Customer Reviews

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

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.

Virtually every company that makes things has to ahve a catalog. It's the thing that tells your customers what you do and gives them the detailed information that they need to make a decision.

Catalogs began with the mail order industry where the technology grew to measure sales return per square inch of paper. Over time, the professionals learned what worked and what didn't. Then when everything was working pretty well, the Internet came along and changed all the rules. All of a sudden space was endless, no more big checks to the printers. Communications was essentially free, no more big checks to the post office. The rules changed because the option to thumb through the catalog was no longer there. Instead sophisticated search and discover techniques needed to be worked out.

Jack Schmid has been in the catalog business, both print and electronic for many years. In this book he passes along dozens, if not hundreds of points. The book covers quite a lot of ground. Much of the book is on the functions that have to be performed whether the catalog is printed, electronic or both. This includs things like product selection, fullfillment, customer service and finance. There is a goodly amount of material on the printed version of the catalog, as these are still required by most companies. There are several points interspersed throughout the book and finally chapters on things like database marketing, the Internet, and more.

This is one of the most all inclusive books available on catalog marketing and includes just about everything there is to know.

A wonderful overview of the catalog world with plenty of real-world examples including: ROI calculations, promotions, customer segmentation.....
Worth its wieght in gold!

This is such a great book for a company that is starting a Catalog business or thinking about it. It covers all aspects of the Catalog business and gives you a checklist of all the necessary tasks to launching a successful catalog. Great book...

I have owned a successful mail order business for 15 years now. Recently, our marketing has started to falter, and I have been looking for ideas to revitalize my business. I bought this book based on the other positive reviews, and have not been disappointed. After reading only the first couple chapters, I bought a second copy for my business partner to read, because I do not want to give up mine. Now I am back to buy 2 more copies to pass around my marketing and merchandising departments.

There is a wealth of great information in this book, and it is going to take my company months to begin absorbing all the lessons this book has to teach. We have been under-segmenting our lists, and wasting too much money on blind prospecting and not spending enough time and effort on our house list. We will also benefit from a more scientific approach to our merchandising.

My only criticism for the book would be its rather cursory attention to the internet. That is excusable considering the date the book was published, but it begs for a new edition to incorporate web marketing strategy into a traditional mail order strategy.

Overall, this book is a comprehensive and excellent reference both for catalog start ups and established mail order businesses. It is well written and organized, much easier to get through than most business books I read (although perhaps the subject matter is more relevant to my business). In any case, if you are considering this book, buy it, if you don't get at least several great ideas out of it, you probably did not read it very carefully.

This is a great book for understanding all aspects of creating a Direct Marketing company or a direct marketing program within your company. The basics and then some are in this book. Well written in that it kept my attention from new ideas and way it was written.