DWD-DM04
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Projects
CHECK LIST
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Picture of product (photograph or illustration) Product code keyed to picture Description and brand Price, colours, sizes and materials Special deals or original price Product order code Colour-matched swatches Availability Sizing details Supply and shipping options and prices Payment options Order form Location listings and maps Contact information including phone number, postal address, freepost address, fax, e-mail and Web address Legal requirements Editorial content [optional] Hints [optional] Guarantees Product endorsements Special offers Coupons Return policy
capture truer colours and finer details. Sometimes a catalogue will have a full shot of a product, a sequence of detail shots, and a swatch of available colours, each keyed with its name: sand, midnight, jade, charcoal… Each photograph is then labelled or captioned with the product description and purchase information. If there is more than one product in the photograph, each will be alpha-coded either per page, per double-page spread, or consecutively throughout the catalogue. Using a separate coding table for each double-page spread is preferable because any last-minute changes in product availability will force coding changes only to that one spread, rather than to the whole catalogue. Some organisations use their inventory codes to resolve ordering issues, but they can often be long sets of numbers and letters that not only can look intrusive when superimposed over the photography, but can be incorrectly copied onto order forms. The coding therefore is often alphabetical rather than numeric, supporting 26 products across a double-page spread. Then the order form will usually ask for a page number and a product code. This means that multiple products will share the same letter code, so to avoid misquoted page numbers (and, truthfully, in how many catalogues can you find the page number that easily anyway?), you can introduce hybrid alphanumeric (A1, A2, B1) or double-letter (AA, AB, BA) codes. Consider what the organisation is trying to achieve with the catalogue. Is it to get more people through the doors for a 2-week blitz? Is it to get phone orders immediately with credit card payments? Is it to get postal orders? Is it to increase awareness of the product range and build the organisation’s reputation so it is thought of whenever someone is in the market for that product? Each of these motivations has implications for the catalogue’s design, so find out what the organisation’s motivation is. It’s frustrating when a reader decides to buy something from a catalogue, but cannot find complete information or even a telephone inquiries number—only an inconvenient shop address or postal options. The vendor loses the sale. If the intention is to get people into the store, maybe a coupon that is redeemable only in-store will do it. These coupons can be used by the store to gain some valuable feedback on its customer base and the effectiveness or otherwise of its advertising. The store can count how many