PPB December 2020

Kathleen Stanfill, CAS, owner of Congratulations! in Jacksonville, Texas, says, “Catalogs are dinosaurs, really. There has to be a better way.” If she wants to find a product, she says the most expedient, efficient route is to search in SAGE. In place of catalogs, she wishes suppliers would send out more samples. “I love samples. I’m touchy-feely. Suppliers would be better served if they spent the money printing catalogs onmarket/client research and sent out targeted samples. Heck, put catalogs on USB sticks to send to distributors; at least maybe a search function could be integrated?” She adds, “In defense of catalogs, though, I will say this: I have several ‘end user’ catalogs in our showroomand they are always needing to be replenished.” Stanfill is not alone in her partiality to choose sample products over catalogs. Jennifer Katus feels the same way. “If a supplier gave me the choice between receiving either a printed catalog or one free sample of my choice under $10 with free ground shipping, I’d pick the sample.” Suppliers are picking up on these cues from their customers, with apparel suppliers StormCreek and Edwards Garment among the many companies rethinking their 2021 catalogs. Derek Walters, director of brand experience at StormCreek, says the supplier is not mass mailing its catalog this year but instead emailed customers a link and is mailing print copies on request. “This ensured they got delivered to correct addresses; with somany people working remotely, we didn’t want to send out catalogs to offices that may be closed,” he says. “Also, in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, we printed nearly half of what we printed in previous years.” The upcoming year’s catalog also has a new feature, Manufacturers’ Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). “We have such a wide variety of audiences seeing our catalog, including consumers, end users, distributors and retail buyers alike, we wanted to keep the pricing simple and drive customers to log onto our website to view their specific pricing,” Walters explains. “This allows distributors muchmore flexibility in setting their prices. They can offer pricing belowMSRP and still achieve better margins—and end users will be delighted with a lower price. It’s a win-win. This is the ultimate client- safe publication.” At Edwards Garment, Taraynn Lloyd, vice president of marketing, says the company is moving more into the digital catalog world, but will continue to print its fall catalog. “We moved away from printing somuch over the past 12 months, including our price lists, our spring catalog andmost marketing materials. Digital has been a great tool for us and I’m glad we made the decision to conserve on traditional print.” She explains that digital allows the company to create mini- market catalogs without the expense of print andmail fulfillment. It also provides versatility when they market to distributors based on their desires to receive specific content. “We do feel that printing one catalog annually will be our best choice moving forward while supplementing various marketing promotions with digital assets.” Tina Berres Filipski is editor of PPB. and Policies. Again, if any order is likely to incur additional charges, note it on the item and link to the information. Robert Nolan, Wall 2 Wall Promotions, offers fellow distributors these tested methods that he’s found helpful when using and organizing print catalogs. • When we meet with clients, I have the items already bookmarked in the catalog(s) as well as a presentation printout that clients can take with them. It is not unusual for a client, when shown an item in the catalog, to see other items they are interested in or chose an upgraded item that may be pictured near the item I’ve presented. • When a new catalog comes in, I go through it and see what’s new and if I can use anything for a current project. I don’t pretend to remember all the items we carry, so this helps with recall for items as well as which supplier sells the product. Then I pull the old catalog out for recycling and place the new one in that supplier’s folder. • In the hanging folders, I also keep all of the coupons/specials that come in the mail, contact information, supplier-specific marketing material and samples, if they are flat and not already in our showroom. Everything I need is in one folder, but I still use the supplier website as well as SAGE for resources. It’s nice to pull a folder and see coupons/discounts that can apply to the order. • Not all of the catalogs are up to date and that’s ok. We replace them frequently with what the suppliers send us and with what we pick up at shows. If we need an up-to-date catalog for a specific project, we request it. Also, if we don’t plan to use a supplier for one reason or another, we ask them not to send us more catalogs. • We also loan out catalogs to a few distributor friends in the area. I’m old-school and this is what has worked best for me. I did try, for a short time, to use only online catalogs from third parties and supplier resources, but I found my system to be more productive and creative for me. I also supplement print catalogs by accessing online catalogs on my phone and tablet. “If a supplier gave me the choice between receiving either a printed catalog or one free sample of my choice under $10 with free ground shipping, I’d pick the sample." -Jennifer Katus “ FEATURE | Catalogs 24 | DECEMBER 2020 |