Separating Yourself From the Competition

Created on an island known for its leisurely, laid back attitude, the Black Dog Holiday Catalog is obviously an organic product of its surroundings and customers. It sells the wares of the 30-year-old Black Dog tavern and bakery of Martha’s Vineyard.

The 56-page holiday catalog doubles as a monthly calendar for year-round use. Inside is Black Dog paraphernalia displayed through illustrations and customers’ personal snap shots.

The book is laid out in seemingly incongruous themes, such as dogs, kids, outdoor activities and events, but is unified by the island lifestyle. Much effort goes into differentiating the 12-year-old catalog from others, but the overriding factor that sets it apart is that the catalog’s founder, Elaine Sullivan, doesn’t play by the rules.

Sullivan doesn’t use the calendar concept to extend her book’s shelf life, although it does. She doesn’t use key catalog pages to move products, and she doesn’t spend months trying to determine the best use of selling space.

Done almost entirely in-house, the catalogs, of which there are four a year, were created to give the retail location’s employees work during the off-season. The employees, who are not trained catalogers, use their intuition instead of industry know-how to design the book. The result is a catalog that reflects the Black Dog business and grabs the customer’s attention.

Breaking the Rules

The Black Dog is everything a “good” catalog is not. It is quirky, unpretentious and relaxed. In order to convey the ambiance of the tavern in a print catalog, a few rules need to be broken.

The calendar concept itself is eye-catching, but creates headaches for design, flow and product placement. Yet it remains the restaurant’s preferred style.

“The initial reason we made a calendar is we wanted it to have value as more than just a catalog, so people can use it,” says Sullivan.

In addition to its unconventional catalog size, alternative typography, product layout, product illustration and color are all used to portray the Black Dog.

“One of the increasing struggles is [creating] a uniqueness in the mail catalog business,” says Alfred M. Schmidt Jr. of Schmidt Group International, a New-Jersey-based catalog consulting firm. “It’s to the point where only the name makes a statement. The Black Dog breaks a lot of the basic rules, and you can say all kinds of negative things, but the bottom line is it works.”

Specifically, Schmidt points out such rule-breaking as running print over backgrounds so the type is hard to read, using a hard-to-read typeface, choosing uncoated paper and placing so many elements on a page that it is difficult to focus. He elaborates on the use of space, saying specifically that much of it is devoted to non-selling, such as calendars, menus and the customer snap shot page. But, he says, the step outside the norm gives them a catalog that’s innovative.

“We try to put things on calendars that aren’t super salesy, like pictures of kids,” says Sullivan.

To keep the mailing and production costs down, the 9˝ x 11˝ book is limited to 56 pages. The result is a vying for space between merchandise and calendars, says the Black Dog’s catalog designer, Carol Kolodny of Kolodny & Rentschler on the Vineyard. She says it works to her advantage because she tries to make the book an adventure.

“The organization is important,” says Kolodny, the catalog’s designer from its inception. “We really want to make it a treasure hunt and to reflect the kookiness of the company. The [product] line doesn’t change that much and we need to make it seem like they haven’t seen it before. To some extent, we work hard to keep it loose.”

Another rule the Black Dog has broken is the use of premium paper. Typically, a cataloger will go to great lengths to use a paper that offers the best reproduction. Sullivan, however, goes out of her way to use recycled paper.

The uncoated, porous paper sucks up ink, neither color nor photos reproduce on it well—but it is recycled. Environmental friendliness wins out because it keeps with the values of the Black Dog.

“We have practically always used recycled paper,” says Sullivan. “The paper needs to be substantial, something that reflects the easy-going way the company has been run. We have never gone after a very finished look. We know we give up clarity and reproduction quality, but we really like this paper.”

While using the uncoated paper is mandatory, it makes the calendar catalog that much more difficult to produce. Kolodny says the paper is hard to handle and has resulted in staying with one printer, Acme of Boston, who knows how to deal with it.

Viva La Difference

While breaking some of the rules works for the Black Dog, much of that has to do with the catalog’s distribution list. The book is sent only to the 250,000 people who request it, making it easy to center its attributes to please the customer.

The catalog’s size and allocation of space can make it seem crowded. But the devotion to the calendars and the customer photographs stems from customer demand and company principle.

“I think [the illustrations] make the catalog more interesting,” says Sullivan. “There are so many out there, and so many look alike. I would like ours to have a definite personality and be different.”

Throughout the book, a mix of illustrations and photos shows the product line. Since the Black Dog’s logo is an illustrated dog, the drawings lend the book continuity. Originally done entirely in illustration, photographs were integrated when drawings no longer sufficed and in response to the deluge of customer snap shots.

Schmidt points out the mixture can divert the reader’s attention all over the page.

“They are breaking basic rules, but in spite of it, it seems to work,” says Schmidt. “It is a very clever edition.”

The mixed-design concept also allows the designer to use a spontaneous personal photograph that captures the flavor of the product, and then use an illustration to model the product in detail.

In particular, the 1999 Holiday Catalog features Sullivan’s three labradors, a customer’s golden retriever, and another customer’s infant in Black Dog garb. Sullivan says the customers have responded favorably to those three shots. Moreover, the illustrations accomplish Sullivan’s goals.

“We are selling ourselves, our logo, the place we live and what we like to do,” says Sullivan.

A Natural Process

Just like kids and dogs being a natural, the calendar catalog is guided according to what feels right to Sullivan.

Unlike the usual relationship catalogers have with their designers, the employer-employee hierarchy between Sullivan and Kolodny & Rentschler is not clear cut. Sullivan contributes to product layout, photography and writes the copy. All of her work has to be run by Kolodny & Rentschler and vice versa.

“It is a very symbiotic process; in fact the things have to feed off of each other,” said Kolodny. “We have to know her intent, she has to write to our design, then we look at her copy again and change accordingly.”

Since the holiday catalog is put together in just three months, quick decision making and a natural flow, rather than formal structure, work best. The timeline is also a concession made so that the products can be domestic-made instead of imported. Sometimes the products ship late and the catalog is often laid out before all the merchandise is available.

The calendar-catalog creation begins in August and ships in mid-October. To meet deadlines, Kolodny & Rentschler allow for Sullivan’s whimsy with a rough layout using photocopies of products from previous catalogs.

While Sullivan claims she doesn’t give intense thought to product placement, she makes excellent use of the front cover, inside cover, back cover and the order form. On these key pages, she has placed best sellers, new products, gift certificates and holiday specials.

Product placement, such as cookie cutters and a cookie jar on the back cover, is done to remind people that the Black Dog is in the food business.

“When designing there is a lot of anxiety about turning it into a tee shirt company rather than a restaurant,” says Kolodny.

The catalog is produced through a mix of Sullivan’s intuition and Kolodny & Rentschler’s attention to color, product layout and flow.

Kolodny & Rentschler is primarily responsible for the themes that flow through the catalog. The pair breaks the product list into categories such as dogs, food, jewelry, products for women and men, children and outdoor wear. Because there is so much crossover it is hard to label merchandise. For instance, where does one place a watch featuring dogs? The decisions help to give the book its “treasure hunt” feel.

Where themes fail to add cohesion, Sullivan’s copy prevails. Her lively copywriting highlights the easy-going nature and friendliness of island life. The best copy sells the items with a quirky yet straightforward prose. Here are a couple of examples.

Advertising a leather bomber jacket:

“Whether you just saw ‘Grease’ for the tenth or eleventh time or are still looking for that letterman sweater, you’ll love this jacket.”

Advertising a canvas bag:

“We’re sure that you’ve heard airlines no longer permit passengers to bring everything, including the kitchen sink, as carry-on luggage. If you suffer from overpackitis, may we suggest our bags.”

Sullivan says she tries to write casually, as if she were speaking with a customer about the product.

“I am trying to be truthful with a sense of humor, and absolutely casual—beyond the rules of English grammar,” says Sullivan. “It should be the way people talk.”

Achieving the Goal

With so many catalogs to compete with, the Black Dog has found an ingenious way to stand out, says Schmidt. And Sullivan agrees.

She said the goal is to differentiate the catalog from the others, while reflecting the Black Dog tavern and bakery in the design and products.

“Sometimes we really overwhelm ourselves. We put all of our marketing effort into this one piece that says who we are,” says Sullivan emphasizing that despite the diverse product line, the Black Dog has survived for 30 years as a restaurant and a bakery. “We need to reinforce that we are still a food company.”