Creative

The product images in your print book and on your Web site represent both a critical creative component as well as a significant financial investment for your business. There’s no doubt that photography sells product. Whether you shoot your images with an in-house team or use a studio or creative agency, be sure you’re getting the most from your investment — and potentially improving sales — by following these five pointers. 1. Match your shots and the level of aesthetic quality you require to the appropriate photography medium. You may think the debate is over, and that digital has won. That’s

The primary function of your catalog is, of course, to sell merchandise. This goal supersedes any individual opinions about aesthetics. Successful creative strategies don’t necessitate a subjective discussion. What works is what sells. While there isn’t one secret formula for success, here are five tactics that can help guide your creative decisions. 1. Foster a dependent relationship among your creative, marketing and merchandising teams. Give your creative team the tools it needs to develop a catalog that sells merchandise. Such tools include information gleaned from a square inch analysis and marketing promotions, as well as any merchandising changes such as new items,

It really is possible for catalog design costs to occasionally approach zero, without sacrificing sales. And doing so can be a stimulating challenge. All in the Family We’d been going over the catalog budget estimate for hours, line by line. I was familiar with how tight-fisted this client was, and I’d already cut his estimate to the bone. But he kept probing for tricks to cut even more. “Why is design so high? It’s just putting photos and copy on a page. My nephew who knows Quark can do that,” the client said. “Well, there’s more to it than that. It takes

Versioned, personalized, customized — what are the differences between these types of catalog segmentation and printing techniques? The following definitions are courtesy of Heidelberg, which manufactures and sells the NexPress 2100 digital color press that makes these types of printing possible. 1. Versioned printing allows you to print multiple short runs of different catalog versions that follow a common design/layout. That is, you can incorporate some unique content or language for specific audiences while still staying with the common look and feel of your catalog, according to Heidelberg. With this type of digital printing, you can economically target your messages and

Modern printing technologies have made the promise of one-to-one — or more appropriately, one-to-some — marketing a reality. Indeed, today’s catalogers can select from a wide range of personalization printing techniques, such as inkjetting customers’ names on catalog covers or inserts, crafting special offers for small customer segments, or even printing four-color customized catalogs with products, imagery and copy hand-selected for each recipient. It’s a dizzying array of new catalog production and marketing possibilities. And catalogers are taking advantage of them. Just in the past few years, for example, catalog printer Quebecor World recorded a 15-percent annual growth rate in personalized catalogs among

United Stationers, a distributor of office supplies and other merchandise, has been producing various levels of versioned print catalogs for the past 10 years. Its clients, which include about 5,000 resellers ranging from mom-and-pop neighborhood stores to national chains such as Staples, use the catalogs to sell products to end-users. For this Des Plaines, IL-based wholesaler, versioning is need-driven. “We have so many resellers with different marketing needs that we must satisfy,” explains Jeff Kressman, director of marketing communications and research. United Stationers produces the following types of print catalog versions: 1. A standardized catalog with customized covers denoting the contact information

Catalogs are such wonderfully visual experiences that copy, a critical component, often is overlooked. But the truth is that copy can make a star out of a mediocre image, or it can make good merchandise sound boring. Many catalogers spend thousands of dollars looking for just the right designer, the perfect photographer and an inspiring shoot location, but then fail to consider the importance of the written word. Indeed, visuals today often are placed at a higher level than copy. Yet to truly affect customers and boost sales, catalog copy should work even harder than its accompanying visuals. In general, good catalog

Roughly speaking, all catalogs are styled in the tradition of either Louis Vuitton or Wal-Mart. No, really. The former are created using a traditional catalog workflow: merchandiser, designer, photographer, stylist, color house and web printer. The result often is a high-end look that’s inspirational enough to coax customers into paying the substantial product costs. Cocktail-party stories about these catalogs feature the photographer too heavy to fit into a helicopter and an art director arguing with modeling agencies by cell phone while standing on an island in a remote Alaskan lake shooing deer away from a fully styled bedroom set at midnight (true,

The metamorphosis of Rob and Diane O’Connor from wide-eyed idealists to razor sharp, gimlet-eyed catalogers who are on top of every facet of a $17 million merchandising operation is as inspiring as it is fascinating. Now in their early 60s, the O’Connors are at the top of their game and supremely fit. How fit? Rob O’Connor recently ran a 150-mile marathon across the Sahara in 100-degree heat carrying on his back bedding, an eight-day supply of food and a small stove. In the process, he raised $17,000 for cancer research at the Cleveland Clinic as a thank you for his successful prostate surgery.

What if you could achieve double the response rate you currently earn with your catalog mailing? What if you could mail for much less than the cost of the catalog? And what if you could do all this and make a profit? You can. Highly targeted, lower-cost marketing communications vehicles such as mini catalogs, solo direct mail pieces and flyers complement your catalog mailings. An advantage business-to-business (b-to-b) catalogers have over consumer catalogers is their knowledge of purchasing motivators, industry-wide purchasing patterns and product life cycles. Think about it: Customers in certain industries buy during specific times of the year, while others buy