Creating a Profitable Catalog: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Catalog That Sells [Hardcover]

Jack Schmid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

"Jack's in-depth knowledge of the catalog market and his exceptional talent for articulating a precise set of how-tos for seemingly every aspect of this complex business are unrivaled. . . . A masterful volume of a highly complex and challenging topic, written by one of the best catalog consultants around." -- Laura Beaudry, Editorial Director Catalog Age "Creating a Profitable Catalog is a comprehensive guide to modern-day cataloging. It includes up-to-the-minute information on concept and creative development, design and production, merchandising, circulation planning, database marketing, operations, and financial management. All of these topics are analyzed in intricate and careful detail as author Jack Schmid guides the reader through every step of building a successful catalog--either in print or on-line. This is a must-have for any aspiring cataloger's library and a welcome addition to the bookshelves of catalog industry veterans. Praise for Creating a Profitable Catalog by Jack Schmid "Jack Schmid is one of this country's best catalog marketers, and he has packed this book full of detailed, practical know-how on each and every aspect of cataloging. This book is important to anyone already working in our industry, but it is indispensable for someone just getting into the business." -- Bill Spaide, Partner Spaide, Kuipers & Company "I consider Jack Schmid to be the number one catalog strategist of our time. His magnificent new book, Creating a Profitable Catalog, is a treasure chest that starts with the year 2000 and goes beyond." -- Bob Stone, Chairman Emeritus Stone & Adler Author of the bestselling Successful Direct Marketing Methods

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Jack's in-depth knowledge of the catalog market and his exceptional talent for articulating a precise set of how-tos for seemingly every aspect of this complex business are unrivaled...a masterful how-to volume on a highly complex and challenging topic, written by one of the best catalog consultants around."

Laura Beaudry, Editorial Director Catalog Age

"I consider Jack Schmid to be the Number One catalog strategist of our time. His magnificent new book, Creating a Profitable Catalog, is a treasure-chest that starts with the year 2000 and goes beyond."

Bob Stone, Chairman Emeritus, Stone & Adler Author of the best-selling, Successful Direct Marketing Methods

From the Back Cover

The advent of the Internet and on-line catalogs has created intense interest in cataloging from both the consumer and business-to-business markets. More companies than ever before are starting catalogs or adding catalogs to their marketing arsenals. Now Jack Schmid, the catalog industry's leading speaker and lecturer on catalog marketing, offers this detailed guide to developing and launching-or revamping both print and on-line catalogs. Written for anyone who is interested in starting a catalog business or in adding a catalog to his or her company's marketing mix, Creating a Profitable Catalog promises to become the handbook of twenty-first century cataloging for direct marketers, students of direct marketing, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing managers alike. Creating a Profitable Catalog gives complete coverage to the entire catalog process, including business and strategic planning, merchandising, creative, marketing, fulfillment, testing, and measuring response and return on investment (ROI). Filled with examples from reallife catalogs offering a vast array of products and services, Creating a Profitable Catalog also features an eight-page, four-color insert containing examples of vital catalog creative aspects (including layout, design, typesetting, color, and color separations), a complete business plan for a catalog start-up, and a foreword by Laura Beaudry, editorial director of Catalog Age, the preeminent publication of the catalog industry.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0658000640
• ISBN-13: 978-0658000645
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Mail Order

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate handbook of catalog selling, July 28, 2004

By 

Peter Leerskov "The Strategist, www.lace.dk" (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating a Profitable Catalog: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Catalog That Sells (Hardcover)

If you want to read only one book on the catalog business, make sure you pick this one.

I've read more than 5 books in English and German on the catalog subject and Schmid's book is in a class of its own.

It promises to cover the entire catalog process, including strategic planning, merchandising, creative, marketing (circulation), fulfillment, testing, and measuring response and ROI. And it delivers on the promise to an extend that I've never seen before. I spend this summer in Cannes, France, and enjoyed Schmid's book in the hot sun. Just couldn't put it aside...

His 11 pages long spreadsheet model in appendix includes everything for a new catalog start-up feasibility study ... and provides insight for the budgeting process to more experienced catalogers. [Why doesn't he provide a downloadable version in Excel on his homepage?]

The only competitor to this book is probably Katie Muldoon's 1995-publication, which is out of print (her home page says that a new book on the strategic aspects of catalogs is forthcoming).

One weakness that all books on cataloging have so far is their unserious treatment of the Internet. Schmid's book is from 2000 and it shows. It doesn't contain solid work on dynamic publishing, which is exploding via the Internet these years. It's not that Schmid doesn't accept that the Internet will be a phenomenal factor, but in this area so much of the catalog processes have been digitized since 2000. Thus, on this promise it doesn't deliver.

I still recommend this book as the best source so far to understanding all the catalog processes and hints to improving the bottom-line.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That Why My Products Didn't Sell, July 15, 2000

By 

Theresa M. Dobey (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating a Profitable Catalog: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Catalog That Sells (Hardcover)

This book is to die for. After ten years in the candle making business I had big catalog publishing companies telling me that "My product were the reason for not selling". I read this book and bingo it wasn't my products it was my prsentation of the products. Don't waste your time on big catalog publishing companies, just read this book and learn a greater insite of your products and how to sell them.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book, October 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Creating a Profitable Catalog: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Catalog That Sells (Hardcover)

Great guide to the numbers behind starting and running a successful catalog-based business. What it will cost. Where you can save money, and calculating how time to profits.