Questions and Answers

Q. How long does it take to get a catalog produced?
A. The answer to this question involves a couple important variables. The first is whether or not this is your first-time catalog or a revision to an existing catalog. The biggest challenge in catalog production is gathering the content and efficiently laying out the pages. Your catalog pages will consist of a wide variety of information – tables, pictures, diagrams, ads and a lot of textual information. If you’re starting from scratch, you need a plan to gather these various elements and construct your book. Obviously then a new catalog venture will take more time than a revision.

The second factor is your level of commitment to the project. Are you prepared and able to designate an individual on your staff as the “project champion”? If so, then with a project timeline set out, you will have a much better chance of bring the project home in time and on budget.

The third factor seems obvious... how much content do you wish to publish? While there are no hard and fast rules here, industrial distributors should budget about 50 sku’s per catalog page. So, if you have 15,000 sku’s, your catalog will average 300 pages. So how long is this going to take – well, assuming this is a first-time effort and you have an internal resource to assign to the job, a good rule of thumb would be 50-75 pages per month. So with a plan and the support of a catalog publishing company, you could budget say five months for content development and proofing and three weeks for actual printing.

Q. What are the biggest cost levers in catalog publishing?
A. Again, there are a several factors to consider. The first is simply the amount of content you wish to catalog. The more sku’s in your catalog, the more pages will be required. An average cost for a 300 page catalog with content development and printing (5,000 copies) all inclusive is around $200 per page. As you add more pages you add more cost. First time publishers of catalogs need to take a hard look at their catalog marketing strategy and reflect that in their catalog design.

Secondly, access to content is a huge cost determinant. Let’s face it, it takes a lot of time (and know-how) to contact all your suppliers and request files for text and images. You can simplify this process greatly by partnering with a specialist catalog publisher (such as Webcom) who already has a large database of content on hand. Remember that getting your catalog into the market quicker is not only a cost saving but also the best way to begin realizing return on your investment.

The third area for consideration is in your design and print specification. This includes such things as ink colors in the text – all black, two-color or four color process. Inserts in your catalog such as ads or tab pages are costs and usually revenue generating. Paper choices are diverse and many new grades are now available to help minimize costs while delivering similar look and feel of more expensive grades. Trim sizes, binding formats and post operations such as drilling and distribution also offer good opportunity for wise decisions to contain costs. Your professional book manufacturer can assist with all these options.

Q. Today’s catalog publishing seems to involve a lot of software and high tech support – how can a distributor minimize risks with suppliers of these types of services?
A. Avoid complicating the catalog publishing process unnecessarily, look for a turn-key supplier that has the in-house capability to collect your content, manage the high tech aspects and print your catalog. In other words, stay with what you do best and have a specialist company handle catalog publishing.

Visit your supplier’s home base to assess the depth of their operation, years in business, experience and references. Make sure that the company you chose will be there for the long haul.