Big Ideas for Catalog Covers
What does it take to make a great catalog cover? Do you have the backbone to put some big ideas into practice?
Creative
Research That Makes You Say, “Oh, Crap!”
The research stopped me cold. And I seriously thought our team had it right … we didn’t. Let me back up to the beginning. At J.Schmid one of our mantras is that catalogs should DISRUPT, DELIGHT and DRIVE. I’d like to focus on the latter. Catalogs should DRIVE customers or prospects to DO something. In […]
What does Google Know?
Well…literally almost everything. Their search engine has indexed over 30 trillion websites and executes billions of searches each day. “Google” is now used as a verb, joining the ranks of brands-become-eponymous terms like Kleenex, Band-aid and Frisbee. So what can Google teach us about human behavior online? Literally almost anything. Let’s do a thought experiment: […]
Relax The Back Photoshoot
https://youtu.be/5bJL7wL_Y14 Ever wonder what it takes to manage a photo shoot? Take a peek at the Relax the Back photo-shoot for the 2016 catalog. Thanks to the talented Joe Carlson for filming this (www.joecarlsonstudio). And thanks to Jadie Card for her excellent Art Direction! Interested in receiving the catalog? Sign up here: http://buff.ly/1SRIjzr
5 Steps to a Great Call to Action
These Call-To-Action Best Practices Still Stand The Test of Time. Last week I received a magazine subscription offer in the mail that contained no less than 7 paths to respond, including but not limited to the traditional ‘place YES sticker here’ reply postcard, an 800 number and three online response options with separate, but corresponding […]
ARE YOU DENSE? 3 ways to bring clarity to claustrophobic catalogs
ARE YOU DENSE? Well, are you? Pick up your catalog. Flip through the pages. (Go ahead, I’ll just wait here.) What do you see? Do you see a beautifully spaced and paced experience that takes readers on the scenic route through your brand, a leisurely drive through your assortment? Or, do you see dense congestion, […]
Sustainability: A Deeper Dive
Case Study: Seventh Generation When it comes to household goods, specifically those in the cleaning, paper, and personal care product lines, I’m not sure if there is a better example of sustainability in practice than Seventh Generation. From the company name to their product ingredients, down to the containers their soaps and cleaners arrive in, […]
Sustainability: A Deeper Dive
Case Study: Patagonia While some companies incorporate sustainability practically into sourcing and shipping and others focus on the empirical side of things through product ingredients and consumer honesty, there is a third segment whose very brand essence relies on their inherent relationship to ethical consumerism and their perceived identity in the marketplace. Standing atop the […]
Turn and Face the Strange: The Creative Lessons of David Bowie
Working with catalogers and marketers of all kinds in all categories all across the country, it’s amazing how much a recurring theme manifests. No matter what they sell or who they sell it to, at some point in our creative collaboration, some version of the following questions arise: “How can we be more like the […]