Questions and Answers

Q. Is a catalog worth the expense?
A. Considering that 76% of your customers require additional production information prior to making buying decisions (Cahners Research) and that, in most cases, your sales rep. has not made a customer visit in the past 20 days, your customer must rely on other sources for the product information they are looking for. The catalog – print or on-line – serves as a full-time sales representative in your customers' office all the time.

A catalog is a significant investment in your company's future. In fact, publishing your catalog often constitutes the largest single marketing cost in your annual budget. And like other investments, your catalog investment needs to show a good return.

Measuring the return from your catalog investment should include indicators such as improved customer satisfaction, building differentiation from competitors, entrenching your brand in your customer's mind. Some indicators are difficult to quantify but research shows that companies that make catalog investments increase market share, show improved bottom line results and enhance shareholder value.

Q. What's better – a printed or on-line catalog?
A. The key to business success is building customer relationships across many communication mediums. As your customers become more tech savvy the businesses must respond with solutions that enable customer self-service and facilitate on-line transactions. Both printed and on-line catalogs will help you enhance customer relationships.

Regardless of the format of the catalog – print or online – the challenge facing many catalogers is accessing timely and relevant content. For many years print publishing and online publishing were considered two separate workflows requiring twice the effort and time to create and format catalog content. Today catalogers can take advantage of technologies that support both print and online versioning from a single workflow and content source. This saves you money and takes less time to get to market with a new catalog, whether it's in print or on-line.

Q. Where do I start?
A. The first step is determining what product mix you want included in your catalog. Your expertise is critical in determining the right product mix and in understanding how to maximize the business impact of implementing a catalog program. This includes working with your vendors and manufacturers to identify and approve the catalog's content.

For distributors, content often comes from manufacturers whose products you represent. Most manufacturers will work with you to convert their product information into content for your catalog. This may involve recreating (scanning, data entry) from hard copy or converting electronic versions of manufacturers' information.

For manufacturers, creating catalog content – product information, specifications, images – involves a variety of publishing technologies for both print and online output. By ensuring your catalog content is easy to access and convert into new formats you will drive more interest in your products.