Every manufacturer or distributor has numerous product catalogues that are updated from one year to the next — sometimes even several times a year! So producing these communication materials is sometimes experienced by brands as a real burden. Time-consuming, error-prone: the traditional print tool suffers from an unfair reputation… wrongly so! All is well: automated page layout is here.
Automated page layout (we will call it auto layout here) is a data-publishing tool particularly suited to catalogues with high page counts, creating a link between a database (from various sources) and the desktop publishing solution of your favourite communications agency. A good alternative or complement to a PIM — that ambitious foundation for multichannel work — auto layout suits any catalogue or communication project built around product references.
« In the production phase, we cut production times for communication materials by 60% in the first year of use, and by up to 90% in the following years » enthuses Solange Olive, desktop publishing designer at the agency! Indeed, automated data imports, updates and synchronisation eliminate (for the most part) repetitive tasks.
We must remain extremely rigorous in checking automated elements: auto layout is no substitute for the absolute necessity of verification work.
Finally, while this technique optimises page production times, the fact remains that every communication tool must be designed with a rigorous, precise marketing and communications approach. Since auto layout places no limits on creativity, there is no getting around the design of the publication itself:
- Marketing diagnosis, analysis of target audiences, usage and behaviour.
- Catalogue structure: flatplan, graphic design, information hierarchy and segmentation, highlighting of value-added content (advice, services, decision-making support, selection guides...).
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