Catalog Doctor: The Lost Art of Effective Cataloging
3. Quickly and Easily Scannable Design
and Copy
This is a companion to No. 2. Scannability means that as your reader flips through a catalog or scans a spread, they can find what they're interested in quickly. Slowing your reader down or forcing them to study a catalog (instead of your products) robs valuable time they could have focused on deciding to buy. Good scannability includes things like having a visual anchor product on a spread to grab attention; layered copy (classic journalism style) where the primary benefit is in the headline or subhead and the secondary benefit opens the body copy; spread headlines that orient readers to the grouping's category and benefit; and inset photos where needed, with captions.
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.