Creative

The Boston Proper catalog has come a long way since it was liquidated back in 1991. So, too, has the company that bought its name and list for a song at that time ($100,000) and propelled it to greater heights ever since. That firm — once known as The Mark Group, so named after its former flagship catalog, Mark, Fore & Strike — renamed itself Boston Proper three years ago, based on the success of the catalog and divestiture of the country club apparel title, Mark, Fore & Strike, as well as the gifts and home furnishings catalog, Charles Keith. Through it all has been

For this edition, I perused several catalog Web sites to see how good a job catalogers do in explaining who they are. Naturally, many consumers want to get a good idea of who they’re doing business with. If your company comes off in something of a faceless manner, some might be put off. On the other hand, consumers take heart in knowing where you’re located, what you’re all about, where you’re coming from and in some cases, who founded you. It’s a fairly easy thing to do, especially on the Web. By in large, I found that most handle their “about this company”

Two essential ingredients of any successful catalog business — marketing and merchandising — have artistic elements where experience, creativity and intuition count more than numbers and cold hard facts. But they also have numeric benchmarks that if ignored, can spell disaster for customer acquisition, customer retention and brand integrity. Marketing and merchandising skill sets and viewpoints are vital, and impact the bottom line. When they’re in sync with each other, the resulting catalog invariably is better than either can deliver on its own. Interaction between the two disciplines is a two-way street, rather than a linear path. There are several ways to

The Duncraft name is synonymous with amazing products for bird enthusiasts. It already does a good job but, like many catalogers, taking a step from good to great can lead to better presentation and increased sales. Front Cover There’s very little that can compete with a dramatic and emotionally relevant front cover. Duncraft understands this and knows its customers will be drawn in by the beautiful wildlife bird shot. The overall composition is appealing, featuring a strong and prominent masthead and a supportive tagline. In this case, the tagline is above the logo instead of below, where it would be expected. Nevertheless, it works, because the

The following is a true story. The names have been changed to protect, well, me.

Some time ago, I was hired to run, actually turn around, a consumer mail order company that sold apparel and accessories. The company sold high-quality products to a niche market, and prospecting wasn’t so easy. Sales and profits were declining despite the fact that the company’s industry was seeing a growth spurt.

We decided, as part of the overall turnaround strategy that the catalog’s image needed a makeover.

Frankly, the catalog looked horrible, so we hired a great catalog agency to fix things.

The agency re-did everything from our logo to

If you decide you want to tackle catalog creative development in house, my recommendation is to follow a few simple rules regarding your creative talent. As I said last week, developing catalogs for mail order is different than branding. The more your design team understands the roots of the direct marketing business the better for your business.

Rule #1: If you’re hiring a designer or a creative director, hire vertically. Find someone with a background in your industry. If you market clothing, then find someone who has designed mail order clothing catalogs, etc. There’s a lot of creative talent out there, but it’ll make your

You’ve hired a terrific agency to design your Web site. You have competent programmers putting it together so it’s fast, clean and bug-free. You’ve registered your site into every search engine known to mankind (to date). But nobody’s finding you, and visits are light and non-productive. What could be wrong? You may be suffering from the “My creative’s all wrong for my search engine” blues. And you’re not alone. If your site was developed more than two years ago, it’s probably not up to speed on how to be attractive to today’s crawlers. In this, my first column for Catalog Success, I won’t cover

Copy on your site shouldn’t be written by a programmer, designer or an assistant — it should be written by a direct marketing-oriented copywriter. You need great selling copy as well as content. But effective use of copy isn’t limited to who writes it. Consider some other key points: • Avoid Flash intros. They can chase potential customers away so fast it will make your head spin. Use language to woo customers to your site. Once they’re already engaged with you, you can offer them the option of viewing streaming video to impress them further. But never force them to do it. • Use keyword analysis

When I picked up this catalog, I was immediately impressed by the clean and consistent design. It has structure without seeming stuffy, and features tons of information that’s easy to read and understand. Oh, and did I mention the gorgeous, rich products? Yes, this is a good catalog — handsome and well put together. It’s instructional without being cold. It’s full of information and products, without real clutter. I concluded rather quickly that this fine catalog could be used in design schools as an example of a hard-working catalog that doesn’t lose its beauty. Positives, Improvements Of course, there’s always room for improvement. Starting with the cover:

Copy on your site shouldn’t be written by a programmer, designer or an assistant — it should be written by a direct marketing-oriented copywriter. You need great selling copy as well as content. But effective use of copy isn’t limited to who writes it. Consider some other key points: • Avoid Flash intros. They can chase potential customers away so fast it will make your head spin. Use language to woo customers to your site. Once they’re already engaged with you, you can offer them the option of viewing streaming video to impress them further. But never force them to do it. • Use keyword analysis