Merchandising: To Theme or Not to Theme?

If done properly, themes on catalog spreads engage your customers, enhance your brand and differentiate you from competitors. Just look at Coldwater Creek and how it treats color as its signature thematic tool. No one pulls off strong color as a product categorizer like this company. Color beautifally anchors its apparel, accessories and home decor offerings.

When thinking about devising themes for your catalog spreads, consider all the things that come readily to mind: color, price points, style, customers’ needs, practicality, seasonality and sheer creativity. But then what?

Themes Don’t Just Happen

Catalogers who successfully use themes don’t just stumble on them. Rather, they create them intentionally. Here’s how you can do it:
Look at your bestsellers and observe any commonalties among these winners. Tip: Cut out the copy blocks and photos of your top 50 performers, and arrange and rearrange them to find common threads. Once you’ve identified commonalties, determine if they can be expanded into larger themes or groupings. After all, these products are customer favorites. Think of them as picture windows into your customers’ minds. How, then, can you expand and extrapolate your customers’ particular needs by offering similar products? What stories are these products telling? What stories can you create?

Case study: Current, a social expression company with a strong emphasis on family-oriented seasonal items, expanded its novelty Easter basket stuffers to include many non-candy alternatives and religious items. Target audience: Parents who want to teach their little ones the traditional meaning of Easter.

Skip the Obvious First Answer, and Then Go Deeper

When looking for creative theme ideas, collaborate with staff members outside of merchandising (e.g., marketing, customer service, creative). Ask them to help you see your bestsellers in new ways. Challenge them to skip the first natural grouping area and probe for the second and third best ideas. These could lead to some surprising and unexpected themes that just might make your customers stop on the spread and buy.

Case study: L.L. Bean recently created a customized fashion theme out of its bestselling canvas tote bag. These signature bags now are available in many trendy colors and prints, which change with the seasons. And all can be personalized so customers feel as if they had a hand in creating a tote just for them. L.L. Bean put fun into a normally utilitarian product category and created a theme that’s expandable and brand-relevant.

Use Your Brand Filter

When brainstorming a list of potential themes, double check that they represent your brand well and don’t stretch you too far out of your core product categories. A few risky products can be OK — even planning a calculated risky spread is OK -- but be sure your themes match your brand’s identity and the personality you’ve built for it. Think of themes as retailers do when creating store windows and intriguing displays. Will your customers easily understand them? And most importantly, do they serve to showcase and enhance individual products within those themes?

Create an Upfront Plan With Your Pagination in Mind

Once you’ve brainstormed and filtered your theme ideas, sketch all of this out on paper. Where will those new themes fit in your overall catalog pagination? Will each spread be themed, or will five or six themes carry your whole assortment. What happens to key products that fall out of these pre-planned themes? Work your themes strategically and intentionally as part of your overall merchandising plan.

Andrea Syverson is the president of IER Partners, a creative merchandising and brand consultancy. She can be reached via e-mail at asyverson@ierpartners.com.