Catalog Critique:U.S. Box

For Catalog Success Magazine
by Sarah Fletcher Creative Director Catalog Design Studios

October 2006

The U.S. Box Corp. Catalog does a great job of showing potential customers that the company carries an impressive array of paper products to cover the packaging needs for everyone from boutique shops to catering companies to jewelry stores.
The cover shows both people and products which is engaging and fun. I would recommend adding the web and phone number to the front cover and spine as well as with the address on the back cover.

The back cover is more of a throw away. Showing the UPS man delivering a package in a super boring brown box is wasting a chance to show how distinctive packaging can elevate a company's brand presentation all the way to their customer's doorstep. The bulleted text is selling the web. I really have to question the use of the best selling space in the catalog to promote something that every customer knows you have. Other than the Video Product Tutorials there is nothing on that list that I would not expect to find on any respectable company's web site. The images next to the spine have no indication of what they are or where in the catalog to find them. Most mysterious are the flying craft paper packages tied with twine. They look cool but no carrier would let you mail them. The back cover is where the best of the best products and services should be highlighted. It can be used for key messaging but it has to be very important indeed to outweigh the opportunity cost of not using it as selling space.

The inside gatefold is just too busy to be shop-able. What the customer sees is a random sampling of everything, so what they retain is nothing. This spread would have worked better with fewer items or perhaps as a "customer favorites" spread. The 60th anniversary is another great story that could have been told well here with old photos and recent customer stories. The bottom line is gatefolds are expensive to do and they need to work hard to be worth the money. All of this could have been done as an ordinary page 2-3. Another problematic element is the tabs used on the right side of the page. Tabs can be very useful, but in this case, I could not figure out the logic because there is so much cross over between the categories that it raises more questions than it answers.

The photography in the catalog is quite good for B2B. It is clear, attractive, well lit and has just enough propping to make you imagine it in use but not so much that it is busy. The images are large enough that you can see the detail in the logos and the overall impression is upscale.

The problems that are undoubtedly costing the company sales start to show up when you actually shop. On page 4 there is an intro page that starts off the section on the "Shades of Success" line of packaging. The picture is of a collection of coordinated boxes and bags and the text says, "it is easy to create my own unique coordinated packaging". But is it? Let’s say I want to order something that looks just like the picture, except with my logo on it. There are some hard to read lines at the bottom that tell me I am looking at the "powder blue matte color on the white rope bags". The Rope Bags are on the next page, so far so good. Except the White bags have white handles and these have blue handles. So are these hot stamped? It says I can only hot stamp one color and these logos have two colors. How much is printing per piece? It isn’t there. It says that there is customer sizing and colors available on orders of 2500 or more. Does that mean that printing is also 2500 minimum? It doesn’t say. (I guess I'll have to get an answer when I call.) Now I go back to the text under the image to see what the boxes are and it says that one is a "One Piece Auto Flip Top Apparel Box" and the other is a "Two Piece Lock Corner Gift Box". There are 4 boxes shown. I don’t know which is which or what page to look on. So, still confused, I just move on.

The next spread has shopping bags in various color groupings, I keep moving. Page 8 has another great photo of coordinated packaging. It appears to be called “Chameleon” coordinated packaging. Since Chameleon is the name on the bags, now I’m wondering if I order them whether they have that logo on them (which would be odd), but Chameleon is not a color option I can find. Under the picture in big type it says “Stock and Standard Box colors for items on pages 9-17, 19, 22-23, 26, 28.” Uh, I’m on page 8, that makes no sense. The next page has the Kenzie Kids Collection. The Texts says “ A unique combination of southwest orange lids and white bases with a splash of hot pink.” Uh oh, the only pink on the lids is the logo. Now I’m seriously wondering if all all the coordinated collection comes with the collection logo on it. The big problem here is I’m starting to feel stupid.

I flip through to page 21 and See the Arancio Sherbert, Celeste Aqua and Rosa Pink Linen Embossed Boxes. Pretty. It says specify color and gives me a choice of Arancio, Celeste, or Rose. There are only two different colored boxes in the image, I have no idea what color Arancio or Celeste are so I look at the image next to it which is the Marrone Chocolate Linen Embossed Boxes, but the callout at the top says Sherbert, could be the color, there are no colors listed. I look below and see the Nero Black Linen Embossed Boxes and the callout there is black, so the callouts are probably colors. I look at the remaining image which has a callout that says Chocolate. It is the Two Piece Box Collection. But is shows three different boxes and only one appears to have two pieces. I check the colors and they are Bordeaux, Terra, Green, Bluette, Celeste, Dark Blue, Lilac and Red. No Chocolate. I now move from confused and stupid to angry. I won’t call for clarification because I don’t want to be confused or feel stupid any more. Sale lost.

I’m not a big fan of rules and in cataloging there are very few absolutes but “If you confuse, you lose.” is probably a law, like gravity, in the end it will get you every time.

Here is the big take home for everyone. Try to shop your own catalog. If you aren’t good at pretending to be a new customer with no prior product knowledge, then bring in a focus group or ask friends to shop your catalog.