Thursday
03Jul2008
Design Basics: Catalogs
Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 01:20AM
The tendency exists to view catalog printing as something meant only for ordering products and not for advertising them. The truth is a catalog can be just as much of an advertising tool as a standard postcard or flyer.
There are two very important things you need to know about a catalog to really appreciate the marketing potential: the placement of the products and the information you’re giving people.
I guess a lot of it deals with whether or not you’re going to assume that people are only looking into the catalog to buy something, or if you’re trying to get people who look in the catalog to buy something. Understand the difference?
You need to be worrying about the latter of the two. This is a method of marketing. Here are the basics you need to be aware of.
Your prose needs to be simple and it needs to get to the point as fast as possible. This is about selling your product, sure, but it isn’t about going into detail about how great the product is. You need to provide people with the facts, which happen to be so great people can’t help but have interest in buying your product. How could they pass up an opportunity like this when you’re offering them such a great product for such a low price, right?
A catalog is selling the product based on the merits of how good the product is. You need to use simple, straightforward sentences that detail all of the great things about your product. That’s all. If you try to focus on too much selling people aren’t going to come away with enough to know whether or not the product is right for them. A company telling me the product is right for me isn’t the same as seeing all the facts and coming to that conclusion myself.
Next is the placement. Don’t give equal space to every product and don’t shove your best selling products into the back of the catalog. Give the best sellers special treatment. Give them half a page, give them a front seat, and treat them like a king so that your customers will be able to see that this is the product to buy.
You’re selling it to them not in words but in placement. They can see you’re giving this product so much of your attention that they’ll start giving it a lot of their attention, until you’ve got a sale on your hands.
Catalog printing services should be able to explain a lot of this to you if they know what they’re doing. Hey, don’t just trust me. Research the topic and ask your printing companies. I have a good feeling they’ll tell you exactly what I just have.
There are two very important things you need to know about a catalog to really appreciate the marketing potential: the placement of the products and the information you’re giving people.
I guess a lot of it deals with whether or not you’re going to assume that people are only looking into the catalog to buy something, or if you’re trying to get people who look in the catalog to buy something. Understand the difference?
You need to be worrying about the latter of the two. This is a method of marketing. Here are the basics you need to be aware of.
Your prose needs to be simple and it needs to get to the point as fast as possible. This is about selling your product, sure, but it isn’t about going into detail about how great the product is. You need to provide people with the facts, which happen to be so great people can’t help but have interest in buying your product. How could they pass up an opportunity like this when you’re offering them such a great product for such a low price, right?
A catalog is selling the product based on the merits of how good the product is. You need to use simple, straightforward sentences that detail all of the great things about your product. That’s all. If you try to focus on too much selling people aren’t going to come away with enough to know whether or not the product is right for them. A company telling me the product is right for me isn’t the same as seeing all the facts and coming to that conclusion myself.
Next is the placement. Don’t give equal space to every product and don’t shove your best selling products into the back of the catalog. Give the best sellers special treatment. Give them half a page, give them a front seat, and treat them like a king so that your customers will be able to see that this is the product to buy.
You’re selling it to them not in words but in placement. They can see you’re giving this product so much of your attention that they’ll start giving it a lot of their attention, until you’ve got a sale on your hands.
Catalog printing services should be able to explain a lot of this to you if they know what they’re doing. Hey, don’t just trust me. Research the topic and ask your printing companies. I have a good feeling they’ll tell you exactly what I just have.
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