Creative

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.

Many catalogers have evolved during the past decade from dedicated print catalogers to multichannel marketers. In expanding into other sales channels, most catalogers wisely have brought along e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail specialists to run the additional channels. But if your own efforts at multichannel marketing have been less than stellar, following are some success strategies that may prove useful. Multichannel Rules Virtually every study that looks at consumers who shop via more than one channel shows that multichannel shoppers spend more. For instance, a recently completed Shop.org survey found: - the average retail customer spent $1,267 per year in stores; - customers

What does a cataloger do when the products he or she sells just don’t look appealing? That’s precisely the situation for Purity Products, a seller of specialty formulations. Download the complete article (96k PDF)

In the wake of Kmart’s recent merger with Sears, we thought you’d enjoy this nostalgic look back at what it was like to work for a catalog pioneer during its heyday. —Editors As American business was getting back on its feet after World War II, I entered a career adventure with one of the world’s largest catalogers, Sears, Roebuck and Co. Since all my associates in 1948 were more than twice as old as I, that means I’m the last survivor of the company’s catalog creative division from that era. Here’s a look back at what catalog creation was like in

Can you tell good design from bad? Most people would say “yes.” But for most people it doesn’t really matter, because their jobs don’t depend on being able to tell the difference anyway. But for you it does matter — a lot. Great design is part of that subtle calculus that can boost or depress your catalog’s sales. And the reality is, most people can’t tell good design from bad, at least not if we define good design as that which appeals to the most, and offends the fewest, people in a catalog audience. So if you’re one of the design-impaired, how can you

The key to keeping response rates ahead of the game for the Plow& Hearth catalog has been in revisiting the makeup of the book, said Jean Giesmann, vice president of creative services for the home furnishings catalog, when she spoke at the Hudson Valley Direct Marketing Association’s “Meet the Catalogers” luncheon held in Greenwich, Conn., in early April. “We revisited our brand a few years ago when we saw our response rates not doing so well,” she noted.”What were we doing wrong?” Following are a few strategies officials at Plow& Hearth used to get back on track. * They started to get a little tougher on

Two years ago, J.C. Penney Co. unveiled its latest branding slogan, “It’s all inside,” to illustrate to consumers that no matter which channel they shop — retail, catalog or online — they’ll find the same from Penney in terms of merchandise, service and the overall brand. No other companies have copied Penney’s slogan, of course, but many have followed the same path, recognizing that with more orders coming online, customers need to know that regardless of which channel they choose, they can expect a similar experience. Easy Does It Some catalogers have been making subtle alterations in their approaches to the print book

For the good of your customers and company, staff members in merchandising, marketing and creative must learn to work synergistically. In my years working with direct marketing clients, I’ve worn all three of these hats. I’ve also directed collaborative efforts from a strategic management position. So I know these three catalog tasks can be done in a collaborative manner — and I know the outcome often is customer delight. Here’s how you, as a catalog senior manager, can encourage such efforts. 1. First, get everyone in the same room. Doors, walls, cubicles and continual e-mails can unintentionally create silos among your employees. Face-to-face

Catalogers who outsource their catalog creative and production often ask themselves the following questions: *How can we work together better? *How can we build a smoother creative process for our catalog? *How can we control our schedule and creative budget better? *How can we produce a better and more compelling catalog? *How can we be more consistent in our creative presentation to customers? *How can our catalog enhance the company’s niche and brand better? The road to building and maintaining a smooth relationship between a catalog company and its creative agency is often marred with pitfalls. Here are some best practices for building and maintaining a harmonious, mutually respectful relationship between

Most Internet users don’t read the majority of what they view online, says John Morkes, a usability expert and director of the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Trilogy Software. In fact, he continues, 79 percent of all Internet users just briefly skim most of the material they see on the Web. In her book, “Web Copy That Sells” (American Management Association, www.amacombooks.org, $21.95), Maria Veloso gives five tips on how you can write copy that takes advantage of your customers’ method of viewing your Web site. 1. Use bulleted lists to summarize content. 2. Highlight selected keywords or phrases by using bold or italic