Cataloger Spotlight: Cataloger Discovers the Joy of Less Fun

Trainers Warehouse didn’t stop there. Additional changes to the catalog included a new logo, with a simpler, less playful font and more focus on “Trainers” than “Warehouse”; changes to the color scheme, where lighter shades of blue and yellow were used to better reflect an image of innovation and effectiveness, Landay says; decreasing the number of products on each page; reintroducing tips and testimonials to the copy to emphasize the company’s position as an innovator and leader in educating its customers on the uses of a variety of products, and the research supporting its products’ benefits. Also, product placement was shifted from the inside of the pages to the outside, with the copy text near the binding.

To notify customers of the upcoming change to the Trainers Warehouse brand, the company e-mailed all its customers the week before the catalog would arrive in their mailboxes in mid-July. A letter from Landay explaining the catalog’s new look also was included in the rebranded catalog’s inside front cover.

The fruits of Trainers Warehouse’s labor will be improved sales with existing customers and “appeal to greater numbers of new and prospective customers,” Landay says, “and to be seen as industry leaders, acting as a conduit of exciting new teaching and learning techniques.”