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Seven Most Important Tips for a Profitable Catalog
Catalogs used to be produced by in-house writers, designers, and photographers. Today it’s commonplace for small to medium-sized companies to outsource these functions to a catalog agency or creative service group. The following are seven tips to avoid heartache.
1. Involve Your Agency in Strategic Sessions.
The more your marketing direction is communicated the more likely they will hit the mark on the creative side. Of most importance is the pagination session where it is decided what products go where and why.
2. Define the Creative Direction Right Upfront.
Don’t let the creatives rush off without knowing what direction they should take. To establish your creative direction, you need to know your company’s identity, niche and brand, your competitor’s niche and brand, and your target audience. Define these things early and upfront to avoid a “me-too” catalog effort.
3. Give Your Creative Team the Ammunition it Needs.
Product information sheets, and not napkins, are absolutely essential both for copywriter and graphic designer. If you don’t have a standard product sheet, let your agency design one. This sheet should include the key benefits/features, product ingredient/materials, source, size and price. If possible send sample products to the agency.
4. Keep the Project on Schedule.
Use a catalog project schedule to develop a realistic, step by step schedule with extra time built in for unforeseen time-eaters. If a complete product list and needed photos’ list is never presented, huge blocks of layout effort can be wasted. For instance, if a designer spends 5-6 hours on a two-page spread with 16 products and the client then says “ oh yeah, add this one” most of a design day can be lost relayingout the complete page.
5. Put it in Writing.
Verbal communication is fine but your agency contacts should summarize important discussions in written reports. Make your revisions in writing not over the phone. The agency should confirm key revisions in job diaries. This is a time eater but it usually pays off in the end game.
6. What’s the Budget and Are You Getting Real About it?
This sinks more relationships than anything else. Encourage open communication through periodic reports. Before specifying major creative changes, find out how they’ll affect the budget. The agency should warn you if it appears spending will exceed budgetary limits. If you ask them to do it, they will bill you for it even if you change your mind and remove it later.
7. Understand the Catalog Development Process.
Very often marketing and management people are not acquainted with the process they are asking their agency to execute. This can result in unrealistic expectations and, down the line, needless misunderstandings caused by unexpected high invoices and a slipping schedule.
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