Creating a Winning Catalog

While Damark employs a grid design, which can give a catalog a monotonous look, Damark’s grid “is broken up by varying the design, which affects the pacing” (how the customer moves through the catalog). Overall, the effectiveness of the product spreads is excellent. “In addition to picturing the product, insets show the product in use, the uses for the product or explain how it works,” Trollinger says.

Another effective use of creative is how shipping and handling prices are included, but then crossed out. This really illustrates the savings and drives it home more than just mentioning it on the cover.

While few people actually order through the mail—for a catalog with a technology-savvy audience Trollinger estimates that 85 percent order by phone, 5 percent use the Internet, and 10 percent actually do mail-in orders—Damark supplies an order form, which is smart, since many people use it to organize their orders. It also generates prospects by asking for the names of friends who would like to receive the catalog. The order form copy is dense, but informative, and makes ordering “as easy as 1, 2, 3.”

What works—and saves money

Compared to many apparel and home furnishing catalogs, the Damark catalog may seem a bit, well, cheaply produced. But there’s a good reason for this: While many catalogers use a thick, coated paper to show off their products, Damark uses cheap supercalendared (SCA) uncoated paper for the entire catalog, including the cover. Rudolph says, “We’ve tested using nicer paper, as products tend to look nicer with a nicer paper, but found that our customers are not sensitive to the paper; so we’ve gone back to the supercalendared.”

In addition, the current catalog is a bit smaller than it used to be—by about 15 percent—measuring in at 71⁄2˝x10˝. More savings: Damark buys its own paper, and is now utilizing a short cutoff press for paper savings.