Matthew Fey, Creative Director
Admitting it is the first step to re-cover-y.
Look at your most recent catalog cover. Really look at it. Imagine it was the first time you were ever seeing it. Would it get your attention? Would it make you want to stop and open it?
Or…and be honest…does your cover suck?
(It’s ok. Just admit it. Now let’s fix it.)
Catalog shoppers DO judge a book by its cover. And it only takes those shoppers ONE-TENTH OF A SECOND to form a first impression. By comparison, it takes only one-third of a second to blink your eyes.
That means first impressions aren’t made in the blink of an eye. They’re made faster than that. So if your catalog cover sucks, then customers are done with you faster than the blink of an eye.
If your cover sucks, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Probably 90% of catalog covers suck.
How do I know this? Sturgeon’s Law. It’s a theory based on a quote from science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon declaring that 90% of everything is crap. That leaves only 10% good stuff. (Contrast that with Seinfeld’s Law, which purports that 95% of the population is un-dateable, but I digress….)
I look at catalogs. Lots of them. Every day I see Sturgeon’s Law in practical application. I’d say 90% crap is a generous estimate. I see covers with uninspired photos. Covers with too many elements. Covers where text competes with imagery. Covers with no stopping power. Covers that, well, suck.
Good news? All those bad covers make the good covers stand out even more. A little extra incentive to make your cover not-suck.
This is not the first time I’ve talked about covers – Click here for more – nor will it be the last. The catalog cover is your storefront, your window, your invitation to the customer. You want your cover to make them stop, open, engage. Otherwise, it’s straight into the recycle bin with the rest of the sucky covers.
There’s more than one right way to do a good cover. Conversely, there’s a lot more ways to do a bad cover. From a best practices point of view, we like to say that a cover has five key roles:
- Grab attention
- Quickly tell who you are
- Present any offers
- Get people inside
- Sell
Those are the traditional roles of a catalog cover, and they’re certainly a good place to start. But you can follow all of those and still have a cover that sucks. I propose that the most important role of the cover is #1 – GRAB ATTENTION.
To avoid a cover that sucks, it must grab the reader by the eyeballs and sear its image into their brains! Make your cover so compelling that readers cannot look away. Dazzle them with dynamic compositions. Startle them with a clever headline. Engage them with compelling imagery. And stupefy them with striking simplicity.
When you command their attention, your cover doesn’t suck.
So take another look at all your past catalogs. Be honest: does your cover suck?
If your cover sucks, the first step is admitting it. Matt Fey can help you on the road to re-cover-y. Call 913-236-2414 or email mattf@jschmid.com
Tags: catalog, catalog cover, catalog design, Matthew Fey