Up in smoke

There are six two-thirds pages dedicated to bracelets (many of which are triple and quadruple exposures). Making a bigger deal out of other key products with some of that space would be more effective.

The catalog needs to keep the basic information simple. URLs don't need to be bright and colorful and grab attention; they just need to tell customers where to go to make their purchases. The phone number should also be at the bottom of the page rather than in the tab at the top of the left-hand page.

What's missing from this catalog?

Sidebars that help customers decide what to buy. Tips on creating effective programs. Ideas for challenging smokers to quit. Testimonials. Profiles of leaders in the field. In short, your company's voice; the voice of the caring people who have dedicated an entire catalog to helping others quit smoking.

	GLENDA SHASHO JONES

Yikes! If ever there was a catalog that would benefit from simplification, this is it. I felt like having a cigarette just to calm down when I looked over this book. I actually had to go to the Website to understand what the company was all about — clearly something every catalog recipient is not willing to do!

Starting from the front cover, there is way too much going on. First of all, what is the name of this catalog? Tobacco? That's what it says. TobaccoFreeEarth is listed as its URL inside. Mind you, on the Website (and in a different logo) the business is called Tobacco Prevention. Which is it?

The assortment of adolescent looking color type would indicate that the catalog is for teens. It's not; the products are, but the catalog is targeted to health, youth, educational and other organizations involved in tobacco and drug prevention.

All the copy on the cover is presented in the hardest-to-read type. I can't tell if the “thing” (blue striped box holding signs) on the front cover is a message to the recipient or an actual product. The offer for a “FREE DVD/VCR” is pretty much lost in a rectangle at the bottom of the page. If there's one thing on the cover that should be colorful — and perhaps in a burst — it's the special offer.

This front cover needs to be organized so that recipients understand what they're getting and what's being offered. Whatever is on the front cover — product or imagery — needs to be clear, dramatic and relevant.

The opening spread is just as busy as the cover — the reader is mired in a miasma of color, type, icons, and photography. Where does one start? My guess is that this catalog loses a high percentage of readers at this stage.

It's hard to believe that anything is missing from this spread, but the catalog is unaware of — or ignoring — the importance of some basic information that is especially important to prospects. The opening spread is the place where readers expect positioning and relevant customer service information.

There are four important areas that could easily be handled in a one-third column on the left-hand side of page 2:

1. Welcome note with “positioning” information

   A friendly letter that sums up what the catalog stands for — as it is relevant to the customer — is important, especially for prospects who may need the extra confidence. It's best if it comes from a real person; focus group participants usually tell us that they trust a company more when they see a person behind it.

2. Ordering information

   Listing the phone number and ordering hours, as well as the main Web addresses becomes a “call to action” that inspires people to order from the catalog. This can be done in a friendly and interesting way, such as “3 Easy ways to order.”

3. Delivery information

   It's always helpful to list shipping options up front. The information can be expanded upon on the order form, but the opening spread is a good place to list the main choices.

4. Guarantee

   One of the biggest confidence builders is seeing a 100% guarantee on the opening spread. It's a good way to tell prospects and remind customers that they can trust you.

Overall, this catalog's design and presentation is assaulting — products, color, type and icons are all over the place. It's tremendously hard for a potential customer to shop from the catalog because of the overwhelming creative, poor organization, and hard to read type.

The good news is that this company would really increase its comprehension — and sales — if it made some improvements to the catalog. Here are six of the biggest problem areas and recommended solutions. If it addressed these areas correctly and aggressively, this catalog would be immensely easier to shop and most certainly get an improvement in performance.

• Reduce the amount of color used

  By far, the biggest problem this cataloger has is the overwhelming use of color. The color type, rule lines, icons, headlines, and background tints all take away from product presentation and copy comprehension.

  This catalog looks disorganized because of all the color treatments, even though the products are organized by categories and presented in columns. Cleaning up the color treatment would help product presentation tremendously.

• Simplify and prioritize type

  A catalog needs only two or three typefaces — simple is better, and this helps the reader focus on the product. It will also make the catalog easier to read. In order to manage the copy for digestion, you can develop enough diversity with the type size and treatment (such as bolding, italicizing, underscoring, etc.). Headlines should be the biggest, subheads the next tier, body copy at a readable point-size, and caption type for under photos or insets. The consistent use of that kind of type, using bolding, etc. where appropriate, will create a much more readable catalog.

• Create pacing through product hierarchy

  The best products should be treated as features and sub-features and given more space. You want to create a strong eye-flow with product placement, which encourages the customer to spend more time with the spread. Key items should be strategically located so the reader is easily drawn to one spot and then pulled across, around or up and down the spread.

• Consider decreasing density

  While in most cases an overwhelming presentation can be corrected through design and organization, this cataloger may have exceeded the ratio of products to page. Most of these products need a clear visual presentation and a certain amount of copy.

  In this case, the copy is actually pretty good and necessary to sell the merchandise. This cataloger might gain more if it either added more pages to accommodate the number of items, or dropped some less productive products from the catalog and indicated that there is more available on its Website.

• Put information where it is expected

  Over the years, catalogers have trained customers where to look for basic information. Phone numbers and Web URLs should be at the footer (bottom) of the spread, not at the top or vertically along the side. Folios (page numbers) belong at the bottom-left and right-hand side of the spread. If spread categories are going to be called out (e.g. DVDs, Videos, Curriculum on page 2) they belong on the outer top of the page, where the reader can spot them when thumbing through a catalog. These areas are not the place to reinvent the rules. Changing location only serves to frustrate the reader.

• Help the customer make a purchase

  In so many cases throughout this catalog, the customer is given the choice of a variety of similar products (e.g., mouth models on page 2, sports balls on page 3). This cataloger could generate many more sales if they presented the reader with some help choosing. In some cases, comparisons such as good, better, best would work. In other situations, “best seller” or “our choice” might motivate a customer who is having a hard time making a choice.