Creative

Smart marketers, sales teams and business owners recognize the opportunity to develop a direct mail piece that exclusively promotes a single product — an item with a strong margin and an identifiable target audience. Usually the item has a high price point and specific benefits for the buyer — as well as a surplus of information that necessitates more space than a catalog page realistically can accommodate. If identifying the opportunity is that easy, how quickly do you become a victim of either yours or a colleague’s best intentions? If you’re unsure, here are mistakes to avoid when implementing a single-product mailing.

Positioning itself as “Golf’s most trusted retailers since 1968,” Edwin Watts Golf obviously is an established player in its industry, selling golf equipment through catalog, Internet and retail stores. Click here to read Christine Carrington’s creative review of Edwin Watts Golf catalog (PDF).

You’re flipping through a 500-page catalog for a major player in the janitorial and sanitation (jan/san) supplies market sector when you happen upon a section displaying waste containers. The catalog carries a host of well-known brands — including wastebaskets, can liners and other products made by United Receptacle. What you may not realize is that the other company’s catalog that you’re viewing actually features page layouts, photos and graphic designs produced not by that catalog, but by manufacturer and distributor United Receptacle. In addition to producing its own catalog each year to showcase its full product line, United Receptacle also helps many of

The Brisky Pet Products catalog uniquely targets a special clientele: the exotic pet owner (PDF).

As a multichannel marketer, you touch your customers in many ways. In a given year, they’ll see your catalog, e-mails, postcards, package inserts, Web site and even store displays. Across these varied media, what should stay the same? What should be different? Lois Boyle, president of Mission, Kan.-based catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates, offers the following three tips on maintaining brand identity across multiple customer touchpoints. 1. Vary your message, not your voice. Customers will get used to the way you speak to them, notes Boyle. If the same person isn’t responsible for writing copy for every customer touchpoint, keep samples of your copy voice on

“Hotspots are the store windows of your catalog,” says Andrea Syverson, a creative marketing strategist and president of IER Partners, a Black Forest, Colo.-based catalog consultancy. These spots are where customers will stop when browsing through your catalog, and it’s at these locations you want to push your catalog’s main message. Every catalog has five hotspots, notes Syverson, and in descending order of significance, they are: the front cover, back cover, inside front cover, inside back cover and center spread. Be intentional about the story your catalog tells in these spots, she says. Does that story convey your brand? Your best products should be on

E-mail is a double-edged sword. Done well, it’s a powerful business tool. Done poorly, it causes serious problems for individuals and organizations alike. “E-mail has not only changed the way we do business, it’s begun to define how we’re viewed as professionals and people,” says Janis Fisher Chan, author of “E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide -- How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace” (Write It Well, 2005, $21.99). “The words we write are very real representations of our companies and ourselves. We must be sure our e-mail messages are sending the right messages about us.” In her book, Chan offers practical

As the saying goes, it’s not good creative if it doesn’t sell product. But from the very start of your catalog creative process, how can you be sure you’re developing creative that will sell well? Andrea Syverson, a creative marketing strategist and president of IER Partners, a Black Forest, Colo.-based catalog consultancy, offers the following tips on building stellar catalog creative. ¥ Establish a solid relationship between your merchandising and creative teams. Your creative staff needs to know as much as your merchants do about what creative has worked in the past, says Syverson. She recommends establishing regular meetings at the start of each catalog

“Give me a place to stand and rest my lever on, and I can move the earth.” —Archimedes No doubt you’ve heard the phrase “starry-eyed,” but have you ever seen it? I did, in a young married couple I’ll call Mary and Joe. They dreamed of owning a catalog, and when they came to see me about a launch, their eyes sparkled in anticipation. ”We’ve done lots of research. We’ve built a business plan and sales projections. And we’ve saved enough for the initial investment.” A good start, I thought. These folks have a realistic plan. They’ve got a chance for the stars

With only a few minor adjustments, Hobby Horse catalog could simply soar. Download the complete article (76k PDF)