As more retailers mail catalogs and more catalogers open stores, the line between print sales vehicles and retail traffic drivers has become a fine one. Nonetheless, some differences still remain between the two.
“If your catalog’s goal is solely to drive traffic to the store, you can take a lot of liberties with its creative,” says Gary Green, creative director for Columbus, OH-based catalog consultancy Kreber. “Because you are not selling, but rather creating interest, you do not need to be as concerned with direct marketing rules governing product photography and copywriting.”
In traditional catalogs, the merchandise must be presented clearly and precisely. After all, mail order customers generally base their buying decision on the product photography (or illustrations) and copy. The product depiction, in effect, takes on the role of salesperson and therefore must be detailed, anticipating customer queries.
Conversely, “the photography is romanced in a traffic driver, capitalizing on brand image, often making it more aspirational, not necessarily benefit-driven,” says Chris Carrington, president of King of Prussia, PA-based consultancy Catalogs by Lorél. While traditional catalogs often sprinkle lifestyle photography among harder-working product shots, traffic drivers can use a greater proportion of lifestyle shots to intrigue potential customers.
Making space
Traffic drivers can afford to display more lifestyle photography in part because they can keep product copy to a minimum. For instance, in its print vehicles, David’s Bridal, a Conshohocken, PA-based retail chain, accompanies photos of its formalwear with style numbers rather than detailed copy, says Carrington, who consults on the catalogs.
The omission of information about customer service, ordering, and the like also frees up space in traffic drivers. Then again, a traffic driver should, at the very least, devote some space to a listing of stores and an 800-number for queries. Carrington also suggests devoting a portion of a traffic driver to in-store promotions, such as coupons. Not only do these provide recipients with another incentive to visit the store, but they also help retailers gauge the effectiveness of the catalog.
Just as traffic drivers don’t have to allot space to order forms, they don’t have to strictly hew to the results of square-inch analysis. Nor do they need to show the retailer’s entire product range.
“These retail chains often have large assortments but only need to show a small sampling of best-sellers and latest products to get customers’ attention,” Green says.
Women’s apparel cataloger/retailer The Talbots follows the mailings of its core mail order catalogs with a smaller book referred to internally as “the store version.” This catalog features a much more tightly edited merchandise selection, says spokesperson Margery Myers: “It’s intended to create excitement to entice the customer to come into the store.”
Multichannel, multipurpose
But given the high cost of printing and distribution, it’s little wonder that more multichannel marketers now prefer to create multipurpose catalogs — books that leverage the retail channel but also work as a direct mail mechanism.
Talbots, for instance, included in its fall 2001 mail order catalog a gatefold with a calendar of store events, such as the arrival of new apparel lines. The Hingham, MA-based company has found that 70% of its catalog recipients do follow up with a visit to a Talbots store. “The catalog is a sales channel, but it’s also a critical advertising vehicle,” Myers says.
At companies such as upscale cosmetics purveyor Sephora, which started as a brick-and-mortar brand, driving store traffic is a benefit of its print catalog but not the primary purpose. Rather, says senior vice president of marketing Betsy Olum, the catalog was designed to drive direct sales while promoting the overall brand.
To that end, the creative teams of the stores, the catalog, and the Website brainstorm together “to make sure the creative flows across all channels,” Olum says. For instance, this spring Sephora is using a butterfly motif for all its marketing media to create “a voice that is synergistic with the catalog, the Web, and retail.”
While Olum says that the company is not concerned about which channel gets the sale, Sephora does use tracking codes to get an accurate picture of how many channels touch each customer.
The catalog philosophy of Edison, NJ-based footwear marketer Aerosoles is similar to that of Sephora. The book is intended to support the store in addition to generating sales, says senior vice president of marketing Kimberley Grayson. To ensure the creative synergies between stores and catalog, the company uses one internal team for creative across the two channels as well as the Web. “The creative of the catalog connects with the creative in the stores to build the brand,” Grayson says.
Global vs. Local
Multichannel shoe marketer Journeys has discovered an overlooked benefit of traffic drivers: They can easily be customized by region.
Journeys, which also produces a mail order catalog, found that of its 600 stores, the 20 in Puerto Rico generated the most-profitable customers. To capitalize on that market, the Nashville, TN-based company created a 12-page book that highlighted the region’s best-selling items. Its creative varied somewhat from the core catalog’s, using vivid hues and models inspired by the island’s club scene.
The book had no order mechanism, so customers could not buy directly from it, says Carliss Million of Catalogs by Lorél, who was a creative consultant on the project. But stores in Puerto Rico saw a bump in sales in the days immediately following the drop, he adds.
— SF
Building a Better Catalog
If you’re considering transforming your traffic-driving catalog into a sales-generating vehicle, here are a few tips to consider:
- Include editorial that stresses the benefits of ordering from the catalog.
- Add an order form and an envelope that also work to sell items. This way you won’t be “wasting” prime selling space in the middle of the book.
- Track customer codes and make sure they link to your retail database so that you can gauge customer activity across all channels for a more complete profile.
- Reconsider your paper grade. Low-weight, less-expensive paper may cut it for an insert or a traffic driver, but if customers can’t see the texture and detail of products (even if accompanied by stellar copy), they’ll be less inclined to buy.
— SF