Are B2B Cataloguers too timid The industrial B2B  Marketing departments and designers seem to suffer the same malaise of assuming that because a product is mundane it can’t be marketed effectively. After all, how do you market paint brushes, spanners or the 1001 other products that the majority of industrial cataloguers peddle on a daily basis. The purpose of this article is to challenge this assumption and perhaps demonstrate how B2B cataloguers can introduce simple marketing tricks to brighten up uninteresting catalogue pages and, at the same time, improve the chances of clinching a sale

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Ian Simpson   Director   Catalogues 4 Business   www.c4b.co.uk

Just to put things into context, I recently met with a prospective client to discuss producing his next catalogue. His range was typical industrial products: engines, spares and consumables. I had suggested that we produce a small catalogue and mail it to a tight target audience. He was initially sceptical. He said he often picked up catalogues in which he couldn’t easily find what he wanted, which led him to phone the catalogue company and ask them to find it. I went on to explain that this wasn’t necessarily the failure of the catalogue as marketing tool, per se, but rather that catalogue in question failed to address fundamental marketing issues.

Mail order catalogues are marketing tools that have the ability to close sales and it is natural to draw parallels with salesmen. They too turn up on prospective customers’ doorsteps with the sole aim of converting them into customers or re-selling to existing customers. The perceived advantage of a salesman over a catalogue is that they can create real-time dialogue with the prospect, highlighting features and benefits of a product, suggest alternative products, introduce new products, offer discounts; in short they, sell, sell, sell!

What many catalogue marketers and catalogue designers fail to grasp is that many of the ‘advantages’ can be directly transferred to a catalogue. With a little thought you can create that dream salesman that is permanently there, plugging your products and working hard to close the sale. I have included two dummy spreads that show differing approaches to the marketing of industrial products (see A & B). They are not meant to be definitive design solutions but an attempt to contrast one approach with another and in particular draw attention to the way presentation of products can affect sales. These are fictitious catalogue pages arrived at by referring to a selection of B2B catalogues and combining elements of the best and worst examples.

The Spreads
The spreads contain products typical of many generalist industrial catalogues and which appeal to almost any industrial sector. I think the first step is to put yourself in the position of the reader. They’ve just picked up the catalogue, maybe for the first time, opened it and see a familiar range of products. Getting them to open the catalogue is the first hurdle, now we have a few vital seconds to grab their attention.

The first thing that hits you, with spread A, is the size of the price boxes. For some reason there is a tendency for a lot of catalogue designers to completely overstate the price boxes. Although price awareness is important, large price boxes clutter a layout and fight with the products in the visual hierarchy of page layout. Spread A firmly places the price boxes at the top of the visual hierarchy. Prices are important but not to the extent that they dominate everything else. The concept of visual hierarchy is fundamental to catalogue design. The closest analogy that I have is to producing a catalogue spread on layers of tracing paper. Each layer of paper contains a level of information i.e. the product heading or the photographs etc. Typically, the hierarchy reads like this:

1. Section heading
2. Picture
3. Main heading
4. Sub heading
5. Product information
6. Price Box
7. Order Instructions

The way we peel back these layers of information helps us navigate the page and the message it is trying to convey. At any time we can disturb this order with either positive or negative results. Spread A appears bland with no single element, other than price boxes jumping out to invite a sale or highlight a product feature or benefit. It is important to understand that it’s the ability to disturb the visual hierarchy that adds excitement and pace to spreads. If we go back to the scenario of the potential customer looking at this spread, we have a few vital seconds with which to grab them when they look at the page. With spread A, there is a total lack of marketing message and nothing that attempts to draw the reader into the page and engage them in a sales dialogue. The customer might well be looking for a set of spanners or hexagon keys but why should he buy from this page? It is wrong to assume that because an item is an industrial product, and the staple of many workplaces, it doesn’t require marketing with enthusiasm. If a product has a particular feature or if you are selling it in a particular way, you need to tell the reader!

Once you have ‘hooked’ the reader it essential that you then give them as much relevant product information as possible. This enables them to make an informed buying decision. Spread A highlights a common problem with B2B catalogues, although the pictures are clear, not enough information is provided and this may result in a lost sale.

In spread B I have tried to illustrate how the negative points we have discussed previously can be rectified. As you can see, ‘call outs’ have been used to highlight the relevant areas. The first thing that strikes you is that the price boxes have now slipped down the visual hierarchy; they are smaller, less obtrusive but still contain the all the relevant information. The border around the spread has been removed; this lightens the page and moves the visual emphasis to product pictures. Moving around the spread, it is also evident that we have increased the product density. Reducing the size of the price boxes has created more space for products.

With each product the text has been increased and this has been further reinforced with a subheading pulling out a relevant feature or benefit. The torch, top left, has the price highlighted; this combined with the strong image might just attract enough attention to draw the reader in. Moving down, the Wiping Cloths has the ‘Best Seller’ icon added. Icons are powerful attention grabbers but must remain constant (size/design/colour) throughout the catalogue, the readers’ attention is then automatically triggered when the icon is seen. Looking at the gloves, paintbrushes and wire brushes, multi-buy discounts have been introduced and this is a good way to increase the average order value. Industrial buyers often require multiples of single products and quite rightly expect discount for a bulk order. By including details in the catalogue it reduces the potential for phone calls requesting a discount.

On the right hand page there is a selection of tools, individually they are not particularly high value items, but by combining them into a set the order value is increased and you effectively create another product line. Saving 20% is a powerful incentive and at the same time has the potential to drive up the average order value.

To summarise, don’t be afraid to market your products, whatever they are. Catalogues have a notoriously short time to grab attention and start the buying process. If you’ve managed to get the recipient to open the catalogue you’re doing well, don’t squander the opportunity with mediocre marketing. Remember the only reason a mail order catalogue exists is to sell, all you have to do is make it easy to buy.

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