Every manufacturer and distributor has a product catalogue, refreshed from one year to the next. This " rite of passage " gives pride of place to technical references and beautiful photography, but sometimes lacks marketing bite. Here is our take...
A catalogue is not just there to generate orders. Through it, your audiences see a reflection of your positioning and your brand identity.
First and foremost, a marketing exercise
« When we are asked to overhaul a catalogue, we first seek to define the typical profile of its reader and to give this sales tool a strong direction, turning it into a genuine business asset » explains Geoffrey Saugeon, Associate Director at Convergence. Based on this analysis, a whole series of points are optimised from a technical, commercial, practical or image standpoint: product nomenclature, barcodes, technical advice, product selection guides, highlighting promotions, showcasing services, differentiation from the competition, reassurance cues, expert endorsements, presentation of company values...
Convergence thus breathes new life into these sales tools, whose content is not always perfectly aligned with the company's commercial strategy. « Their architecture should be thought of like the shelving in a point of sale - builders' merchants, hardware and industrial supplies or specialist distribution - with gondola ends and flagship products ». Still with sales in mind, Geoffrey Saugeon stresses cross-selling, in other words the techniques that generate additional sales. « Leading products often pull complementary products along in their wake. With our outside eye and a constructively critical approach, we suggest new classifications that mechanically boost sales, because a product that is better seen is a product that sells better ».
Brand culture
Whether they operate in industrial markets, professional supplies, tools or home equipment, all companies are proud of their history and their brand. Paradoxically, they do not assert their DNA strongly enough. To address this, Convergence works on objective elements (paper quality, layout, colour, etc.) as much as subjective ones (mood, tone, semiotics, etc.). A catalogue is in fact picked up again and again, making it ideal for conveying the company's key messages. Hence the particular care the agency takes over your corporate messaging and the presentation of your products, as well as the style of your catalogue, considered down to the finest detail.
We approach the architecture of a product catalogue like the shelving in a point of sale, with gondola ends and flagship products.
Speaking with authenticity
To that end, Convergence uses the testimonial technique, which involves having real employees, specifiers or end users talk about your real products: technicians, distribution networks, tradespeople... When properly executed (with a professional photographer and corporate journalist), this message of sincerity is worth all the advertising in the world. « Beyond these few tips, we have developed a catalogue overhaul methodology for companies that lead their markets » concludes Geoffrey Saugeon of Convergence. « For some, it was merely an evolution; for others, a revolution. For all of them, the result was significant in terms of revenue and/or image ».
As for how long you should wait before revising your catalogue, that depends on many parameters. That said, a redesign every 5 years on average works wonders. So tell us: when did you last review and refresh your product catalogues?
12 May 2022
Manon T.
12minOnline catalogues & digital publications: beware of simplistic solutions…
« They told me it would be effective, easy to do, quick and much cheaper. It was a fiasco ». This decision-maker at an industrial group bitterly regrets abandoning his print catalogue overnight for a digital version on the (poor) advice of a web development company. « Designing a catalogue takes just as long for a digital version as for a printed one » insists Convergence. The agency knows what it is talking about, since it has both an in-house print team and an integrated digital team.