Breaking away from the pack Apr 1, 1999 12:00 PM
, Lois Boyle
JobZone
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Carving out and maintaining a niche in the catalog industry is becoming
more difficult each year. To protect market share, several mailers have
been beefing up their brand image and identity, protecting their brand,
building brand loyalty, and using their brand to stand out creatively. But
before your eyes glaze over at the prospect of reading yet another article
touting the importance of brand, consider this fact: In most cases,
breakthrough creative exists in catalogs that successfully create an image
that supports their uniquely defined brand. The concept sounds simple, but
with increasing competition nipping away at our heels, it becomes tougher
to accomplish with every edition.
All key players involved in creating a catalog must develop and embrace
what I call an IQ, or intrigue quotient. Does your catalog pass the IQ
test? Simply put, what makes your catalog so special? Here are a few ideas
that might help define your intrigue quotient:
* product uniqueness, quality, or selection
* pricing
* product expertise
* special service proposition
* company history, experience, or credibility
* affinity to a target audience.
With an IQ to work with, you can more easily execute creative identity on
the printed page. For example, if your intrigue quotient is exceptional
product quality, you might couple it with an appropriate quality-conscious
"attitude" and exploit the concept with pagination, photography, copy,
color, typography, paper-anything that will help you tell your story.
Apparel catalogers are particularly challenged to stand out in a highly
competitive market. Two apparel catalogers that have embraced their IQ and
broken through with great creative are J. Jill and Boston Proper.
While providing great product with attractive layouts, neither of these two
catalogs seemed to stand out from the crowd a few years ago. But over the
past several years, J. Jill has used casual lifestyle photography and
styling to create an attitude that complements its upscale, natural,
comfortable wear. J. Jill hires many of the same beautiful models with
streamlined bodies who appear in other books, but it photographs them with
a keen difference. The poses and clothes styling reflect a lifestyle-not
just clothes on a model. In a look you might call "sloppy chic," many
J. Jill photos reflect clothes that are comfortably suited to a woman
involved in everyday activities.
For instance, in one photograph the featured model, who appears to be a
busy mom, is greeting her daughter who has just won a trophy in karate.
Incredibly, the clothes and the brand attitude do not get lost in what
could potentially be a disastrous photo. Hats off to the art director and
the photographer! And on the catalog cover, the model is carrying what
appears to be pizza boxes across a street. Overall, the catalog presents a
dose of realism supported by clothes that appear to be comfortable. So
using a unique photo art direction technique, J. Jill has added attitude to
help differentiate its unique product line.
Using a different creative technique, Boston Proper also demonstrates to
its customers the quality and exclusivity that set it apart from the pack.
Copy and typography work hard to push the Boston Proper brand name, with
phrases like "Proper Guarantee," "Proper Fit," and "Boston Proper's design
exclusives." These statements are presented in headlines and subheads that
get noticed. Even when the apparel design is created by someone else it
becomes "Karen Alexander forBoston Proper."All told, in its Splash 99
catalog edition, the name "Boston Proper" appears 148 times-and strangely
enough, it doesn't seem like overkill.
A redesign case study
One of our clients, an apparel catalog competitor from North Dakota,
entered the marketplace a few years ago. Cheryl Gjevre, president/ founder
of Frabjous Originals Casual Wear, developed a line of apparel by printing
images of her neighbor Joy Lavik's cross-stitch designs directly onto
comfortable and easy-to-care-for sweatshirts and tops. The garment designs
appear cross-stitched thanks to a unique raised-ink printing process.
Gjevre's cottage industry, which targets older females, began selling
merchandise from kiosks in malls and quickly grew to include seven
stores-mostly in the Northwest and the Midwest-and eventually a mail order
catalog.
The IQ of Frabjous Originals is the unique product. To further enhance the
product line, Gjevre created a "whole outfit" concept offering matching
pants, dickeys, earrings, and socks. The first catalog creative attempt was
admirable, but it did not exploit the garment's beautiful designs, the
whole-outfit concept, or even the high-quality and easy-care fabric. After
a year of marginal catalog results, Frabjous Originals decided that a
creative makeover was necessary.
Embracing what makes the company's apparel so special, creative was changed
by
* photographing more products off-model so that the designs could be shown
up close and in detail. This technique also helped show off the fabric
quality. To accomplish this, the company increased the catalog's trim size
from 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" to an 8-1/2" x 11" format.
* presenting every garment as part of a whole outfit. Almost every top was
shown with a matching dickey, pants, and sometimes other accessories such
as coordinating socks and earrings.
* adding customer comments to testify to the unique offerings and high
product quality.
* changing the cover to present a closeup presentation of the
cross-stitch-look design, coupled with an inset shot to indicate the
apparel featured inside the book. The tagline "Original Designs with a
Unique Hand-Stitched Look" was also added (and come this fall, the catalog
will remove "Frabjous" from its name).
Proof in results
The Frabjous Originals Casual Wear makeover looked great, but the
million-dollar question is "Did it work?" Response rates jumped 28% for
prospects and 303% for its small but growing customer base! Also important
to note is that the average order size increased 28% due to the
exploitation of the whole-outfit concept. "I'm convinced that the increased
results are due to the large photographs, which better depict the unique
designs in detail," Gjevre says. "Plus, prospects automatically understand
that we are providing them with a unique and comfortable outfit that is
already put together."
What makes your catalog so special? Does your catalog page clearly and
consistently reflect your IQ? By identifying your brand and its uniqueness,
you can use every catalog creative element available to tell your story to
both customers and prospects.
