What makes catalogs different?

Although premium retail catalogs can look and feel like glossy brochures, the two formats have very little in common and space is always at a premium in catalogs. Whereas a brochure can set its own scene and take its time presenting a concept and telling a story, a catalog has to work very hard and the copy has to make it easy to understand and use. Trade catalogs (used by businesses to market themselves to other businesses) also require the same degree of attention to detail from the copywriter.

The larger the catalog, the more difficult it is to write, because maintaining consistency in tone of voice and word counts, and avoiding repetition, becomes even more of a challenge. If an advertisement is a sprint, a catalog is a marathon. Your skills for this must include accurate scheduling and time management of your own writing, as well as excellent creative writing skills. Whatever the type of catalog, the words and messages you create for it have to attract interest, guide the reader, present products appealingly, and close the sale. At the same time your copy has to build a close relationship with the reader.

“The difference between writing successful long-form copy and ad copy is the degree of concentration and discipline it demands. Long-form requires endurance.”

Robert Sawyer, Kiss and Sell

“Catalog” is an all-embracing term that covers many different types of publication, but essentially every catalog is a list or database of one type or another. Catalogs should present a collection of information – usually about products of one sort or another – in an ordered, accessible, and attractive format.

In reality it is rare to find examples of good copywriting in catalogs – they usually rely on presenting detail in photographs and feature lists, with basic indexing, and therefore miss out on the opportunity to build a rapport and develop a strong relationship with the reader by using interesting, informative, and friendly copy to guide, advise, and persuade.

Managing catalog copy can be complex

Copywriting a large piece of work can be complicated. Having written the cover lines and chapter headings, you submit your first few double-page spreads of first-draft product entries, get on with the next few, and perhaps start to develop the more creative introductions to each chapter. The revisions for the first spreads land on your desk just as you are in the middle of the others. You somehow fit the amends in too. As the weeks go by you can be looking at multitudes of second- and third-stage amends to all aspects of the copy, and be asked to simultaneously proof and mark up your copy on the typeset pages as they come through from artworking. Getting things out of the door becomes the key objective, and this can compromise your ability to control the quality and style of the copy.

“Our words actually change the chemistry of our reader’s brain. Those changes are filed away as bits of memory. The longevity of each bit of memory depends on the vividness of the experience being recorded.”

Theodore Cheney, Getting the Words Right

This means you may have to “push back” and challenge the necessity of making certain client amends, which may break from the catalog’s tone of voice or layout rules. You need to approach this simply, justifying your comments by explaining how you are managing the tone of voice and why this is important. There will, of course, be justifiable amends, and you have to see to these and focus on the resulting copy.

Everyone who is asked to approve a proof is likely to have some comments and amends but unless these reflect the professional opinions of members of the project team, it’s best to keep them to the bare minimum. Rely on tact and diplomacy to begin with, detailed reasoning as your next step, and a creative strop only as your last resort.

The store is a DIY warehouse, but the communications material focuses on all of the benefits their ranges offer, from affordable and complete solutions to the ultimate dream – the lifestyle that you have always wanted.

Keep an eye on the big picture

As the writer, you must consider the criteria that characterize and distinguish your catalog. What is its fundamental role? Is it supposed to be a low-cost, definitive list of products and services, or an inspiring, brand-building retail offering? How is it being distributed? Is it being picked up in-store or mailed to the customer’s home? These elements will have a direct influence on your copy.

The distribution method affects the format, which, in turn, affects your approach to the copy. If it is to be mailed out or inserted in the press its overall weight will be limited, which means a limited number of pages. This can restrict your freedom to use space and make it difficult to breathe life into your copy. The paper is likely to be very thin – you can’t put too much black ink on the page or it will show through to the other side, and this limits your word count.

In-store retail catalogs usually feature a full-bleed lifestyle cover image, a soft-sell headline, and a few compelling cover lines. The customer already buys into the brand and enjoys an ongoing relationship with the retailer, so these types of catalog do not have to be reinforced with very strong sales messages. Your catalog has to sit alongside and complement the rest of the retailer’s point-of-sale material. It has to be a comfortable addition – giving more detailed information or additional products – to the store environment so that regular customers are likely to take a copy home as a matter of course.

By contrast, when you are writing a catalog that is distributed via the mail or carried as an insert in the press you have to work a lot harder to attract your reader’s attention. You cannot assume any sort of ongoing relationship, or even any prior awareness of the brand, so you have a lot of work to do.

The cover is your catalog’s advertisement for itself, and it should work as hard as any other creative advertisement. At the very least you should feature the brand (or a strong reference to it) and some form of title, even if this simply says “Summer Catalog.” Simply use your front cover as an advertisement for your catalog and flag up a compelling and unique reason why it is so good.

The cover should intrigue the reader and entice him or her to pick up the catalog and explore its pages by presenting some sort of promise. Using a garden center catalog as an example, this could range from “New ways to transform your garden” or “Everything you’ll ever need for your garden,” to “Expert gardening made easy” or “Improving your gardening, improving your garden.” The angle you’ll take will depend on the directions in your brief. Pay close attention to the image and make sure your copy supports and enhances it and adds extra dimension to the overall message.

If you’re focusing on “lifestyle” (relating the catalog to the target audience by showing imagery that triggers familiar cues for them) you may want to hold back on strong sales messages and let the image speak for itself, supported by the brand and a straightforward title. This can be a very sophisticated approach and is a safe bet, which can be a major consideration: if your client is printing thirteen million copies you can’t afford to take big risks with a witty headline or an obtuse concept that not everyone will relate to. Lose a small percentage of your readers on this scale and the impact on sales will be enormous. When working with the mass market you are likely to have to generalize and use the broad-brush approach.

Your alternative is to feature one or more of the best products or services on the cover as a clear example of the quality, style, and value that your client wishes to project. A single product can say everything about the entire content of your catalog, so you (and your client) should resist the temptation to splash a collection of products on the cover, as this is likely to be unfocused and unclear.

Price sensitivity and other issues of confidentiality can be of paramount importance, so be aware of the nature of your client’s competitors. There are cases when the prices in a catalog are not included in any development work and are dropped in at the very last minute before going to print. As soon as the catalog is in the hands of the public, the client’s competitors will immediately drop their prices to just below those published in their rival’s catalog. As the copywriter you are often in possession of highly sought-after information, so make sure you don’t accidentally break confidentiality.