Swing (Feb-Dec 1952)

40 February, 1932 search for better values at lower prices at times sends Sears production engineers to a factory with ideas and suggestions for improving quality and production. At the disposal of the parent buying organization is one of the largest and most complete laboratory facilities in industry. There the catalog specifications of every item are tested and established. Rigid and exacting tests determine wear, color, shrinkage and washability. New processes and new materials are researched and developed. There is tomorrow's refrigerator, electric blanket and work shirt. Naturally, a great many nationally-advertised brands find their way into the mail-order catalog; and on such goods the reputation of the manufacturer replaces laboratory-tested specifications. NEXT in the cycle of mail order mar\eting comes the job of catalog presentation. The first func tion of the catalog is to produce sales at a satisfactory advertising ratio. Cost of cataloging is measured in exact dollar terms for every section and every page. Anticipated sales determine the size of the catalog, the number of pages allotted to each line of goods, the space allocated to any one item on a page. Against the anticipated sales are thrown the advertising cost per section, page or portion of a page. If the catalog is to produce sales it must make the customer see more value in the merchandise it displays. Accordingly the catalog presentation must show the merchandise— highlight the features which sell, and in which customers are interested. It must describe the merchandise in simple, clear, factual language. It must price the merchandise — stressing unit or quantity price as customer demand recommends. Illustrations are dominant in the catalog. The reason is self evident — pictures sell merchandise. Certain merchandise sells better in color and pays for the added cost of color work. Fashion selling today requires live-model photographs. Hammers and saws sell as well in black and white. All catalog copy must be selling copy^ Catalog copy must say all that a good salesman says, and say it better. Yet the catalog must not oversell, lest it incur cus* tomer complaints and the return of merchandise. And then the catalog must be geared to the customer it sells. The catalog is in reality a big store — with its show windows, its departments, its counters and its displays. Because experience shows that women do most of the shopping, the show window space in the front of the big catalog is devoted to children's and women's wear. Then follows men's wear, home furnishings, etc. Illustration and copy run the gamut from smart Hollywood fashions to the cold facts and figures on automotive parts. The display and the copy must not only make the customer want this particular item in preference to any other; it must prompt the customer to get a pencil and write out his order! The catalog must build for the future. Catalog buying is a habit; the catalog must establish that habit and project it into the future. It must establish the mail-order trade marks and a preference for them. It must build a reputation for quality and price which becomes the customer's standard of good value. THIRD in the cycle of mail order marketing is catalog circulation. The mail order merchant sends his store to his customer. He knows from experience that his business depends on getting to the right customer at the right time. Years of study, research and statistics are in his files. His is a constant study of populatior> trends, of economic and industrial changes. If the editorial task of putting together the catalog is laborious, the mechanical job of printing is staggering. And it require* a swimming pool of ink. A big swimming pool. The general catalog, which weighs four and one-half pounds, has almost 10 million circulation. An edition fills 600 freight cars. Stacked in a single pile, one