Are your catalog and products unique? Are they loaded with customer benefits? If "yes" to both, are you also telling your benefit and unique story well enough to your customers?
A Catalog That Did it Wrong
True story. A few years ago, a relatively new cataloger went out of business. I'll call it "Catalog Look-a-Like."
Catalog Look-a-Like's fundamental problem was it was started specifically to clone the top competitors in its market, rather than carving out a niche within that market or adding a new twist to the product offering.
Catalog Look-a-Like sold the same products as its competitors, sourced from the same vendors, used the same vendor photos, offered look-a-like prices, service, guarantees ... the works. It might at least have done a better job of selling product benefits, but its product stories were look-a-like too.
The company got some customers, but few repeat buyers. Market share stayed small because why would satisfied customers of a competitor switch to Look-a-Like when Look-a-Like offered no competitive advantages?
Does this sound like an extreme example? Not so much as you'd think. This type of "look-a-like" thinking infects many catalogers to one degree or another.
Why Unique? Why Benefits?
Becoming less look-a-like and more unique — and better communicating the benefits of the uniqueness you offer — will increase response and customer loyalty.
"Unique" for catalogs means the design, fabrication, color, etc., is one of a kind (not that the individual item is a limited edition of one). Isn't getting unique products really hard? Well, it's not easy, but many catalogers big and small have learned how to do it, and do it well.
Catalogs That Do it Right
Here are a few examples of catalog brands that have succeeded at communicating the benefits and uniqueness of its products to customers and prospects:
Rossi Pasta
Rossi makes a special kind of pasta unique to its brand, superior to what you find in the grocery store. It also tells a compelling unique and benefit story.
Rossi handcrafts all 29 of its pasta flavors — from Spinach-Basil-Garlic to Chocolato-Cabernet to Fire! — from fresh, all-natural ingredients using an authentic, centuries-old Northern Italian process. And it cooks in three minutes for fast, flavorful dinners.
Rossi Pasta has taken a common enough product and made it uniquely its own, and loaded with customer benefits.
Duluth Trading Co.
Duluth Trading is known for its clever, humorous copy. But clever alone doesn't sell. Duluth's work clothes are also loaded with special features with important customer benefits, like two-inch longer T-shirts for less accidental exposure, and many specialty fabrics. Here's copy from Duluth's women's catalog describing a pair of work shorts: "Quick-drying shorts ... with 6 total pockets: 2 front, 1 cargo snap, 2 back and an 8" Pokey Things Pocket with a tear-resistant nylon sheath ... " Wow, the perfect pocket for my pruner!
Duluth's products each have a twist that make them unique. Coupled with Duluth's excellent copy and layout, readers can always quickly grasp their benefits.
You might be thinking, "OK, benefits and unique products are well and good for food and functional products, but not for fashion." Think again.
Pure Collection
Pure Collection offers three different types of "luxury cashmere" that it specially sources, combs, dyes and spins for extra softness and superior quality. Furthermore, Pure Collection tells a compelling story throughout its catalog about its products and their benefits. Consider the following example:
"SIGNATURE CASHMERE 100% PURE.
Our unique goat-to-garment sourcing means we have the first pick of the very best cashmere at advantageous prices, passing the savings on to you, no middlemen."
So, does every product you offer need to be unique? Not at all. But if enough are unique to your brand, that gives your customers more reasons to keep coming back — especially if you do a good job via copy, photos and layout of telling them about all the benefits those products offer.
- Categories:
- Catalog Design
- Places:
- Duluth
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.