Sonlight Curriculum Makes the Grade

Sonlight Curriculum catalog’s tagline says “lifestyle” to me: “literature-rich homeschooling — education beyond textbooks.” Lifestyle in the true sense of the word: not merely aspirational as many catalogs purport to be. Homeschooling is, indeed, a lifestyle, and the people behind the Sonlight Curriculum catalog “get it” because they live it. This is one of the subjects that earns Sonlight Curriculum a place on the honor roll.

Sonlight Curriculum seems called to a higher mission. Homeschooling is hard work, and clearly isn’t for everyone. This catalog, in addition to being a vehicle to sell the educational resources, is much more. As a true magalog,
it acts as an encourager, an instructor and a facilitator to creative and independent thinking for its customers.

Front Cover

The cover looks and feels more like a magazine than like a catalog. Few catalog covers boast headlines referring people to articles on why not to purchase their products. This one does, and not necessarily for the purpose of pulling off a clever promotional gimmick. Sonlight wants its customers to make educated decisions about which resources to invest in. The catalog dedicates eight pages and 27 detailed reasons why customers shouldn’t use its products, and another 12 pages to articles about why they should.

The true-to-real-life front cover photo of a relaxed dad reading to his daughter with their cat snuggled on the chair with them is very effective. They’re both in comfy sweats and look as if this reading ritual (with one of Sonlight Curriculum’s recommended books) is one of the best parts of their day. This scene is very true to the Sonlight brand, no doubt leading customers to relate to it. At the same time, non-customers might be inclined to look at it and
say, “I want that!”

It’s all part of Sonlight’s brand promises
(family time together, kids who love to learn,
books your children want to read). This also is carried out through the catalog, where actual customer photos are integrated on many
spreads. These photos show the brand promises being lived out. They’re fun and add a real human interest to a copy-heavy offering.

Opening Spreads

The ideal opening spread should do several things:
reinforce your brand’s importance to customers’ and prospects’ lives, help customers navigate your offer, tease them with sneak previews of your products, provide easily accessible ordering information and state your guarantee. Sonlight accomplishes almost all of these on the two opening spreads.

The opening spread (pgs. 2 and 3) has a lengthy letter from its president, Sarita Holzmann, as well as a table of contents and a “guarantee” in the form of a giant testimonial to the curriculum’s success à la a convincing college scholarship program that shows
the program does indeed “lead to academic and extracurricular success.”

The pgs. 4 and 5 spread — actually the more impactful of the two — addresses the brand’s benefits head on via short headlines and real customer collages. Sonlight Curriculum has a great deal to say. Obviously, its
customers are avid readers and are concerned about all the information being conveyed throughout the catalog. All of it is important and valuable to the
decision-making process.

I would encourage Sonlight Curriculum to shorten the messages, however, to gain even more impact and readability. For example, I went through Holzmann’s letter, which included two powerful customer testimonials, and highlighted many phrases that would make great bulleted copy if pulled out. Consider, “I have been Sonlighting my children for the last nine years” (always great to have your brand become a verb!) or “The impact of Sonlight on my children’s lives is helping to make them into people of purpose and passion. Look out world!” And, I would encourage Sonlight Curriculum to practice this throughout the entire book. Today’s customers are pressed for time and truly appreciate edited
comments, even on topics that are of high interest to them.

Inside Back Cover Spread

The inside back cover spread (pgs. 162 and 163) features a powerful, personal two-page letter from co-owner John Holzmann entitled “A Burst of Sonlight” — also chock-full of important information to both existing and potential customers. I counted 18 unique messages referring to both product and service aspects of the brand. I would recommend editing, and in this case, adding some graphics to create visual interest.

Back Cover

While this lifestyle photo is true to the brand in depicting quality family time in the Grand Canyon, it would be better used inside the catalog, so the back cover could work harder to convey important brand messages and provide a
sneak peak into some the resources offered.

Also, Sonlight Curriculum’s phone number is missing (and
it isn’t a toll-free one!). Overall, the back cover could use
improvement.

Conclusion

In general, Sonlight Curriculum pays attention to detail in keeping its customers’ needs top of mind. Spread after spread answers questions for every homeschooler: How is this instructor’s guide laid out? How does one choose the right curriculum? How do
the competitors’ products compare?

As for Sonlight’s competitors, the cataloger includes details
of a price-comparison experiment it conducted. Sonlight
Curriculum approached this experiment the way a homeschooler might when evaluating the different curriculums available to
purchase.

I appreciate how Sonlight Curriculum cares about all the
details that encompass its customers’ experience with the Sonlight brand. It’s very apparent it’s made up of passionate believers in homeschooling. To them, education is a holy endeavor. For that, they’ve earned master’s degrees! «

Andrea Syverson is a right- and left-brained creative marketing strategist. She is president of IER Partners, a catalog consulting firm. Contact:
asyverson@ierpartners.com.