting, it’s a catalog you know will do well if you can get it opened and perused. Therein lies the challenge. This catalog is filled with potential, but undertapped opportunities.

Front Cover
Perhaps with all the best intentions, this cata-loger may feel it has worked hard on the front cover, but is it also working smart? A lot of people might applaud putting the product in a lifestyle setting, but is that enough? Is it compelling? Dramatic? Emotional? Relevant? Differentiated? If you put your hand over the logo, would you know whose catalog it was?

The cover throws a mishmash of information, color and images at you. Your eye doesn’t know where to go first. The problem isn’t that the cataloger is trying to do too much and ought to cut the messaging. Hollywood Gadgets just needs to do it differently. Here are five quick fixes that will turn around the cover.

1. Treat the logo as a masthead. Place it higher and bigger on the front cover. Customers want to see it. Previously mailed prospects may recognize it and new prospects will think it looks more important. And Hollywood Gadgets should get rid of the “G” in a circle, it’s probably not meaningful to anyone except the people who put the catalog out, and on the cover it’s just distracting.

2. Use dot whacks for offers, not for information. Customers expect to see free S&H, reduced dollars or a percentage off prices in those treatments. The free gift is the only thing that warrants a dot whack. Use type treatments, screened back space or perhaps a banner to communicate the number of new products, which is another important message for this audience.

3. Prioritize the information. Place copy flush left on either side of the page (something many magazines do) in easy-to-read, bold black type. A category list in the middle of the page that’s in centered, reversed type is very hard to read.

4. Simplify the shot and go for drama! The overall shot is typical of trying to do too much and winds up just being so-so. The environment is contrived and the room is over-propped.

Despite the goal of an emotional connection, there is none. For that to happen, the models would have to have had a connection between themselves or between them and the camera, neither of which happens.

5. Clean up the typefaces. On messages, icons and footers, use easier-to-read type (preferably black or a dark color) that doesn’t get in the way of the overall drama and composition of the cover.

Opening Spread
I give Hollywood Gadgets a rave review for dedicating space to editorial content and helpful ordering information. Readers expect it there and feel better about ordering when they see this done well. To make it even better, this cataloger could do the following:

* Use less color type and tints, ultimately black or dark type is easier to read;

* Use direct marketing techniques in the letter to make it more interesting to read (e.g. underlines, bold, bullets, etc.) and to emphasize the main points;

* Increase the font size of the P.S. so it’s easier to read; it’s usually the first thing that’s read in a letter;

* Use “scroll” or certificate design around the guarantee to make it look like one;

* Consider the “Our 100% GUARANTEE,” instead of “Absolutely the strongest guarantee of any catalog today!” — it’s a lot easier to read and understand at a glance; and

* Consider putting a blurb about the ease of Web ordering, including the Web address.

Interior Spread: Higher-price Merchandise Treatment
Selling expensive products in a catalog is a challenge because they often need more “help” than lower-priced products. Hollywood Gadgets should be working harder at selling expensive products, such as the five items on the pgs. 4-5 spread that are priced from $125.95 to $399.95. Some other key pointers:

1. Allocate less space to lower-priced items. To gain space for pricey items, the three products under $100 on this spread should each take up a lot less room. This can be accomplished without downsizing the product size by using silhouetted shots or by cropping the backgrounds.

Cutting “fluff” copy should almost be mandatory in these situations. The CD phone certainly doesn’t need an environment to sell, and the Shower-Sound Wireless copy can be cut in half without compromising the selling content.

2. Use callouts or bullets in the artwork to identify features and benefits. Point out product details, features and benefits that indicate value and validate the high prices. This is especially important for electronics or complicated products.

3. Use product descriptions in the art when appropriate. When the product benefit isn’t evident from the photo, put the product name in the art. For example, the Shower-Sound Wireless looks like any shower radio from the photo. Putting the word “wireless” in the art would give readers an immediate understanding of what they’re looking at.

Interior Spread: General Creative Guidelines
Overall, this catalog is jumbled. Since the goal is to entice recipients to spend time shopping and “discovering” all the unique and interesting product, Hollywood Gadgets must do a better job with organization, which would ultimately help the customer shop.

The company has already taken the first step, which is to employ columns. But there are several things that can be done to help the shopping experience.

* Create features and subfeatures. Anchoring the pages with bigger and/or more important presentations of key product will add interest and pacing to the catalog. Often higher-priced merchandise and key items that expect to sell in large quantities should receive more space.

On the pgs. 6-7 spread, the $59 Mini Fridge/Warmer and the $89 Levitating Globe seem like naturals to get more space. The globe also could be placed more prominently in the upper-right hand corner.

Page 6 sells all products in multiples. Imagine how much stronger the page would’ve been as a grid, with a related headline like “2 much fun for one!” or “So much fun, you’ll want two!”

Conclusion
Creative improvements can make a difference in performance. Interest level, readability and comprehension affect recipients’ time with a catalog and ability to understand the products put in front of them. Attending to the details takes more time. But done correctly, they’ll result in improved sales.

Glenda Shasho Jones is a New York-based catalog consultant and an authority in catalog branding and performance via creative applications. She’s author of “The Identity Trinity: Brand, Image and Positioning for Catalogs.” You can reach her at glenda@sjdirect.com.

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For the Web-exclusive sidebar on how effective Hollywood Gadgets’ copy is, click on “The Copy and Product Relationship” under related content.