Catalogs! Isn't There a Better Way?

Recently I gave one of our team members the project of going through our catalogs. Hey...it's May and I figured it was time. It was obvious they were stacking up and each year I ponder the question...isn't there a better way? We receive SO many catalogs!

We receive catalogs from companies we have never done business with and probably will never do business with. We choose to use our preferred suppliers and unless we are looking for something off the beaten path, we're not going to go elsewhere. Why would we?

Sending catalogs costs our supplier partners a fortune...and I wonder how effective that investment really is? It's a company's money to use as they see fit, but might I be so bold as to suggest suppliers only send catalogs to people with whom they have a relationship with?

ISN'T THERE A BETTER WAY?
We want to hear from you on this topic and invite your comments below. Perhaps something productive will come from this discussion.

Here's a suggestion for suppliers...just send a Starbucks card to stimulate new business!
(Sorry...that was harsh.)

Is it wise to send a catalog to everyone? Click here for a wacky video commentary on this topic.

Ah...but a supplier must question: How can I reach the marketplace if I don't throw away thousands of dollars on catalogs? SUPPLIERS: If you have the ability to help quality distributor sales people sell your product, we would love to hear from you. If you can't do that and have more business than you need, just keep sending catalogs and doing "traditional" marketing.

All this talk of catalogs leads me to the benefits of ZOOMcatalog Powered by FreePromoTips. Check it out!

Comments

0 #15 2011-02-09 01:40

Thank you for bringing this up again. It's a problem that won't go away. I don't consider myself a tree hugger, but we should be more environmentally responsible.

It seems like many suppliers flush money down the toilet when they randomly just send catalogs to people they don't have relationship with. I love your send a Starbucks card line!

0 #14 2010-05-19 13:52

Bryony here... I work at ZOOMcatalog and am pleased to see that most of you feel the way we do about catalogs! ZOOMcatalog was founded by a distributor of 15 years who thought that there had a be an easier, cost effective and faster way to deal with catalogs.

John Juneau- I noticed you were talking about printing from websites and how this is sometimes it is a problem, so I wanted to let you know about an amazing tool that I could not live without! It is a screen capturing tool called FastStone Capture. You can clip images of anything you are viewing on your computer screen, such as a section of a website, catalog, or anything else you view on your computer. Once you clip an image you can then add text, images, change colors, add a border, and much more. I think you will find this helpful as you can just snip what you are interested on a website or catalog for printing or adding to e-mails, fliers, presentations, etc.
You can download the tool here- you will get a 30 free trial and then it is just $20 and you own the tool for life.
www.faststone.org/.../

By the way- I do not work for or have any affiliation with FastStone, but I tell everyone about their tool because it is so great!

Hope this helps!

0 #13 2010-05-17 00:40

Suppliers: Just send catalogs to your customers. Don't waste paper!

0 #12 2010-05-17 00:36

Yeah these suppliers waste too much paper on catalogs!

+1 #11 2010-05-16 17:03

Yeah...we get way too many catalogs. I'll still use them, but I think electronic catalogs are the way of the future. I'm going to check out the Zoom catalog thing. That looks pretty cool.

0 #10 John Juneau 2010-05-16 06:40

After attending the PPAI show in Jan 2009, we received far too many catalogs. This year we requesting only those we really want and have received only a few unsolicited that we may not use. We use the web constantly but still find it much easier to gather certain details from catalogs. Also, printing from many web sites is not practical due to the huge areas of solid color on some pages.

0 #9 2010-05-13 23:29

John,
So are you speaking for everyone? I do not think that is your place. OK, so some people want print catalogs and that is fine, but not everyone. I use e-catalogs a lot and they have so many advantages that paper catalogs do not, plus many of my customers love them. I cannot instantly send a paper catalog to my client, for free. I cannot search the catalog for the word "pink" to find all pink items. I cannot snap an image out of a print catalog and add it to an e-mail. I even call and ask vendors for their e-catalog if I cannot find it on the web!
Also, the following comment is naive. I see this happening just as much with e-catalogs and you would not know because you don't use them!- "No longer will a customer, looking for water bottles catch that, "oh, we can do some lanyards, too" or some other item that happens to catch their eye as they look for the water bottle pages."
I agree that SOME e-catalogs are slow to load, but there are others that are very fast. Maybe you need to look at your internet provider. For example, you refer to zoom catalogs, which are instant on my computer and the technologo e-catalogs are very fast as well.
I am not trying to convince you to use e-catalogs, I understand that not everyone will, but I also know that I cannot speak for everyone and that there are people that like and people that dislike print catalogs.
For me, e-catalogs are an improvement.
Thanks for the opportunity to share.
-Sally

0 #8 2010-05-13 22:23

In response to your question about supplier catalogs.....
If there is, I don't know what it is. And my challenge is the suppliers we do regular business with who I ask to send us catalogs, usually at ASI Orlando, who don't. Perhaps that's not the best time to ask - they get overwhelmed.
I'm also going to sound off about "Zoom Catalogs". I don't care for them at all. I thought maybe it was generational (let's just say I've been in the industry almost 25 years), but my 27 year old salesman agrees. We can scan a paper catalog; we can't scan a Zoom Catalog. I suspect that ancillary sales will decline as more Zoom Catalogs are used. No longer will a customer, looking for water bottles catch that, "oh, we can do some lanyards, too" or some other item that happens to catch their eye as they look for the water bottle pages. Not to mention that Zoom Catalogs are time consuming. (Don't know about you, but my time is at a premium....I don't want to spend it waiting for a page to flip, then have to zoom in to read the text, then zoom out to turn the next page, then wait some more.)
And it's not just us. Clients have told me, "Give me the hard copy catalog" Even younger generation clients. I know the world is changing, and I'm not afraid of change, but change isn't always an improvement. Zoom catalogs are not an improvement.
Thanks for the opportunity to share.

+1 #7 2010-05-13 19:32

The catalogs do pile up, but strangely enough it is the way I find most items I sell....and new items to offer. Even though I spend hours per day on the computer, for some reason I'm not a huge fun of using ASI supplier websites and or cd catalogs....
Just my 2 cents

+1 #6 2010-05-13 15:55

Ah Jeff! You're speaking to the choir. Is is ASI's fault for telling (dare I say forcing) new suppliers: "Print up 10K catalogs, and you'll get business". Or is it the supplier's fault for being so gullible. We're in the promotional products business for crying out loud! We KNOW that doesn't work. There is a place for catalogs in this industry; I'm not sure where that place is. An you're correct as distributors, we only use suppliers we know and trust. At trade shows I tell vendors, "Do not send me a catalog but please keep in touch". Some suppliers need a lesson that client/vendor relationships are the same all the way up the chain. We need to work very hard to get and keep a customer. Suppliers need to do the EXACT same thing. They are living in a fantasy world by thinking that just sending out 10k catalogs will get them anywhere. Other than that I have no strong feelings on the topic.
Tom at Image Point Promotions in PA

+1 #5 2010-05-13 15:27

We are currently cleaning out our catalogs, keeping only preferred suppliers. I use SAGE and supplier websites for most of my research. Suppliers should make their websites end user friendly, not post contact information there, and make it easy to copy and paste links that work to individual products.

+1 #4 2010-05-13 15:26

I agree with Allan. I just revamped our catalog room and threw away tons of out dated catalogs. ESP, websites even catalogs on CD would be far less wasteful.

+1 #3 2010-05-13 15:08

I just took three weeks and dumped four file drawers of catalogs into the blue container. All gone. Kept my preferred folks. I subscribe to ESP and use it extensively. Most suppliers have very decent websites. I believe that many suppliers are signed up with Zoom that allows easy lookup. I just received my ASI box with catalogs....they got dumped today into the blue bin...Thursday's garbage day in the barrio.