Print Catalogs: Alive and Well if Done Right

Done right means published with the customer in mind. I am a hunter and a big hunting supply company knows this. Catalogs, rich with hunting products, appear in my mailbox each month. And this is OK. However, I am a bow hunter, a traditional bow hunter, and 90 % of the catalogs sent to me, at high cost, just do not pertain to my needs.

Then another hunting, shooting business sends me, once a year, this huge mail box stuffing book. With this big book of products, tons of products, is another smaller catalog. The smaller catalog, just a bit skinnier than the big book, contains new products. Why is this?

Because catalog production is akin to having a baby. Conception, to delivery takes nine months or more and many new products arrive during the catalog creation process. What to do? Add another catalog with new products. Silly at best, time consuming, sales killing painful at worst.

Now with modern technology can segment customers, segment products into hierarchies and deliver hot product data via catalog which will be bought a heck of a lot faster than irrelevant, out of date product information.