Harry and David

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

The fish are the last to discover the sea, so says the Chinese proverb. This analogy may stretch to Godiva, whose staffers had been working so closely with its site they weren’t sure what was needed to make it even better. According to Beth Brown, Godiva’s senior manager of interactive, prior to an October 2001 makeover the company’s interactive group tweaked its site based only on competitive benchmarking and intuition. “Before, I literally had mock-ups [of page designs] and would ask [my staff] what they thought,” she says. This time, Brown sought advice directly from customers with usability testing. Brown and

The Five Basics of Great Catalog Creative The Harry and David catalog tempts with tantalizing treats. Magellan’s speaks like a fellow traveler with an arm around your shoulders. Pottery Barn invites you into a warm home you want to make your own. For today’s catalogers, being special in the minds of their customers is the competitive difference. And with 14,000-plus catalogs out there, that’s an important realization. Following are the five basic components that can help your book stand out from the crowd. Branding and Emotion “There’s a soul in a catalog, where the voice speaks to you on a personal level and

by Jack Schmid In the folklore of catalog history, there is a story that may be apocryphal, but fascinating just the same. It's a story of Harry and David, today's leader in the food-by-mail field. In the height of the great depression, Harry and David's fruit business faced impending doom. In a last ditch attempt to save the company, the owners presented their fruit baskets to businesses as a gift idea. The idea worked and the story goes that it not only saved the company from ruin, but helped focus Harry and David on a new course—mail order and cataloging to businesses and consumers.