Creative

As a multichannel marketer, you touch your customers in many ways. In a given year, they’ll see your catalog, e-mails, postcards, package inserts, Web site and even store displays. Across these varied media, what should stay the same? What should be different? Lois Boyle, president of Mission, Kan.-based catalog consultancy J. Schmid& Associates, offers the following three tips on maintaining brand identity across multiple customer touchpoints. 1. Vary your message, not your voice. Customers will get used to the way you speak to them, notes Boyle. If the same person isn’t responsible for writing copy for every customer touchpoint, keep samples of your copy voice on

“Hotspots are the store windows of your catalog,” says Andrea Syverson, a creative marketing strategist and president of IER Partners, a Black Forest, Colo.-based catalog consultancy. These spots are where customers will stop when browsing through your catalog, and it’s at these locations you want to push your catalog’s main message. Every catalog has five hotspots, notes Syverson, and in descending order of significance, they are: the front cover, back cover, inside front cover, inside back cover and center spread. Be intentional about the story your catalog tells in these spots, she says. Does that story convey your brand? Your best products should be on

E-mail is a double-edged sword. Done well, it’s a powerful business tool. Done poorly, it causes serious problems for individuals and organizations alike. “E-mail has not only changed the way we do business, it’s begun to define how we’re viewed as professionals and people,” says Janis Fisher Chan, author of “E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide -- How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace” (Write It Well, 2005, $21.99). “The words we write are very real representations of our companies and ourselves. We must be sure our e-mail messages are sending the right messages about us.” In her book, Chan offers practical

As the saying goes, it’s not good creative if it doesn’t sell product. But from the very start of your catalog creative process, how can you be sure you’re developing creative that will sell well? Andrea Syverson, a creative marketing strategist and president of IER Partners, a Black Forest, Colo.-based catalog consultancy, offers the following tips on building stellar catalog creative. ¥ Establish a solid relationship between your merchandising and creative teams. Your creative staff needs to know as much as your merchants do about what creative has worked in the past, says Syverson. She recommends establishing regular meetings at the start of each catalog

“Give me a place to stand and rest my lever on, and I can move the earth.” —Archimedes No doubt you’ve heard the phrase “starry-eyed,” but have you ever seen it? I did, in a young married couple I’ll call Mary and Joe. They dreamed of owning a catalog, and when they came to see me about a launch, their eyes sparkled in anticipation. ”We’ve done lots of research. We’ve built a business plan and sales projections. And we’ve saved enough for the initial investment.” A good start, I thought. These folks have a realistic plan. They’ve got a chance for the stars

With only a few minor adjustments, Hobby Horse catalog could simply soar. Download the complete article (76k PDF)

If done properly, themes on catalog spreads engage your customers, enhance your brand and differentiate you from competitors. Just look at Coldwater Creek and how it treats color as its signature thematic tool. No one pulls off strong color as a product categorizer like this company. Color beautifally anchors its apparel, accessories and home decor offerings. When thinking about devising themes for your catalog spreads, consider all the things that come readily to mind: color, price points, style, customers’ needs, practicality, seasonality and sheer creativity. But then what? Themes Don’t Just Happen Catalogers who successfully use themes don’t just stumble on them. Rather, they create them intentionally.

Many catalogers have evolved during the past decade from dedicated print catalogers to multichannel marketers. In expanding into other sales channels, most catalogers wisely have brought along e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail specialists to run the additional channels. But if your own efforts at multichannel marketing have been less than stellar, following are some success strategies that may prove useful. Multichannel Rules Virtually every study that looks at consumers who shop via more than one channel shows that multichannel shoppers spend more. For instance, a recently completed Shop.org survey found: - the average retail customer spent $1,267 per year in stores; - customers

What does a cataloger do when the products he or she sells just don’t look appealing? That’s precisely the situation for Purity Products, a seller of specialty formulations. Download the complete article (96k PDF)

In the wake of Kmart’s recent merger with Sears, we thought you’d enjoy this nostalgic look back at what it was like to work for a catalog pioneer during its heyday. —Editors As American business was getting back on its feet after World War II, I entered a career adventure with one of the world’s largest catalogers, Sears, Roebuck and Co. Since all my associates in 1948 were more than twice as old as I, that means I’m the last survivor of the company’s catalog creative division from that era. Here’s a look back at what catalog creation was like in