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The catalogue is


Catalogues are still the way to drive sales


T


he past few years have been pretty brutal for just about everybody. Retail, for most, has been


fundamentally reshaped and although we all like to use shops and visit malls, our purchasing activity is clearly moving to digital. This shift is pretty much complete, but the way we attract customers seems to have retained some of its familiarity.


Most major retailers feel it will be important to retain a physical presence on the high street, but the way shoppers use these outlets is destined to change. Many will keep the stores to grow brand awareness and promote an environment to foster and develop an emotional brand attachment. Web, tablet, email and social will all grow significantly in importance, but it is widely acknowledged that direct mail and paper publications will still play a huge part in customer communication, both in the b-to-b and consumer sectors. And how have catalogues done in this turbulent period? Well, quite nicely thank you. Certainly over the past three years—don’t mention the “R” word—as a studio, we have been as busy as ever. And this is backed up by a piece of research we recently carried out that uncovered two common themes: organisations that have catalogues want them to work harder and those who haven’t got one, but sell from a website, feel they need one. The two catalogues I am using to illustrate this, fall into these categories.


Category: Consumer


Company name: 1stMX


Product range: Motorcycle equipment


Last year I was contacted by Andy Hutchinson of 1stMX. His company is a leading supplier of motocross clothing and accessories and generates the vast majority of sales via the web, predominantly through search-engine activity. Once a year he also has a stand at a major show and distributes


king By Ian Simpson


his catalogue. This was a “white label” catalogue produced by a supplier with a 1stMX cover. The problem with the white-label


catalogue was that although


his customers were keen to receive it, it was failing to represent his full product offering. 1stMX had outgrown this “generalist” approach and needed something to show customers the unique benefits of the company.


Andy emailed us, after searching the web for a company he felt could make the catalogue process as painless as possible. So after an initial meeting, in his very busy unit in Coalville, Leicestershire, we drew up a plan to create a catalogue. Initially, Andy wanted a catalogue to replace the current 120-plus-page catalogue, but I felt this was a step too far. My feeling was that the key to developing his sales was to produce a smaller catalogue, but in greater volume. He already had a healthy customer database comprising of web enquirers and buyers. We just had to get 1stMX talking to its customers; reminding them who they were dealing with and reinforcing the offering. We settled on 48 pages plus a four-page cover and, although we agreed that this was nowhere near enough pages for the full range, it would be enough to get a good selection and drive buyers to the website. The 1stMX product range is huge and growing. In order to get the reader to explore the full range we decided to include QR codes that took customers directly to the relevant web pages.


The catalogue drives online sales at 1stMX


As far as possible the catalogue reflects the personality of the website: a bit manic and full of energy. Motocrossers are not, generally, shrinking violets. The creative approach was to try and tap into this, while retaining a good structure and ease of use. The structure was tight, but design elements reflected the sport. Footers were tyre tracks, folios in mud splats and the main header font was a stencil style. This reduced the formality of the presentation.


The most difficult part of the whole design was presenting the number of choices in a form that made sense. The clothing comes in a bewildering range of combinations and everything is up for grabs. So this part was simplified in supplier groupings and range styles. But the possible combinations were vast, so by presenting the option simply, the choices were easier.


This first catalogue is very much a work in progress. The primary aim was to give 1stMX a reason to contact its customers and enquirers. As well as mailing all the names collected from web customers—some had never been contacted since their purchase—it was handed out at shows and included in all package despatches. And it worked, with Andy commenting that 1stMX was “way up on this time last year” shortly after the first mailing. The next version is already being planned.


www.catalog-biz.com | Catalogue e-business | Direct Commerce


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