Catalog Marketing 101 (4 of 8)
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Catalog Marketing 101 - Creative & Design It's not creative unless it sells. It may not be the mantra of artists, but it'd better be the mantra of every creative / designer that works on a catalog. The design of a catalog must be focused on generating sales. And, the marketing and creative teams must work together with the same goals of maximizing sales and profits, and the long term growth of the business. This tutorial walks you through the catalog creative and design process. The creative and design process begins with deciding what type of catalog you're doing. Is it a consumer or business to business catalog? Then from there, the types of products and number of products drive many of the decisions around creative and design. Will this be a consumer catalog or a B2B (business to business) catalog? How many products will be in the catalog; how many per page? What kinds of products? How do you want the catalog to be positioned? These are just some of the questions that this section of the tutorial addresses. Use it as a guide and checklist and it will help you on your way to building a successful catalog. To download visit http://www.dwsassociates.com/marketing-tools/whte-papers-tutorials/tutorials/catalog-marketing-101/
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Catalog Marketing 101 (4 of 8)
- 1. Catalog Marketing 101 Workshop By Dudley Stevenson, Mark Eubanks (651) 315-7588 Catalog Marketing 101 Workshop 1
- 2. Table of Contents • Part 1 – Catalog Marketing Overview & E-Commerce • • • • • • • Synergy Part 2 – Front & Back End Marketing Part 3 - Catalog Merchandising Part 4 – Catalog Creative & Design Part 5 – Catalog Copy Part 6 – Catalog Production Part 7 – Management, Financials & Analytics Part 8 – Operations & Fulfillment (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 2
- 3. Catalog Marketing 101 Part 4 Creative & Design (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 3
- 4. Creative Strategy • It is not creative unless it sells. The fundamentals critical to success of a catalog are: – The design is to generate sales – The marketing/merchandising/creative team must work together with the same goals • Maximizing sales and profits • Long-term growth of the business (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 4
- 5. Most Important Locations in Catalog • Page / location importance in terms of catalog readership attraction / recognition: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Cover Back Cover Inside Front Cover First four pages of book Order form Pages facing order form (when a bind-in form is used) Then starting from page 5 going through the rest of the catalog from front to back (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 5
- 6. Checklist for Catalog Review • Use this list to evaluate how well your catalog presentation is pulling together the five elements that contribute to a catalog’s success: • The five elements – – – – – Image Creative Product Order form Customer service (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 6
- 7. Element 1 - Image • • • • • • More than just presenting merchandise Can project through good design and photography Can project through personality of founder Can use editorial format to tell a story – How business started – The founder – Uniqueness in the market place Need to establish identity with customers Must distinguish from competition (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 7
- 8. Element 2 - Creative • • • • • • • • • • • • • Must project company image Don't confuse mood with image Must intrigue the customer and close the sale Format should meet the needs of displaying and selling product Attention to scale of products Products must be visible, features must be seen and understood Products should be dominant Use design techniques to grab customer's attention and have her focus on products Copy should be crisp, with good lead, and product benefits Keying is important, and should be easy for eye to follow Don't make customer hunt for information Catalog should convey company's success Watch the mood shots, which may slight the products (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 8
- 9. Element 3 - Product • Characteristics – should have as many of the characteristics of a winning product as possible. • Need to concentrate on the company’s strengths in merchandising, pricing, assortments, et. • Pricing needs to be competitive. The issue is value. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 9
- 10. Element 4 - Order form • • • • • • • Often overlooked, but closes the sale Don't make it a test of the customer's will to purchase Avoid making it a part of the catalog - customers don't like to tear up catalogs Positioning for customer name and address should be easy to find Test order form design Keep the design simple and easy to understand Design the form for the customer's ease of use, not order processing (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 10
- 11. Element 5 - Customer Service • • • • • • • • • Use the phone, inbound and out Provide online real-time chat support Informed operators and service people provide customers with vital information and produce sales On-line customer purchase history would be a big help and can be used as a selling tool Shipping and handling charges should be keep it low - some people think 7% of items purchase price may be too high Give internet and phone orders priority in the system Handle complaints quick and courteously Make your customers feel important - send them a “thank you” note with their purchase Treat order processing and fulfillment as customer service (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 11
- 12. Concepting • When developing catalog concept, keep these factors in mind – The audience – The products – The image – The graphics and format – Reproduction – Expense – Credibility – ROI components (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 12
- 13. Good Catalog Design Rules - 1 • • • • • • • • • • • Appeal to what makes a person buy Design for audience Make the product the centerpiece Use great product photos Put important items on “hot spots” and on the outside edges of the page Use opportunities to cross sell between products and your website Use consistent type styles and limit their number Keep the style consistent from issue to issue to reinforce your “brand” image Give products the space they need Analyze the results Design for economy – size of catalog and postage (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 13
- 14. Good Catalog Design Rules - 2 • • • • • • • • Place a strong design element in the upper right corner of each spread. Limit the number of typefaces you use and keep the type simple. A catalog should still have an order form. Develop your "brand image" by using consistent layouts and design. Standard catalog formats are more economical. Unique formats will attract more attention. Individual items sell better than grouped items. Four-color catalog performs better than one- or two-color catalogs. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 14
- 15. Catalog Design • Perceived by spreads • Spacing for products does not have to be equal, drama comes from variation • Should have a pleasing placement and arrangement of products • Use white space • Pacing and pagination – Vary the presentation – Develop differing spreads so everything doesn’t look alike (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 15
- 16. Catalog Format Influencers • Overall marketing plan • Economics of the projects • Range of formats • Order form formats • Merchandise • Intended image • Theme (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 16
- 17. Overall Marketing Plan • Who is your customer? How did you identify this customer? Are you satisfied that your definition is the result of a disciplined inquiry not simply impressions or a “gut feeling”? • What type of market have you targeted? How did you arrive at this decision? Have you checked results of competitors in this market? • What are your products? How did you make your choices? How does your selection fit your target market? • What specific personality/image do you wish to convey? Are you making a change in the way customers have previously perceived you? And, if you are, how carefully have you considered breaking the mold? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 17
- 18. Economics of the Project • A budget will clearly influence catalog format, and the format and size will, in turn, affect printing costs and paper quantity- significant factors in total investment. • The complexity of photography and graphics also will influence decisions about format choices and the costs of these items must be tightly calculated as you organize your budget. • The quality of paper must be carefully considered. Do you intend to use a different quality and or weight for the cover than for the body of the catalog? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 18
- 19. Range of Formats • The size considered as industry standard is 8 ½ by 11 inches – vertical or horizontal. It considered standard size because most printers are equipped to handle the size. And, it’s versatile, vertically or horizontally, offering opportunities for a good layout treatment for most types of merchandise. • But there are lots of other formats to choose from depending on factors such as merchandise, mailing costs, production costs, etc. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 19
- 20. Order Form Formats • The primary concerns in creating an order form-to the exclusion of all other considerations-are simplicity and readability, for both customer ease and for efficiency in order fulfillment. • Order form formats can vary from a simple, inserted business reply card to a complex, multi-fold unit. You must determine which is needed for your catalog. This may, in large measure, be dictated by the amount of information which you intend to communicate. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 20
- 21. Merchandise • The type(s) of merchandise selected for the catalog will influence its format. Fashion merchandise seems more compatible to a vertical format. Furniture and room settings lend themselves to a wide format. Smaller products can be showcased in a variety of formats. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 21
- 22. Intended Image • Is impacted by the photography, the spread and layouts, the paper, and the graphics. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 22
- 23. Theme • What’s the story line? Every catalog should tell a story. It should have a theme a thread of continuity running through the format. • A theme is not difficult to develop. It can be as simple as you wish, or an elaborate situation involving location photography_ It can involve the full spectrum of products from fashion to table settings. If handled correctly, the merchandise itself can carry the theme. • The theme can be crucial to the format and to the image you intend to convey. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 23
- 24. Catalog Organization • 12 way to organize your business-to-business or consumer catalog. By product demand By merchandise category By application By scarcity By function By scarcity By type of equipment By size By “system hierarchy” By model number By theme Alphabetically (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 24
- 25. Determining Page Count • Break your product line into product categories • Determine the # of products in each category • Review the # of products within preset price ranges to uncover price gaps • Profile the 10 best products to use as a screening guide to help know what to add • Profile the 10 worst products to know the types of items to avoid. • Use square-inch analysis to know which items to keep, drop or add to the catalog (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 25
- 26. Catalog Size • How big should the catalog be? – The best way to evaluate the optimum catalog size scientifically would be to mail catalogs of several sizes to a random split of names in your list and the compare responses. – Keep expanding the catalog until further expansion will not increase your total profit. – Expand your catalog gradually • By no more than 50% as a rule – go from 16 to 24 pages, 24 to 48 pages – One benefit of going to a larger catalog is that “half-life” during which the catalog will continue to be used will be longer with a bigger catalog. • A bigger catalog creates more customers who will be purchasing from catalogs in the future. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 26
- 27. How Much Space for an Item • The more profitable an item, the more space you should give it. • As a rule of thumb, you should try to apportion space so that the ratio of gross profit (revenue minus cost of goods) based on projected sales to the cost of that much space is the same for each item. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 27
- 28. Checklist of Pagination Factors • Overall marketing strategy and P & L decisions • Product emphasis and strengths • Photographic appeal • Theme • Color • Complexity (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 28
- 29. Positioning & Grouping • You should give your better selling items more space. • You should put your better selling items up front. • Mixing up the types of merchandise through a catalog will add to the excitement and surprise. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 29
- 30. Positioning in a Catalog • Page strengths in terms of sales potential – Front cover – Back cover – Inside front cover – Center spread around order form – Order form (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 30
- 31. The Order of Pagination • • • • • Inside front cover - start with pages 2 and 3. There should be a cross section of all items in the catalog. Get the customer's attention and give an indication of the type and pricing of merchandise in the balance of the offer. Pages 4 and 5 - should strongly reflect the reason the catalog exists. Fashion books should show the most fashionable clothing here Order form – add impulse items that lend themselves to last minute purchase should be teamed up here to encourage multiple sales Inside back cover and back cover - grabbers Cover - last page to setup - most important - should reflect what is in the catalog (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 31
- 32. Catalog Pagination • • • • • • The catalog should be the appropriate number of pages for the number of products offered. Space allocation for the products should be based on importance of the product, and how much space is required to properly present it. The catalog should use things like sprinkling throughout the catalog ideas, letters, cooking instructions, history lessons, receipts and quotes. The catalog pagination needs to be well organized and it needs to make sense to the customer as she looks at it. There should be a hero product presentation in the book or several to add drama and break up the monotony. High impulse products that can fill out the customer purchase should be featured surrounding the order form. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 32
- 33. Catalog Pagination (cont’d) • • • • • • • The back cover of the catalog should feature new products. The merchandise needs to be the star of the spreads, the catalog. The products need to be well organized, and for a catalog with a lot of product categories and / or a large number of pages, the use of a table of contents will make the catalog easier to shop. Page 2 when possible should include important customer information. The strongest products should be on the inside front spread and the products should be representative of the rest of the products offered. If items are paginated along a theme, they need to be consistent to that theme. Unique merchandise should be chosen for feature slots. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 33
- 34. Hints for Better Pagination • Develop worksheets to keep track of where you are – Examples • Merchandise category listing • Price point tally sheet • Spread record sheet • Catalog summary sheet listing all pertinent product information • Set up a merchandise presentation room for reviewing merchandise just as it will be presented in the book. Having all photographic samples present will avoid many problems down the road which could result in lost sales and/or expensive catalog revisions. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 34
- 35. Catalog Hot Spots • Best selling positions – catalog “hot spots” are pages in your catalog where any product will sell better. – – – – – – The opening spread The back cover The pages adjacent to a bound-in order form Any page facing a bind-in card The closing spread The front cover – (often not included in this list because most companies do not use the front cover for selling products, but if product is used, it must be available for purchase – Not considered a “hot spot” but often a better selling position is the right hand page in a spread. Why? Because most of us read left to right and the eye tends to gravitate to the right hand page. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 35
- 36. Hot Spot Featured Products • Your best selling products should be featured in your catalog “hot spots”. • Hot spots have a higher percentage of uncommitted viewers than the other pages in your catalog—that's why they're hot, because they're noticed even by people who have little interest in the rest of your catalog. • Your bestselling products are popular for the same basic reason: they're appealing to the largest possible cross-section of people. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 36
- 37. Catalog Design – the Cover • Must be the hook and must be interesting or it goes in the can • Guidelines for selecting merchandise for cover – – – – unusual not generally found in other catalogs or stores easily photographed representative of the rest of the merchandise in book understandable • Creative techniques – – – – drama should be sought Use people in images where appropriate When using solo product image, add something to shot to create scale Try not to use manufacturer provided art work unless it precisely mirrors the feel of the other artwork (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 37
- 38. Order Form Style • There are several styles to choose from, but the two most commonly used: – V-mailers – are mailers which have a fold-up envelope on one side and a single sheet or panels on the other side. • The advantage is you can use every bit of space on the paper – style is paper efficient. • The downside – it requires the customer to do some work. – Bind in order forms – can have one or two panels with the perforated envelope that is already glued together. • Style is more expensive. • It seems to pull a greater response rate. • It asks little of the customer and seems to offer enough space for your bare essentials. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 38
- 39. Order Form – Bare Essentials • Is there space to indicate how many, item number or style number, name of item, color if there is a choice, size if there is a choice, imprinting if offered, and the dollar amount? • Is there sufficient number of lines for listing the items designed? • It’s always advisable to leave space for more than the average number of items ordered as an incentive for ordering more items. • If a discount is offered for exceeding a minimum order requirement, is it clearly spelled out? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 39
- 40. Order Form – Bare Essentials (cont’d) • Are the terms perfectly clear? – If postage, insurance, and handling charges are extra, is the chart clear? – If there are taxes to be added, is the percentage specified? – If charge card privileges are offered, is there space to give the required identification numbers? – If interest charges are applied to installment accounts, does the explanation comply with the Truth in Lending Law? • If drop shipments are solicited, is space allocated to provide for instructions? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 40
- 41. Order Form Placement • 3 placement points – Outside wrapper; form bind-in, and center spread bind-in • Offers protection of your catalog through the mail • This offers the best chance of capturing your label information correctly • The downside is that the catalog is covered up with an outside wrapper – Bind-in order blanks between forms • Has the advantage of creating four “hot spots” in the catalog • The downside is that it can be hard to find the missing side of the order blank – Bind-in order forms in center of catalog • Is the most popular • It creates two valid “hot spots” • Is easy to find and use (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 41
- 42. Order Form Design Checklist – Part I • Make sure that any merchandise on the order blank (if black • • • • and white) lends itself to black and white reproduction. Make sure the merchandise offered is priced in the lower-1/3 price point register of all carried merchandise. Make sure your merchandise leans toward an impulse buy. Make sure your customer is clearly directed. Color should be used sparingly and only to direct and help clarify ordering procedure. Make sure you say "Thank you." (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 42
- 43. Order Form Design Checklist – Part II • Make sure that your design for the order blank coincides with the sequence of the descriptive copy about the merchandise within the body copy of the catalog. g. Make sure you have your information concerning expiration date on the order blank to encourage promptness in ordering. • Make sure that you have given your customer an opportunity to give you the names of friends they think would also enjoy receiving your book. • Make sure that your return policy is stated clearly on the order blank. (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 43
- 44. Catalog Designer • Not every company will use an outside agency to do their catalog design, but the same questions should apply when working with an in-house designer. • Does your designer have expertise in these areas? – Pre-production meetings, where each item is discussed and shown – Can your designer help with the merchandising? Spread breakdown? Scheduling for deadlines at each phase must be established. Who will do that? – Does your designer have enough experience to be a size consultant? – In what form will layouts exist? – Who will write copy? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 44
- 45. Catalog Designer (cont’d) • Does your designer have expertise in these areas? – How will that copy correspond to the order form? – Will your designer execute or contract your photography, select models, book models? – Will your designer style and prop your shots? – Will your designer direct your photographer and for what percentage of the shots will they be hands on? – Will your designer go over color as well as corrections with a separator for a per-hour fee or is this included in the design fee? – Will your designer lay out the order form, do the mechanicals, and supervise the printing on the order form? – Will the designer supervise the printing of the mailing piece? How much does your designer know about printing? (651) 315-7588 Marketing Planning 101 Workshop 45
Notas del editor
- Checklist and areas of concern
- Checklist and areas of concern
- Catalog Design Company Rules of good catalog design As catalogs continue to advance in their design and strive to stand out in the crowded mail-order market, the following design principals still prove effective in producing sound catalog design and selling product. Of course, with every design rule there can be exceptions, but these generally accepted design rules will help guide you in producing a good catalog. Place a strong design element in the upper right corner of each spread. Generally, when we read a catalog from front to back our eyes first glance the upper right corner of a spread. Therefore, place a strong product that is visually compelling or unusual in that location to catch the reader's attention. Best selling products are not always the most visually compelling or attention-grabbing. If that's the case consider placing your best seller in another prominent position on the spread. 2) Limit the number of typefaces you use and keep the type simple. Use fonts that are easy to read. That means keep the font style and size legible. Consider using text no smaller than 7.5 to 8 points no matter how much information you need to include. Try to use the same font in different weights, sizes and colors to differentiate copy points, headlines and features. A good design rule of thumb is to use no more than 3 fonts styles throughout your catalog design. 3) A catalog should still have an order form. While fewer customers use the order form to mail orders, think twice before you drop the form altogether. Many customers - both business and consumer - use the form to compile their order before calling or ordering online. The order form makes it clear you are there to sell product, and the form is a good place to put your sales terms and other "fine print.“ If the ratio of mail to phone and internet orders decrease in your market, you could consider eliminating the reply envelope. Reply envelopes tend to be a fairly expensive component and requires the longest lead time within the production cycle. 4) Develop your "brand image" by using consistent layouts and design. It is important to develop recognizable spreads, typographical elements, and imaging to create a consistent design associated with your catalog or company. However, if every spread follows the same layout customers will become bored and likely not browse the entire catalog. Mixing up the spread designs from time to time within the book will add surprise and variety, keeping the customer engaged in your products. You can improve pacing by creating "stopper" spreads throughout the catalog using a series of planned layout changes. For example you might use different layout designs - alternating from free flow to grids or vise versa, backgrounds or colors to mix up the overall catalog design. Breaking up the format will grab the customers' attention and encourage them to stop and read the whole spread. 5) Standard catalog formats are more economical. Formats such as a standard full-size, slim-Jim or digest-size catalog in whole signature page counts tend to be the most economical catalog designs to print and mail. Spend time with your printer and the Postal Service to determine an efficient trim size. Not only do standard catalog formats save money, they also tend to "fit" better. This is both a positive and a negative. A catalog design that is too unusual in format may not fit the customer's environment and may get disposed of fairly quickly. On the other hand a standard format may come across as plain and boring, not getting the notice you desire. 6) Unique formats will attract more attention. Plain truth: unique catalog formats get more attention. Some catalogers use unique or oversize formats to differentiate themselves or get more focus. Such formats can add as much as 25% to your paper and production costs, however some mailers trying to present a certain image find it's worth the expense. Working with your printer can produce unique formats with little or no extra expense. For instance you can bend the rules and bind a standard full-size catalog along the short side creating a wide, horizontal catalog format. 7) Individual items sell better than grouped items. Some catalog companies attempt to save money on photography and printing by grouping items together in a photograph. Even with careful keying or identification such a design strategy often results in poor sales. In such a photo no product stands out to draw the customer in. It is better to show items individually or in very small, related groups. We prefer to show most products with no background and with a subtle drop shadow. This allows the product to stand out from the clutter of the page. Then we add the occasional product shot with a subtle background to break up the design a little. There are always exceptions to the rule. Some items such as books or cards work fine photographed in groups and do save photography and layout time without costing sales. 8) Four-color catalog performs better than one- or two-color catalogs. Products presented in full color look more attractive, grab more attention and generate more sales than a one- or two-color catalog designs. Only in some select cases are the cost savings of one- or two-color printing justified. We've seen many clients grow from one- or two-color catalogs to full color catalogs experience a 25% jump in sales with little to no change in product line and distribution.
- Catalog format is influenced by Overall Marketing Plan Who is your customer? How did you identify this customer? Are you satisfied that your definition is the result of a disciplined inquiry not simply impressions or a “gut feeling”? What type of market have you targeted? How did you arrive at this decision? Have you checked results of competitors in this market? What are your products? How did you make your choices? How does your selection fit your target market? What specific personality/image do you wish to convey? Are you making a change in the way customers have previously perceived you? And, if you are, how carefully have you considered breaking the mold? Economics of the Project A budget will clearly influence catalog format, and the format and size will, in turn, affect printing costs and paper quantity- significant factors in total investment. The complexity of photography and graphics also will influence decisions about format choices and the costs of these items must be tightly calculated as you organize your budget. The quality of paper must be carefully considered. Do you intend to use a different quality and or weight for the cover than for the body of the catalog? Range of formats The size considered as industry standard is 8 ½ by 11 inches – vertical or horizontal. It considered standard size because most printers are equipped to handle the size. And, it’s versatile, vertically or horizontally, offering opportunities for a good layout treatment for most types of merchandise. Order form formats The primary concerns in creating an order form-to the exclusion of all other considerations-are simplicity and readability, for both customer ease and for efficiency in order fulfillment. Order form formats can vary from a simple, inserted business reply card to a complex, multi-fold unit. You must determine which is needed for your catalog. This may, in large measure, be dictated by the amount of information which you intend to communicate. Merchandise The type(s) of merchandise selected for the catalog will influence its format. Fashion merchandise seems more compatible to a vertical format. Furniture and room settings lend themselves to a wide format. Smaller products can be showcased in a variety of formats. Intended Image Is impacted by the photography, the spread and layouts, the paper, and the graphics. Theme What’s the story line? Every catalog should tell a story. It should have a theme a thread of continuity running through the format. A theme is not difficult to develop. It can be as simple as you wish, or an elaborate situation involving location photography_ It can involve the full spectrum of products from fashion to table settings. If handled correctly, the merchandise itself can carry the theme. The theme can be crucial to the format and to the image you intend to convey.
- This is now 12 ways because “By Theme” and “By merchandise category” were added to cover consumer as well as business-to-business books. 10 Ways to Organize Your Catalog Business-to-business catalog marketers have more options to choose from when organizing their catalogs than they probably think. Here are 10 methods, along with the pros and cons of each. By product demand. You can organize your catalog by the sales each product generate. Put your best-seller up front and give them a full or half-page each. Slower-moving merchandise appears at the back of the book with a quarter-page or less. Dead items are dropped altogether. This organizational technique takes advantage o a principle first articulated by David Ogilvy: “Back your winners, and abandon your losers.” It puts your promotional dollars where they’ll do the most good; BUT in large or highly technical product catalogs, it may cause some confusion. By application. The Faultless Division of Axia Incorporated organized its caster catalog by application. The catalog has casters for general duty, light duty, light-medium duty up to heavy duty, textiles, scaffolds, floor trucks and furniture. Organizing according to application makes it easy for your customer to find the product that solves his problem. The disadvantage of this scheme is redundancy: many products handle multiple applications and must be listed (or cross-referenced) in more than one section. By function. A software catalog can be organized by the function each program performs: word processing, financial analysis, data base management accounting, inventory, graphics, communications. Obviously, this scheme won’t work in a catalog where all the equipment performs the same task (e.g., a catalog of pollution-control equipment or safety valves). By type of equipment. Radio Shack’s consumer electronics catalogs are organized by product group: stereos on one page, car radios on the next, followed by VCRs, computers, and tape recorders. This scheme is a natural for companies that carry multiple product lines. By “system hierarchy.” This technique organizes by the level at which each component fits into the overall system. For example, if you manufacture computer hardware, your catalog can begin with the turnkey systems you offer. Next come the major components: terminals, printers, plotters, disk drives, keyboards, processors. Then you get to the board level, showing the various optional circuit boards you offer for memory expansion, interfaces, communications, instrument control, and other functions. Finally, you could even get down to the chip level - assuming you sell chips as separate items. Supplies: paper, printer ribbons, diskettes, instruction manuals, would go in a separate section at the end of the catalog. This unit/sub unit/sub-sub unit approach is ideal for manufacturers who sell both complete systems and component parts. By price. If you sell similar products that vary mainly in quality and price, you can organize your catalog by selling price. I your customers are concerned with savings, start with the cheapest items and work up. If you’re selling to an upscale group willing to pay a premium for the deluxe model, start with high-priced versions and work down. This technique is excellent for organizing a catalog of premiums and incentives. After all, an ad manager searching for a premium has a price range in mind, not necessarily a specific product. By scarcity. If your catalog features hard-to-get items, consider putting them up front, even on the cover. This makes your catalog more valuable by offering the buyer products he needs but can’t get anywhere else. Don’t worry that these hard-to-find items aren’t big sellers. When the customer knows your catalog has a stock of rare merchandise (and pulls your catalog to order it), he’ll be more inclined to do his other business with you, too. By size. If you make one product and the basic selection criterion is size, it’s natural to organize your catalog by size (dimensions, weight, horsepower, BTUs, or whatever). This is handy for catalogs with boilers, motors, shipping drums, envelopes, light bulbs, air conditioners, and other equipment selected mainly on a size basis. By model number. If you’ve worked out a sensible numbering system for your product line, organize your catalog by model number. If there’s a simple meaning to your numbering system, explain it at the start of the catalog. And don’t rely solely on the model numbers to describe your products; include headings and descriptive text, as well. Alphabetically. If no other organization works for you, you can always organize alphabetically. A large tool catalog can start with adjustable strap clamps and angle plates and end with wing nuts and wrenches. Or a vitamin catalog can start with Vitamin A and end with Zinc.
- The decision to add pages always should be driven by merchandising. Adding pages means maintaining the proper page density. It doesn't mean you should devote more space to items being added. Nor does it mean giving more space to existing products simply as a way to fill more pages. For the economics to work, proper density must be maintained as page count is increased. It's best to work in increments of eight pages. If you add pages to your catalog, you're really talking about adding a minimum of eight pages. The multiple would increase from a base of eight to 16 pages, 32 pages and so on. Use square-inch analysis to know which items to retain, drop or add to the catalog. In a properly merchandised catalog, about one-third of the items will be winners, another one-third will sell close to your square-inch break-even criteria, and the remainder will need to be replaced with new products. So aside from the decision to add pages, about 30 percent of the products in a typical hard goods catalog (e.g., gifts) should be replaced each print cycle. Back to the question about knowing when to add pages and how many pages to add. A good criterion to use is as follows: If less than 30 percent of your catalog pages lose money, consider adding more pages (in eight-page increments as we mentioned). Add eight pages, then do your square-inch analysis, and determine if you should add another eight pages next time. Keep in mind that if more than 30 percent of the pages lose money, you might want to reduce the page count by eight pages. It's a matter of proper balance. Be careful that you don't have too many under-performing items as a percentage of the total number of unique products in the catalog. Pay particular attention to products that are being carried over to appear in the next book. Knowing when to drop a particular item is crucial. Products that are repeated in a catalog will tend to have a revenue drop-off of about 20 percent each time. If the decrease is more, replace the items. In catalog merchandising, it's important to know the average price offered (APO) and average price sold (APS) of the products being offered. If, for example, the APS is $31, this would indicate that this particular catalog is selling a lot of items in the range of $10 to $30. When analyzing the average units sold, we normally see 60 percent to 65 percent of the units sold falling below the average, and 35 percent to 40 percent above the average. The number of merchandise offers (as opposed to the number of SKUs) in a catalog is what drives the revenue. An offer is defined as a product. An SKU could be a different color, size, etc. AOV is a function of the lowest-priced items, not the highest price. For example, eliminating items that retail for less than $20 will increase the AOV. What's more, it's difficult to make money on items that retail for less than $20 considering fulfillment costs. That's why the distribution of offers by price point is important. Also consider that the lifetime value of a low-ticket buyer usually is very poor. They don't tend to be loyal buyers, and the repeat sale factor is low.
- The back cover of the catalog should feature new products. The merchandise needs to be the star of the spreads, the catalog. The products need to be well organized, and for a catalog with a lot of product categories and / or a large number of pages, the use of a table of contents will make the catalog easier to shop. Page 2 when possible should include important customer information. The strongest products should be on the inside front spread and the products should be representative of the rest of the products offered. If items are paginated along a theme, they need to be consistent to that theme. Unique merchandise should be chosen for feature slots. The best sellers or projected best sellers should be featured in the hot spots. The hot spots in a catalog are, in order of importance. The opening spread The back cover The pages next to the order form – lower priced best sellers that make it easier for the customer to add it on to her order. Any pages facing a bind-in card The closing spread
- Hot spots Cataloging Hot Spots (1,887 words) By Susan McIntyre In a world where anything more than a month old is in danger of being considered obsolete, rules of thumb are a happy exception—they take time to develop, and the best of them gain validity with age. In our last article we explored one of the oldest rules of thumb: the 1-percent response rate. In this column we'll explore a rule that's almost equally old: catalog hot spots. We often hear about catalog "hot spots"—those magical spots in our catalogs that can dramatically boost sales for almost any product we place there. But do such hot spots actually exist? Where are they, and why do they work? Do they vary from product to product, or catalog to catalog? How powerful are they really? And most importantly of all, can you use them to boost your sales and response rates? "Catalog Hot Spots": The Rule of Thumb "Hot spots" are the pages in your catalog where any product will sell better. The hottest spots are (in order): 1. The opening spread 2. The back cover 3. The pages adjacent to a bound-in order form 4. Any pages facing a bind-in card 5. The closing spread. Are "hot spots" real? Absolutely. I've sometimes seen an average product that's moved from a cold page to a hot page increase its sales by 50 percent. Test it yourself! What creates hot spots? Hot spots exist for the same reason that the 1-percent response rate exists—because most people we mail to are not very interested in buying from us. To see how lack of customer interest creates hot spots, consider first how our most enthusiastic customers treat our catalog. Every cataloger has some of these super- loyalists—wonderful customers who would happily crawl over barbed wire to buy from us. How do super-loyalists read our catalog when it arrives? They devour it from cover to cover. Each inch of our catalog is treated equally by these super-loyal customers—which means there are no hot spots in catalogs mailed to super-loyal customers. And the same is true for prospects with zero interest in our catalog—they dump our catalog with barely a glance, so there are no hot spots in their catalogs either. Of course, most of our readers fall somewhere between these two extremes—they neither devour nor dump our catalogs. Instead they "grab and glance." And "grabbing and glancing" creates hot spots. Hot spots are the pages in our catalog that are easily seen even by people who pay very little attention to our catalog. Taking it a step further, the hottest spots are those pages that virtually everyone will notice, even if they have almost zero interest in our catalog. Why are specific pages hot? Here's why each hot spot is hot: * Most readers will start browsing our catalog at the front (making the opening spread our hottest spot). * A large number of readers will also look at their names on the address label (making the back cover our second-hottest spot). * A smaller but still significant number of customers will notice any page where the catalog naturally "falls open" (making pages beside the order form or other bind-ins our third- and fourth-hottest spots). * About one-third of our readers will start flipping through our catalog from the back (making the closing spread our fifth-hottest spot). What products should you feature in your hot spots? For maximum sales, stock your hot spots with bestsellers. Why bestsellers? Why not your highest-margin products, your most unique products or your newest products? It goes back to what makes hot spots hot. Hot spots have a higher percentage of uncommitted viewers than the other pages in your catalog—that's why they're hot, because they're noticed even by people who have little interest in the rest of your catalog. And your bestselling products are popular for the same basic reason: they're appealing to the largest possible cross-section of people. So offering your broadest-appeal products on the pages being viewed by the widest variety of viewers makes sense. Two more fine points: 1. The hot spots beside your bind-in order form should offer lower-priced bestsellers, because the lower price makes it easier for buyers to impulsively "tack on" these items as they're filling in their order form. (And remember, many phone buyers still fill out an order form before they call.) Clever merchandising of the hot spots beside your bind-in order form can significantly boost your average order. 2. The opening spread in a catalog mailed primarily to prospects needs to convey a powerful "variety message" to pull the maximum number of newcomers into your book. So rather than featuring just one or two bestsellers, your opening spread should feature a larger number of bestsellers (or even non-bestsellers) across the entire range of your products, to demonstrate the variety of your catalog as a whole. Are there "cold spots" too? Just as hot spots are the most easily seen pages, "cold spots" are the pages least likely to be seen by accident. Cold spots occur midway between two hot spots. One cold spot appears approximately halfway between the opening spread and the bind-in order form, and another halfway between the order form and the closing spread. What products belong in cold spots? The basic rule: Don't waste key products or messages. On cold pages you're talking only to your most highly committed readers, so these pages are ideal for special-interest and niche products. When can something other than a bestseller go on a hotspot? Because hot spots are seen by more people than any other pages in your catalog, hot-spot pages are your "billboard" to the world. Most catalogers stock them with bestsellers, but other choices may make sense, depending on your. Specific goals and needs. For example: * If you have a special offer that you really need to promote hard, a hot spot is the best place to put it. * If you're mailing mostly to prospects, hot spots are the right place to convey any critical selling messages regarding your offer, your company and your product line. * If you're mailing mostly to prior buyers, new products in your hottest spots will help avoid reader boredom. What should never go on hot spots? Unless you're seeking publicity (as Victoria's Secret does with its diamond bra or Neiman Marcus with its fantasy Christmas covers), it's usually a waste of time and money to put less popular products in your hot spots. And it's also usually wrong to fill hot spots with boring editorial. Before doing that, ask yourself—is the editorial material you're considering for this hot spot so important that you're willing to sacrifice your most valuable selling space? If you truly must place editorial material on a hot spot, keep it as compact as possible. When can hot spots be safely ignored? If your catalog has 16 or fewer pages, hot spots will be less important to you, simply because all your pages are quite easy to find, even for your uncommitted readers. But the reverse is also true—if your catalog is very long, the importance of your hot spots increases, because so many of your inner pages are so deeply "buried." That's why many big-book catalogers are including extra bind-ins these days—they're creating additional hot spots to offset the ponderousness of their catalog. How can you earn maximum benefit from the hot spots in your catalog? A typical catalog has seven or fewer hot spots, so stocking them deserves some careful thought. Here are a few typical "hot-spot strategies" for catalogers of various types: For a medium-size gift catalog targeted to prior buyers: * Opening spread: rotating bestsellers (to maximize sales while minimizing boredom). * Back cover: special offer plus an "easy sell" bestseller that requires little copy (since the back cover is generally awkwardly laid out to meet postal requirements.) * Order form split: intriguing lower-cost bestsellers. * Other bind-in pages: consistent bestsellers. * Closing spread: experimental products. The closing spread is often a cooler hot spot. For a small seasonal food catalog targeted to prospects: * Opening spread: a traditional favorite, plus a test "new favorite" (because seasonal food buyers look forward to "old favorites" but often respond well to modest brand extension with "new favorites" as well.) * Back cover: a time-limited special offer to incite early orders (smooths staffing requirements and phone volume) plus, if there's space, an "easy sell" bestseller. * Order form split: relevant lower-cost bestsellers. * Other bind-in pages: a smaller catalog will probably not have other bind-ins. * Closing spread: secondary bestsellers. For a non-technical business-to-business cataloger: * Opening spread: very clear explanation of the "unique selling proposition," including a look at the bestselling products/services offered. For most b-to-b catalogers, a clear text-based explanation up front is vital to making the sale. * Back cover: a time-limited special offer to propel prospects into action. * Order form split: terms of sale and a quick index. Terms of sale are often vital in b-to-b sales, making them appropriate for a hot spot. * Other bind-in pages: bestsellers. * Closing spread: a full index. How many additional sales dollars can you earn from an optimal hot spot strategy? A definitive answer to this question would require a careful split test between two versions, one with all hot spots stocked with bestsellers, the other with all hot spots stocked with weaker merchandise. I've never known a cataloger willing to make that test. However, over many years of cataloging I have often seen products moved from a cold spot to a hot spot gain 30 percent to 50 percent in sales. So converting to a strong hot-spot strategy can add significant dollars to your bottom line. And on that happy note I'll wish you the best of luck with your hot spots. Susan J. McIntyre is president of McIntyre Direct, a consulting firm and agency specializing in catalogs and multi-channel sales environments. McIntyre is a three-time Echo Award winner, international speaker and author. She can be reached at McIntyre Direct, 102 N. Hayden Bay Dr., Portland, OR 97217; (503) 735-9515. So you think you're creating and mailing a 64-page catalog? Actually, for more than 90 percent of your recipients you're mailing just a seven-page catalog. Specifically: * They'll glance at your cover (one page) * They'll flip the book open and glance at your opening spread (two more pages). * As they riffle, your catalog will fall open at the order form, and they'll notice the facing page (one more page). * They'll read their name on the back cover to be sure the catalog is correctly addressed and notice any product on the back page (one more page.) * They may flip to the inside back cover because it's easy (two more pages). And that's it—your seven-page catalog. Is your catalog as strong as possible within those seven key pages? If not, consider this: up to 10 times more people will see your hot spot pages than the average pages in your overall catalog. Which means that a tiny 1-percent improvement in sales from your hot spots can generate as many extra sales dollars as a 10-percent improvement in sales of products from any other pages. Clearly, it pays to optimize your hot spots. Printed from the Web site of Catalog Success. Determining appropriate page counts How to Determine Appropriate Page Counts (1,288 words) Strategy by Stephen Lett Good circulation planning and merchandising are the keys to success for a catalog company. Knowing how many books to circulate can be determined by calculating a catalog break-even point. But determining the number of pages your catalogs should include can be more difficult and somewhat more arbitrary. This month, I'll look at basic criteria that can help determine the best page counts for your catalogs. I'll also review the economics of adding pages to a book. Pages increase response, and the economics generally are favorable, provided there's enough good merchandise available to support additional square inches of selling space. The decision to add pages always should be driven by merchandising. Adding pages means maintaining the proper page density. It doesn't mean you should devote more space to items being added. Nor does it mean giving more space to existing products simply as a way to fill more pages. For the economics to work, proper density must be maintained as page count is increased. It's best to work in increments of eight pages. If you add pages to your catalog, you're really talking about adding a minimum of eight pages. The multiple would increase from a base of eight to 16 pages, 32 pages and so on. Generally, it wouldn't be cost-effective, for example, to add only four new pages although it can be done (i.e., a four-page self or separate cover could be added).Costs Checklist for Determining Catalog Page Counts 1. Break your product line into product categories. 2. Determine the number of products available in each category. 3. Review the number of products within preset price ranges to uncover price-point gaps. 4. Profile the 10 best products to use as a screening guide to help know what to add. 5. Profile the 10 worst products to know the types of items to avoid. Use square-inch analysis to know which items to retain, drop or add to the catalog. In a properly merchandised catalog, about one-third of the items will be winners, another one-third will sell close to your square-inch break-even criteria, and the remainder will need to be replaced with new products. So aside from the decision to add pages, about 30 percent of the products in a typical hard goods catalog (e.g., gifts) should be replaced each print cycle. Back to the question about knowing when to add pages and how many pages to add. A good criterion to use is as follows: If less than 30 percent of your catalog pages lose money, consider adding more pages (in eight-page increments as we mentioned). Add eight pages, then do your square-inch analysis, and determine if you should add another eight pages next time. Keep in mind that if more than 30 percent of the pages lose money, you might want to reduce the page count by eight pages. It's a matter of proper balance. Be careful that you don't have too many under-performing items as a percentage of the total number of unique products in the catalog. Pay particular attention to products that are being carried over to appear in the next book. Knowing when to drop a particular item is crucial. Products that are repeated in a catalog will tend to have a revenue drop-off of about 20 percent each time. If the decrease is more, replace the items. Economics The Economics of Adding Pages Additional pages (that is, good quality merchandise) often will increase your response rate and the revenue per catalog mailed. Overall, the economics of adding pages and merchandise to your catalog can help grow your catalog business. In the chart "Catalog Costs," I've started with 48 pages as a base catalog for comparison. I've gone up from there in eight-page increments. Increasing the page count from 48 to 56 pages yields 16.7 percent more selling space and only a 5.6-percent increase in costs. Based on the catalog print specifications, in-the-mail costs increase from $413/M for the 48-page book to only $436/M for the 56-page version. The break-even point for the additional pages is extremely low. The cost per page for the 48-page book is $8,604. The cost per page on the 56-page catalog is $7,786 or about 10 percent less. The cost per page for those additional eight pages is only $2,875 per page! Assuming a gross margin of 55 percent and a return rate of 6 percent, the break-even point for the additional eight pages is only $5,867 per page. This compares with a per-page breakeven of $17,559 for the base 48. In this case, adding pages makes economic sense - period. The chart "Catalog Economics" details the total cost per thousand and the cost per page for the five page-count combinations shown. The chart also shows the percent increases in selling space and costs using the 48-page catalog as a base for comparison. For example, going to a 64-page book (from 48 pages) increases the amount of selling space by 33 percent at a cost increase of only 13 percent. Again, the economics are in favor of adding pages. In catalog merchandising, it's important to know the average price offered (APO) and average price sold (APS) of the products being offered. If, for example, the APS is $31, this would indicate that this particular catalog is selling a lot of items in the range of $10 to $30. Too much selling space may be allocated to higher-ticket items that may not be turning as quickly. This catalog has an opportunity to add more items in the $30-to-$45 price-point range to increase the revenue per catalog mailed. When analyzing the average units sold, we normally see 60 percent to 65 percent of the units sold falling below the average, and 35 percent to 40 percent above the average. Use square-inch analysis shorted based on price-point ranges to know how the book is assorted. In other words, review price points versus profitability. If your APS is $31 and your average order value (AOV) is $73.91, the average number of line items per order is 2.38, which could be high for, say, a gift-oriented catalog. The data also suggests you might be over-assorted at the low end of the price-point scale. This type of analysis should be done to establish product search and selection criteria. The number of merchandise offers (as opposed to the number of SKUs) in a catalog is what drives the revenue. An offer is defined as a product. An SKU could be a different color, size, etc. Again, look at offers, not items. We like to see a minimum of 250 (300 is even better) different offers in a catalog. AOV is a function of the lowest-priced items, not the highest price. For example, eliminating items that retail for less than $20 will increase the AOV. What's more, it's difficult to make money on items that retail for less than $20 considering fulfillment costs. That's why the distribution of offers by price point is important. Also consider that the lifetime value of a low-ticket buyer usually is very poor. They don't tend to be loyal buyers, and the repeat sale factor is low. Conclusion Do your homework and take time to do square-inch analysis for every catalog to determine the appropriate page count. Adding pages is a matter of "bottom-up" analysis. The economics favor adding pages depending on merchandise availability and as long as you maintain the same product density on which your analysis was based. Proper merchandising and the right page count are critical to the success of any catalog. Stephen R. Lett is president of Lett Direct, a catalog consulting firm specializing in marketing, circulation planning, forecasting and analysis. He can be reached at (302) 541-0608 or by e-mail at slett@lettdirect.com.
- What products should you feature in your hot spots? For maximum sales, stock your hot spots with bestsellers. Why bestsellers? Why not your highest-margin products, your most unique products or your newest products? It goes back to what makes hot spots hot. Hot spots have a higher percentage of uncommitted viewers than the other pages in your catalog—that's why they're hot, because they're noticed even by people who have little interest in the rest of your catalog. And your bestselling products are popular for the same basic reason: they're appealing to the largest possible cross-section of people. So offering your broadest-appeal products on the pages being viewed by the widest variety of viewers makes sense. Two more fine points: 1. The hot spots beside your bind-in order form should offer lower-priced bestsellers, because the lower price makes it easier for buyers to impulsively "tack on" these items as they're filling in their order form. (And remember, many phone buyers still fill out an order form before they call.) Clever merchandising of the hot spots beside your bind-in order form can significantly boost your average order. 2. The opening spread in a catalog mailed primarily to prospects needs to convey a powerful "variety message" to pull the maximum number of newcomers into your book. So rather than featuring just one or two bestsellers, your opening spread should feature a larger number of bestsellers (or even non-bestsellers) across the entire range of your products, to demonstrate the variety of your catalog as a whole.
- Bob Stone’s list of elements for a satisfactory order form.
- Make sure that any merchandise on the order blank lends itself to black and white reproduction. Make sure the merchandise offered is priced in the lower-1/3 price point register of all carried merchandise . Make sure your merchandise leans toward an impulse buy. The merchandise needs to be broad enough to appeal to the large majority of your customers (no tests here, the space is too valuable). Make sure your customer is clearly directed. Color should be used sparingly and only to direct and help clarify ordering procedure. Make sure you say "Thank you." Order blank position, as well as the inside front cover letter or back cover, is the place to tell your customers that you appreciate their business and the time (our most precious commodity) they have spent perusing your catalog.
- Make sure that your design for the order blank coincides with the sequence of the descriptive copy about the merchandise within the body copy of the catalog. Perhaps it is obvious, at this point, to say that this sequence should be compatible with your computerized system. Make sure you have your information concerning expiration date on the order blank to encourage promptness in ordering. Make sure that you have given your customer an opportunity to give you the names of friends they think would also enjoy receiving your book. Although these names cannot go on your house list, they are much stronger names than any found on rented lists. One cataloger we know actually took the time and money to send a form letter to those names that he had received from his customers which stated that their name had been given to him by a friend and that he hoped that they enjoyed the catalog. Make sure that your return policy is stated clearly on the order blank. Even if you have a toll-free number exhibited (in large type) for customer use, you should instruct your customer to fill out order blank even when making an order by phone. This facilitates speed when talking with your operators who are recording the orders. Although this seems to be good advice, I prefer a listing of what catalog facts you require to process an order, such as, "When ordering by phone, please have ready your credit card, catalog item numbers, and page numbers, etc.”