Catalogue Production for Niche Markets
If you are wondering whether catalogue production is right for your company, there are several questions to ask. Appointing a catalogue designer and a catalogue printer can be an expensive process, therefore, you need to ensure producing a catalogue is the right thing to do for your company.
Article Contents
▸ Niche Business to Business Catalogue Design
▸ Niche Business to Consumer Catalogue Production
Niche Market Targeting
If your target market is very niche, this makes it much easier for you to put together a product range for them and source companies and contact names. You may already have a list of companies and contact names that you have dealt with over the years, in this case, the catalogue you design and produce becomes a salesman for your company all year round.
If, on the other hand, you do not have an existing customer list building one Is relatively easy. You can source customer names and companies yourself and build a comprehensive database, or you can buy lists of targeted niche customer groups.
Catalogue production for these niche markets also generates better response rates, as the lists of products within the catalogues will all be of interest to the recipient. It is important to ensure that your catalogue arrives on the desk of the correct purchasing manager within the organisation you have targeted.
If you do not have this information, you can appoint a call centre, or ask someone within your organisation to call the company. You simply then need to ask the person answering the phone who would be the best person to receive a copy of the catalogue. You can explain to them who you are, the products you are selling, and how valuable your catalogue and products can be to their organisation.
Niche Business to Business Catalogue Design
Most organisations work in niche areas, an example would be a hygiene company who would be interested in a catalogue full of cleaning products and equipment. Or a garage that would be interested in receiving a catalogue containing tools, oils, and car parts.
On the other hand, there may be organisations that do not work in niche areas, but they may have dedicated divisions within the company that look after separate areas of their business. For example, a large company that sells office equipment may have a separate buying department for office furniture, and a separate buying department for stationary. Therefore, your objective is to find who the person is within the company that would be the one to talk to with regards to your product, and the person you would want to send your printed catalogue for the attention of.
People within an organisation tend to be busy and their time limited. It is therefore important to ensure the page layout is easy to follow and the products and the information are clear. The buyer will want to compare products specifications and prices to ensure they are buying the best possible product at the best possible price. Therefore, the catalogue design for the internal pages wants to be simple, straight forward and very easy to work with.
This is what we refer to as a directory catalogue design. These customers are not as interested in lifestyle images and fancy design. They want to get straight to the products they are looking for as quickly as possible. Ensuring sections are clearly marked helps. This can be done as part of the catalogue design process by introducing colours and strong headings. The catalogue designer can create a basic index at the front of the catalogue that shows the reader the page number, where sections begin, and the colour that is used for that section.
Niche Business to Consumer Catalogue Production
Most people have hobbies and interests. They will spend a lot of their time and their money on these interests. Therefore, receiving a catalogue that sells products related to these hobbies and interests is generally something they look forward to. These interests and hobbies cover a vast range of subjects, it may be a specific sport like badminton or fishing, or it may be a hobby such as gardening or bird watching.
When appointing a catalogue designer to produce a catalogue for one of these specific hobby or interest markets, it is important to give them a good background as to what the target market will be looking for. This will then form the basis of the catalogue design. For example, the catalogue designer can source suitable photographic imagery or create graphics that set the tone.
A lifestyle photograph for the cover will entice the recipient to open the catalogue and make those all-important purchases. Also breaking up the internal pages with lifestyle photographs or pictures of the products in use makes the catalogue more interesting and relevant to the recipient.
Consumer market customers who receive a catalogue for something they are genuinely interested in will tend to browse through this at their leisure. They will do it in the evening at home, over the weekend when they have lots of time. Therefore, they are not in a rush and will take their time to browse through the pages and look at all the different products. To keep their interest the catalogue designer has more freedom to create interesting and attractive page designs.
A good approach in catalogue designs for hobby, craft, and interest products, is to approach the catalogue design similarly to the way you would design a magazine. The pages want to be interesting with nice clear photographs. The catalogue designer can introduce article’s that discuss the products and the way they can be used, or talk in general about the specific hobby or interest.
Catalogue design and catalogue printing can be expensive and time consuming for an organisation. Therefore, appointing a catalogue designer that understands how to target your market is essential to the success of the project. Also ensuring you have clean data, with the correct name of the recipient is imperative. When this recipient receives your printed catalogue, they want to instantly see who you are, and what you are selling.
There are many companies out there that may be willing to undertake a catalogue design project, but there are very few who can say they are a dedicated and specialist catalogue production company. Here at Gray Associates, we have over 30 years’ experience of successfully producing exceptional catalogue designs that get results.
For further details contact us today and let us help you make a success of your next catalogue production project.
For more information on our services, or to discuss your exact requirements with one of our expert design team, feel free to get in touch.
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