PATIENT: "Doc, we've run brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce sites, but our catalog is new to us. What do we need to know to keep us from stumbling in this channel?"
CATALOG DOCTOR: "Catalogs have some significant differences from other channels, and that can surprise people new to cataloging. Here are nine mistakes that new-to-cataloging firms often make. These mistakes don't have to happen, however; they're within your control. Avoiding getting seduced by them can put you on the road to catalog success."
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.