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What is it known or famous for? On the back cover we have His and Hers Poppy Watches. You can buy the watches for £129.95 each or both for £199.95. However, again, the offer is not screaming out at me. There is a big Special Offer slogan across the top in red, but the actual offer detail is not clear enough. I’m a fan, in the right environment which I believe this is, of being in-your-face. Nevertheless, it does use the mail space well and the customer number is clear.
Half of page 2 is dedicated to a welcome message, ways to order, index and information on how to get help finding the products you want. A good use of space. On the other half of page 2 is a limited-edition watch. The catalogue invites customers to reserve the watch, “just add it to your order now and you don’t need to pay anything until 2012”. As a marketer, I like this idea; get a commitment now and you have a reason to contact the customer again next year. As a buyer, it gives me an idea of how many to order so that I can manage my commitment. As a finance director, I’d like to get some money in for it now though. Page 3 is selling the Award Badge Car Collection—placed at such a hotspot, I’m hoping this is a popular range. Very few catalogues make the most of their centre pages and this is no exception. Many centre pages just happen as a result of the product layout and not because there has been a conscious effort to feature key products in the space and allow the spread to cross over the centrefold.
The inside back cover is actually quite good. One page is the order form, half of page 46 is how to order and the other half is CDs and DVDs—great price points for impulse-buying. The use of a local number is a good tactic as generally they are now free for most people, plus Award Classics’ target audiences is likely put off by potentially costly 0844 numbers. I am surprised that the company only take calls during Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, especially
when it suggests it has customers in Australia, Canada and the USA. The cost of a third-party call centre is minimal and should be considered for out of hours. Award Classics is potentially missing out on sales as its customers may not all feel comfortable shopping on the web.
Offers—there are several offers throughout the catalogue all displayed in a red box. Key messages also tend to be in red throughout. Sometimes this can be confusing when they don’t relate to an offer, for example calling out “New” or “Silver Plated”. Overall, the use of red is limited, so it’s not a major problem. However, as previously stated, the catalogue has missed out on maximising the promotions on the key front and back pages.
Personalisation—is an important added feature for Award Classics. A majority of items can be personalised with names or badges, which is important when making the product relevant to an individual’s regiment or company. I believe it could be making more of the fact that many of the items can be personalised for free in key parts of the catalogue.
Made in Britain—throughout the catalogue, the customer is reminded that certain products are made in Britain. This is obviously a key USP and should be promoted more heavily as I’m sure it strikes a chord with many prospective customers.
Multichannel To conclude my review, I decided to have a
look at the Award Classics website. A cardinal mistake is that the URL is missing from the front and back covers. Further, the URL is www.
awardmedals.com as
AwardClassics.com has been cyber-squatted. The change of name is confusing.
When you land on the homepage, it’s clear
the catalogue and website belong to the same people. It’s an incredibly cluttered homepage. I am impressed though that it has Twitter and Facebook pages with 74 followers and 643 likes. However, if you are going to run with social media pages then you need to keep them up to date, relevant and answer customer questions within a few hours and not a few months as is the case with Awards Classics’ Facebook page. Award Classics has a niche, but I believe there could be some confusion who the customer really is. There are opportunities to open up to the wider and younger armed forces community, but probably under a different name in order not to alienate the existing core customers.
It would be a boring article if I’d said
everything was perfect. There are many good things about this catalogue, I’ve chosen to highlight the areas that need improving in the hope that other readers might also identify similar challenges and correct them.
Rob Galkoff is managing director of The Business Consultants, a direct commerce consultancy that helps boards define, shape and implement their direct- to-consumer and customer experience strategies.
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