How to advance ad production and increase creativity in Adobe InDesign
How to advance ad production and increase creativity in Adobe InDesign
As every InDesign user is aware, it takes a lot of effort to produce high-quality advertising pieces. It’s partly about the tools we use. Since its introduction over twenty-two years ago, Adobe has made its flagship page layout application more powerful. Even with InDesign’s built-in potential for automation, not every design team can keep up with the ever-increasing demands of high-volume production.
You’ll notice we emphasized the word “potential.” Under the hood, InDesign is remarkably open to automatic interaction with various other systems – including product information (PIM) and digital asset management (DAM) systems. But having that ability and using it are two very different things. They require a robust, smart connection between the data and the InDesign workflow.
Take the creation of a “simple” ad, for example. The process involves many different components, even for a single, featured product. First, there are product images and descriptive text to select and modify. Next are essential brand elements, campaign-specific copy and directives, relevant specifications (sizes, colors, etc.), and pricing details. Finally, the designer must gather all of these, ensure they are the latest and most accurate versions of the data, and then apply their creative abilities to synthesize it into a compelling advertisement.
This manual process has been a challenge for creative teams since the early days of modern advertising. But things have not gotten easier. Add to the above list the need to produce multiple ads for both print and online channels – not only for single products but for an array of products in each campaign. Our data sources have become more extensive and detailed, so the need for custom versions of everything has expanded exponentially. Different versions are required for different parts of the country, different languages or age demographics, and even different individuals! Adobe InDesign has the power to do most of the individual, creative tasks of an ad campaign. But what InDesign cannot do by itself is increase the one thing in short supply for every design and production team on the planet – the time to get everything done.
Solving the Time Problem
Of course, the answer is to automate the ad production process but to do so without damaging the creative heart of the team. In today’s crowded, multichannel media environment, being visually innovative is more important than ever. Ads must not only be accurate, but they must also stand out from the crowd and influence potential customers. Unfortunately, with the pressure of doing so many ads on so many platforms, without losing the essential creative “spark,” many production and creative services managers may feel a bit like Sisyphus – forever rolling bounders uphill just to keep their campaigns going.
Workflow automation must do more than simplify a handful of repetitive tasks to be effective and recover all that lost time. For ad workflows, in particular, automation must take a holistic approach, from the initial campaign planning stages through InDesign production, proofing, print output, and repurposing for digital channels. In effect, ad design and production teams must become agile. It all begins with tight integration a company’s DAM and PIM data sources and InDesign.
Working With Adobe
Decades ago, Comosoft became an Adobe development partner in what is now known as the Adobe Exchange Program, a long-standing effort to work with third parties to create extensions or “plugins” for Adobe software. The program takes advantage of the inherently open software model to solve complex problems facing marketing production teams. In this case, the two companies co-developed the LAGO Layout plugin for InDesign.
LAGO Layout adds a new set of controls to each InDesign installation. One of these controls connects the designer directly to the company’s PIM, DAM, and other data sources, allowing the user to access all the data and images for a particular SKU, eliminating the need to search for elements to complete an ad. The connection is also bi-directional. If something in the PIM or DAM changes (such as an updated product photo), the ad layout is automatically updated until the final output.
The link between data and InDesign is only part of the picture. For example, in the planning stage of a campaign, product marketing teams can use LAGO’s whiteboarding function to choose the optimum product mix based on factors such as profit margin and sales history to sketch the basic visual message. LAGO automatically uses this step to create a preliminary InDesign template – with all the requisite PIM and DAM information included by SKU. The designer then automatically receives an error-free starting point for the ad so that they can devote their energy to the creative process.
Going Above and Beyond
The LAGO system also automates the review and approval process, using Adobe InDesign Server to generate proofs automatically for online approval. When a proof is created, the appropriate parties are notified automatically, and their notes and corrections are sent back to the designer immediately.
LAGO can also generate multiple regional or demographic versions, automatically use new “base” templates that allow designers to customize each version easily without re-creating common elements. Each version can be automatically sent to the appropriate printing facility or agency when finished.
Finally, because so many campaigns do not end with a printed piece, the complex data from an ad can be automatically sent to an app, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
By uniting InDesign with critical data systems in a meaningful way, LAGO has given designers the power to exercise their creative skills without the burden of chasing after assets and information. In short, the development partnership between Comosoft and Adobe has created a “best of both worlds” opportunity for production and creative services managers.
Email Marketing: Your map to hidden treasures
Email Marketing: Your map to hidden treasures
With all the chatter about the importance of social media marketing, it’s easy to wonder whether email marketing is still relevant. The answer is an unequivocal “yes.” In fact, email marketing is one of the most versatile tools when it comes to growing your business and engaging, retaining, and converting leads into customers. Consider the following:
- There are 4 billion daily email users.
- 37% of brands are increasing their email budgets.
- 33% of marketers send weekly emails.
- 26% of marketers send emails multiple times per month.
- 77% of businesses have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months.
- Transactional emails have 8x more opens and clicks than any other types of email and can generate 6x more revenue
Before we delve into why you should up your email marketing game, it’s helpful to understand the three types of effective marketing emails. Here’s an overview:
Transactional
Transactional emails provide customer services such as order confirmations, receipts, shipping notices, support tickets, and return confirmations.
Relational
Relational email marketing is designed to engage subscribers and nurture your brand’s relationships with them. They may include welcomes, gated content delivery, event sign-ups, requests for reviews, social media update notifications, or referral requests.
Promotional
Promotional email marketing seeks to increase revenue by generating sales. It may include sale announcements, new product release notifications, webinar reminders, or trial or upgrade offers.
So how does email marketing work? Email marketing can be tremendously impactful when done correctly, moving your customers from one stage of the marketing “value journey” to the next. The outcome of this type of strategic email marketing is profit and growth. Here’s how you can use email marketing for branding, increasing customer engagement, retaining customers, generating traffic, and obtaining referrals.
1. Storytelling
In today’s marketplace, customers want to connect with their chosen brands on a deeper level. Storytelling is a compelling way to communicate to your audience how your brand is unique. Create impactful brand stories by sharing your origin story, celebrating your company’s birthday or that of your subscribers, or detailing previous customer success stories. Consider employee stories as well, as prospective customers choose to do business with brands they like and trust. By sharing employee stories, you communicate your company’s culture and values. Behind-the-scenes stories, such as those about how your team works or how your products are made, are another way that you can connect with your customers more profoundly.
2. A/B testing
A/B testing can help you determine which of two campaigns is most effective in generating opens or clicks. To do this, you create two variations of one campaign, sending one of each to a small percentage of your total recipients. You can measure the results through the most opens or clicks and then send the “winning” email to the remainder of your subscribers.
3. Relationship building
Relationship building is one of the most beneficial ways to foster long-term engagement with your customers. Some possible personalized emails to send to your contacts include greeting cards with a discount coupon for a customer’s birthday or a “we miss you” note with a discount code to lure a customer back. But, most importantly, remember to keep these emails brief and ensure they are valuable to your customers.
4. Web traffic generation
Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to increase traffic to your website. There are many creative ways to do this, including monthly newsletters with relevant content so your clients know what’s happening in your company or directing them to a blog post that imparts valuable information. Be sure to measure the impact of these efforts on sales, as you’ll want to adjust the content to ensure you realize the desired results.
Why diversity is very important in your marketing efforts
Why diversity is very important in your marketing efforts
Globalization leads to a clash of very different people, points of view, realities of life and identities. In addition, broad global networking has made digital marketing and advertising accessible to more and more people and part of everyday life. Digital marketing and its tools offer companies the great opportunity to bring more diversity into their marketing campaigns. For a long time, mass media only reached very broad target groups, which can now be differentiated much more clearly and diversely in digital marketing in order to reach specific subgroups of society. As a result, digital marketing and advertising broadened their appeal to include more people than ever before.
In addition, as a younger, more connected generation begins to make up a more significant portion of your customer base, it will be crucial that your brand be reflective of the demographic you can now reach. Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, want to see representations of people from all walks of life in a company’s marketing production, even if those people don’t fit the demographic profile of the target audience. Seventy percent of millennials say they will For some, application of diversity in marketing is no longer a nice-to-have but an absolute requirement.
What Exactly Is Diversity in Marketing?
Knowing about cultural and societal shifts in your community and among your clientele is essential to the success of any business, and this is where diversity marketing comes in. To ensure that all of your marketing efforts are successful, it is essential first to establish a foundation of diversity. That resolution can be communicated to employees internally and reflected in marketing materials externally. Your brand identity, tone, and backstory will all be influenced by this. Criteria for a brand that wants to be diverse include addressing age, gender identity, special needs of social groups, religion, appearance, ethnicity, personal identity, sexual orientation, language, education, socioeconomic status.
Strategies to Include Diversity in Marketing
1. Start Internally
Your team can be your greatest source of diversity in advertising. The unique blend of talent and realities of life can provide insights and perspectives to your marketing and audience insight. Encourage your team to find new and engaging resources to bring a more diverse approach to their jobs.
2. Be Authentic in Your Diverse Marketing
Review your current marketing diversity and challenge your teams to find new ways to represent your brand and grow your audience authentically. Make use of language and visuals that are representative of a wide range of your audience, but do so in an authentic way. Today’s consumers are savvy enough to know when they are being manipulated by inauthentic advertising by brands.
3. Listen to Customers
Being receptive to comments and suggestions from your target demographic is a crucial part of any diversity marketing strategy. Those who view your work can give you honest feedback on whether or not they feel you accurately represent various communities. Involving your target demographic in your marketing efforts can also help spread your diversity message.
Why Is Diversity in Marketing Important?
Implementing diversity marketing makes a brand easily recognizable as inclusive and diverse. That helps them gain positive awareness and build their core brand message around acceptance. Audiences didn’t expect or require their brands to reflect diversity. Now, that’s all changed. But this alone should not be the motivation for more diversity, but the desire to contribute to more diversity in society in general.
5 Good reasons why marketing teams need a DAM system
5 Good reasons why marketing teams need a DAM system
Digital Asset Management, or DAM, is nothing new. Originally developed in the 1990s, DAM was a response to the rapid growth of digital image volume and the increasing difficulty users had finding individual images. For example, a name that the original file creator typed in might have made perfect sense to them but might be obscure to others who needed to use it. Worse still, many versions or updates to a single image might increase the likelihood of finding and using the wrong one. By saving time and reducing the potential for error, DAM systems promised order and efficiency for companies with growing libraries of images, illustrations, and even videos.
The first DAM solution, Cumulus, was introduced in 1992 by Canto Software. Despite the name, it was not a cloud-based or network solution but an application for individual Macintosh computers. In addition to tracking a file’s metadata, it also generated and stored a visual thumbnail of the image for easier visual identification. Since then, Canto and many other developers have expanded the scope and capabilities of digital asset management, vastly improving database capabilities and migrating their systems from purely local installations to the cloud.
Without a reliable DAM system, graphic artists can spend up to thirty percent of their time looking for the right image. This means that for everyone involved in marketing, from merchandise planners and production managers to graphic designers, DAM is not a “nice to have.” On the contrary, it is essential to every retailer’s bottom line. Here are five good reasons why every marketing team needs DAM.
1. Assets Are Easy to Share But Hard to Discover
In the age of social media, we’ve all learned how easy it is to share images and videos, often with URLs, attachments, and file transfer services like DropBox. But that convenience comes at a cost. A simple exchange between two people gets incredibly complicated for larger teams and departments. Without DAM, as assets multiply, those with campaign deadlines have a more challenging time finding that needle in an ever-growing haystack.
2. Files With Multiple Owners Can Create Version Chaos
Very often, an image may go through multiple revision cycles by several different photographers and graphic designers. As a result, every product shot could have dozens of different versions circulating throughout the marketing department. Without a robust DAM system to keep versions organized—and ensure the most current one ends up in the final catalog or web ad – the chances of costly production errors increases exponentially.
3. Inconsistent or Unapproved Brand Assets Are Costly
Retailers in today’s highly competitive market must ensure that their multichannel campaigns resonate with their current and prospective customers. To do so requires visual consistency not only with the retailer’s brand but also with that of recognizable consumer products. An off-brand look can make a shopper look elsewhere, costing millions in lost sales. Similarly, licensed images, for example, often require a rigorous approval process that includes license verification for period, purpose, and medium of use. Without an effective DAM system to monitor consistency and licenses, a graphic designer can easily inadvertently use an unapproved image, jeopardizing relationships with the manufacturer, or face legal consequences.
4. Disconnected Systems and Workflows Slow Production
By themselves, DAM systems cannot support every aspect of retail marketing operations. They are essential but only a part of a total workflow solution. For example, retailers rely heavily on product information management or PIM systems to track literally thousands of individual SKUs, often using data supplied by hundreds of separate manufacturers. In addition, there are separate databases for product pricing (and regional or promotional price variations), inventory, and sales history. Unless DAM, PIM, and other systems are integrated with purpose, marketing teams will waste enormous amounts of time putting all the pieces together. They will not have time to create effective campaigns for an ever-increasing array of channels and their regional variants. Comosoft’s LAGO system is uniquely positioned to combine all these data sources and put their combined data at the disposal of marketing managers and graphic designers.
5. Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever
Finally, as retailers grow larger and more complex, the need for collaboration is growing faster than ever before. Marketing departments must collaborate with manufacturers, multiple internal departments, and decision-makers within the company. The review and approval cycles must be maintained across various channels and regional variations. A powerful DAM system integrated with PIM, collaborative proofing, and web-based approval makes such collaboration a practical reality.
Putting It All Together
Modern marketing teams must make the transition from isolated, legacy systems to a centralized DAM, closely integrated with PIM and other essential data sources to endure. By doing so, merchandise planners, production managers, and graphic design teams will be able to scale their operations to create multichannel campaigns that are tailored to each region and demographic. Comosoft LAGO is preciously such a solution.
LAGO enables marketing and product planners to use their data to plan effective campaigns—using a data-connected whiteboard application and other tools. It then conveys those planning decisions to graphic designers using our Layout plug-in for Adobe InDesign to create visually compelling campaign materials using the most current data from their integrated DAM and PIM systems. It also allows them to create separate versions of each piece without having to “reinvent the wheel” for each version. Finally, the results of a campaign – down to the success of an individual featured product – can be tracked and used to plan the next effort.
Digital asset management is an essential building block for any modern marketing department, but it cannot stand alone. When integrated with other critical business systems, it can power a successful multichannel presence for the twenty-first century.
How PIM and DAM are essential to Retail E-Commerce success
How PIM and DAM are essential to Retail E-Commerce success
E-commerce is here to stay. No one can argue that we’re ever returning to a predominantly brick-and-mortar retail experience. Even before the pandemic supercharged the trend, ordering products and services online had become the norm for millions of shoppers. The real questions are: How does the e-commerce experience inform retail marketing and advertising strategy? More importantly, what tools will help retail marketers and advertisers succeed across multiple channels?
The key to both questions is in the use of product-related information. By that, we mean not just the attributes (e.g., size, color, or weight) of each SKU but also how customers experience it. The good news is that e-commerce can provide this information – loads of it – if only we can learn how to use it well.
Retail Moments of Truth
In June 2011, Google’s Managing Director of U.S. Sales, Jim Lecinski, published Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, a free eBook that rocked the marketing world. In it, he highlighted the importance of a customer’s online behavior – long before becoming aware of their need for your product. This revelation was a new twist to Procter & Gamble’s version of Retail Moments of Truth, which roughly goes as follows:
- The First Moment of Truth is when a customer first sees a product on a shelf or online.
- The Second Moment of Truth is when they purchase and use it.
- The Third Moment of Truth is when they provide feedback, preferably positive, share their experience, and hopefully become fans and promoters.
Lecinski asserted was that feedback from the Third Moment ultimately ends up as part of the vast universe of social media posts, reviews, photos, and videos that would-be customers inhabit every day. People learn about a product and its reputation through deliberate searching or random interactions with family, friends, and online connections. From that awareness, that “Zero Moment of Truth,” they eventually decide to buy – or not.
E-commerce accelerated this phenomenon, making it easy to tag a product with star reviews, comments, and photos that populate not only e-commerce websites but also the labyrinth of social media. Such a flood of product-related data is both an opportunity and a challenge for retail marketers to channel that feedback into campaigns that increase e-commerce and traditional sales.
Product Information (and Product Experience) Management
Traditional Product Information Management (PIM) systems are the central data repository of everything related to an individual product. The data comes from both the product manufacturers and the retailers who sell their goods, who may not always agree on metadata convention or what to label each field. But the retailer’s eventual goal is to have a complete and consistent view of all the variables for every SKU. Therefore, the PIM system should also be related to price, inventory, forecasting, and even customer loyalty databases to efficiently manage each item’s sales and marketing process efficiently.
Of crucial importance to marketers, the PIM system should also be connected in a meaningful way to a robust Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. This system is the repository of potentially public-facing digital content for each product, such as photos, vector images, and videos. It can even potentially contain user-generated images and videos related to their experience with a product – especially if the retailer’s e-commerce site collects and readily shares information provided by the buyer.
To be sure, all this data (including digital assets) must be curated honestly before inclusion in a production workflow. However, when they are, such data can become meaningful marketing information, part of a process known as Product Experience Management (PXM). As Lecinski and others have shown, customers prefer to buy products with which they have some connection. That identification can be greatly significant when a product’s data and digital assets include images, text, review results, and other relatable data that help the marketing team fine-tune the relevant advertising.
Going Full Circle
Of course, all this does not happen by accident. Once a product’s public-facing data (including customer-provided and customer-influenced text and images) are in the DAM & PIM environments, they must be managed in a marketing production system and ultimately used to direct specific, multichannel campaigns. This process is the role of Comosoft’s LAGO solution.
LAGO coordinates practical DAM and PIM assets and data for each SKU and gives the marketing team a strategic overview of a product’s value to a campaign. This data includes traditional factors such as profit margin, inventory levels, and regional availability. But it can also have meaningful user experience data, such as a product’s popularity in certain parts of the country or among certain demographics. Based on this knowledge, marketers can select the best products for a campaign, including regional or demographic variations. LAGO can automate the creation of product catalogs and other marketing material, including multiple variations and digital output for e-commerce sites and mobile apps. Best of all, it gives marketers the tools to evaluate the results of a product’s inclusion in a campaign.
This is next point is where the process goes full circle. By collecting user experience data at the e-commerce site (the Second and Third Moments of Truth), a retail marketer can, in turn, use that data profitably. With the tools provided in Comosoft’s LAGO, they can create e-commerce campaigns that coincide with the “buzz” surrounding any product (the Zero Moment of Truth). In a world where e-commerce rules, it’s the secret to success.
From WebP to AVIF
From WebP to AVIF - Which emerging image formats you should have in mind now!
Meanwhile, there are more and more file formats to save an image or, for example, an animation. A universal image format system would make life a lot easier for the graphic design teams responsible. Instead, the abundance of confusing acronyms is constantly increasing. You frequently select the one you’ve heard of or used previously and assumed would work. Then you receive the message: Please send in PNG as this device does not accept this format.
When displaying photos for the web, we have various image formats to utilize. The primary distinction between image formats is the type of image codec that is used for encoding or decoding every type of image. An image codec is a representation of the algorithm used to compress, encode, and decode images into a particular file format for display on screens. Hence, many names like JPG, PNG, and GIF, among others. With the rise of mobile devices, 5G data, and the ever-increasing need for faster loading websites, new image and video formats are emerging to take on these challenges. Here is your primer on the latest versions so your team can be ready to use them!
WebP
The goal of Google’s WebP, a contemporary image format, is to improve lossless and lossy compression for photos on the web. WebP aims to create smaller images while maintaining richness because smaller images speed up the web. Additionally, WebP continues to support the expanding trend of animated graphics. It’s still in the works, but it will be significant.
Lossy WebP compression bases its picture encoding on predictive encoding and the VP8 video codec. It predicts the value of a block of pixels using values from nearby blocks of pixels and only encodes the difference. Multiple image compression algorithms are used to turn photos into lossless WebP files.
WebP lossy images are typically 25–34 percent smaller than JPEG images of comparable quality, whereas WebP lossless images generally are 26 percent smaller than PNG. They also make an excellent substitute for GIF images because they support animation.
Advantages & Disadvantages
- Great quality images at smaller file sizes
- Not supported by Social platforms yet, so traditional formats need to be utilized for Social sharing purposes
Browser & OS Support
- Support in all browsers and operating systems
HEIF
High-Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, is designed to streamline the storage of images. In addition, it tries to maintain good quality while using lower compressed files. With 10 degrees of compression available, HEIF offers lightning-fast encoding and decoding, is lightweight, and doesn’t tax the system’s resources.
Theoretically, the compression is nearly twice as effective as JPEG, producing photos with up to twice the quality at the same file size. However, because it uses a raster picture format and pixel mapping, you cannot enlarge the photos without sacrificing quality.
Advantages & Disadvantages
- Great quality to file size ratio.
- No browser and limited OS support.
Browser & OS Support
- Not supported by any major browsers.
- Native support in macOS Sierra and iOS 11 and later, but not in their respective Safari versions.
AVIF
AVIF, which stands for “AV1 Image File Format,” is thought to be the upcoming image file format of the future. This format is essentially the protocol for storing AV1-compressed still and motion photos in HEIF files. Most tech experts consider the royalty-free video coding format AV1 to be the next development in media compression.
To produce high-quality photos, AVIF enables very effective lossy and lossless compression. AVIF compresses far better than the majority of currently used web formats (JPEG, WebP, JPEG 2000, and more). Images with the comparable visual quality might be up to ten times smaller than JPEGs. According to specific testing, AVIF offers a 50% file size reduction over JPEG while maintaining a comparable level of perceptual quality. Remember to analyze formats carefully because there are situations in which WebP lossless can be superior to AVIF lossless.
Because of its superior compression, AVIF can lower the size of image files. AVIF files download more quickly and use less bandwidth as a result. Because of this, it might enhance performance by speeding up the loading of photos.
Overall, AVIF does pass most of the tests, and WebP offers better support and compression than JPEG or PNG. As a result, you should, without a doubt, consider WebP when optimizing photos for your website. Considering AVIF for your purposes and implementing it as a progressive enhancement could be beneficial as the format spreads across many platforms and browsers. AVIF would eventually become more straightforward with better comparison tooling and faster encoding.
Advantages & Disadvantages
- A better compression method than other image formats lead to faster load times
- Adobe and other platforms not currently supporting this format
Browser & OS Support
- It is supported by Chrome, Firefox, and Opera but is currently not fully supported in Safari or Edge
Can digital catalogs really enhance your business?
Can digital catalogs really enhance your business?
The heads of the marketing and advertising departments of retailers are faced with the challenge of investing their budget in the development of the most profitable channel every time they plan a campaign. Precise tracking and effective planning of advertising measures is therefore an absolute necessity in everyday marketing.
As our previous articles have made clear, the intrinsic value of printed catalogs to retail has risen, not fallen, in recent years. The Wall Street Journal, Retail Dive, and others have documented the resurgence in print catalog use. This increasing value is driven in part by the tactile nature of print products and the fact that consumers still spend an average of $850 per year on catalogue purchases. However, it is not a zero-sum equation between print and digital. On the contrary, both printed and digital catalogues increase sales, especially when they are aligned.
What is a digital catalog?
Digital catalogues come in different forms, already due to different electronic end devices. Early on, digital catalogs were digital facsimiles of their printed counterparts (think PDFs or fixed-format eBooks), with hyperlinks to purchase the items. On larger screen devices such as tablets, these can be a positive user experience, much as many digital magazines have become. But on smartphones, print facsimiles are less than ideal.
A more effective solution for devices of all sizes is a fully responsive display of the retailer’s products and special offers. Each element dynamically assumes the size and proportions suitable to a device’s screen size and user navigation habits. This responsiveness is, of course, much easier said than done. Effective, responsive web design can be anything but “automatic” and is complicated by the retailer’s need to maintain brand and content design parity with a catalog’s printed counterpart.
What also makes digital catalogs challenging to describe is their function. Like their print siblings, they are complex vehicles usually integrated with overall marketing campaigns designed to elevate sales of high-value, high-margin product lines. But, as recently outlined by retail consultancy MicroD, digital catalogs can extend customer reach, improve lead generation, and immediately connect users to e-commerce. They are also highly customizable – down to individuals and their shopping preferences. It should be noted that print catalogs are also highly customizable, thanks to Comosoft’s advances in data-based versioning and the widespread use of high-speed digital printing.
Data, data everywhere
As it turns out, the problem is not a lack of potential. Both print and digital catalogs can fulfill a retailer’s many needs – potentially – and often in ways that complement one another. The problem is that it’s tough to manage each channel’s complex data and to do so with two parallel channels without incurring unacceptable labor costs for manual design and production.
Catalogs are not just randomly-selected product images, prices, and descriptions. Instead, featured product information is stored in massive Product Information Management (PIM) systems, supplemented by SKU-specific (and frequently updated or modified) images and text descriptions stored in equally huge Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems. For fun, the data may also be supplemented by separate databases for product pricing, inventory, and regional availability. So much data, so little time (and money).
The challenge for retail marketing and advertising directors and their people is to select the right product(s), with all their associated data intact and current, and create an executable, trackable plan for well-designed print and digital catalog campaigns. This process must be done repeatedly, always maintaining the retailer’s brand image, and it must be done without spending the marketing equivalent of a lunar probe mission.
The best of both worlds
Fortunately, there is a data-centric, design-friendly way to accomplish this and produce compelling digital catalogs without detracting from the proven benefits of print. Comosoft’s LAGO system is an effective bridge between PIM, DAM, and other data sources and the world of page design. It allows marketing, advertising, and product line managers to prioritize and plan the products to be featured, using whiteboarding and other visualization tools connected to the retailer’s many data sources.
LAGO Whiteboard is the central module for the efficient and effective production of print advertising media, with which pages can be quickly designed and populated even without layout knowledge. The results are made available to the creative staff (graphics department), whether internal or external, in InDesign as a layout document. Here, the pages can then be professionally prepared for printing. In addition, the whiteboard is also the connecting element for involving or integrating product or category management in the marketing production process.
From that decision process, a series of page templates are created for the designer, who is freed to focus on visual impact without being burdened with searching for bits of related SKU product data. If the underlying data is altered or updated during the process, such as a new product image, the designer’s layout is automatically updated.
Once the page layout is created, multiple regional versions can also be generated, each customized to the retailer’s regional or demographic.
But the benefits of a data-driven design workflow do not stop there. Digital catalogs of any kind can be generated automatically, using the campaign data exported from the final catalog layout(s). Each product in the catalog retains its connection to the related PIM and DAM data, allowing the campaign contents to be displayed in a digital catalog – from facsimiles of the printed page to responsive elements that can populate mobile shopping apps, emails, and website catalogs.
There is no question that properly managed and designed digital catalogs improve sales and simplify the process of discovering, selecting, and purchasing retail products. With LAGO, retailers can assure product and brand consistency between their print and digital channels – both of which are essential to survival in the multichannel world.
Automate catalogue production
Automate catalogue production – from conception to completion
In a previous article we highlighted four ways in which Comosoft LAGO integrates with Adobe InDesign and virtually any product information management (PIM) or digital asset management (DAM) system. For retail catalogues, this integration means huge savings on the production side. In this article, however, we focus more on the “front end” of the process – the cost of planning and managing these complex but effective marketing tools.
Why print catalogues?
Retailers are facing some shifts from the pandemic as consumers increasingly turn away from in-store shopping to online shopping. This includes nearly half of the baby boomers with their large spending power, according Forbes. But it also presents unique opportunities for retail marketing. The biggest challenge here, however, is probably the large number of marketing channels and the resulting “noise” that makes it difficult for retailers to get their message across. Search engine optimisation (SEO) and the targeting of consumer data can be effective, but the more everyone uses these tools, the less effective they can become. The solution is to set up a distinctive and visually appealing channel that can bypass all the digital noise – preferably a channel that can be easily targeted to regions, demographic groups and even individuals. One such channel has been around for many years: the printed catalogue. The pandemic itself may have given the catalogue a new boost in popularity. A November 2021 NBC News report noted that many customers – including millennials – prefer printed catalogues to digital media. In addition to the pleasant feeling of nostalgia, the report pointed to other advantages of print media over digital media:
- The catalogue experience invites leisurely browsing and discovery, in contrast to the hectic, fast-paced mobile experience. One customer said, “I get frustrated when I search for something online. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you don’t know what’s available. You can’t just browse through and look at things”.
- The catalogue’s large, full-colour layout provides a richer visual experience than most displays on smaller devices.
- For millennials, who are often constantly in front of digital screens, flipping through printed catalogues doesn’t feel like work.
- Customers acquired through catalogues are more loyal (and therefore likely to buy more) than customers acquired through online channels.
The catalogues themselves have also evolved. They are much leaner, attractively designed and focus on individual topics and product categories. Most importantly, today’s catalogues are highly customisable. The same consumer data that benefits online marketing teams can be combined with a retailer’s PIM and DAM data to create a high quality catalogue that is “just for you”.
The challenge and the solution
Creating customised print catalogues requires high quality underlying data, from the initial planning phase of a campaign to the production and distribution of the catalogues. This means selecting the right combination of products (products with high profit margins and successful sales history) and placing the right PIM and DAM data on the page, with the ability to customise and measure results.
Comosoft has found an efficient way to process all this data effectively with its multichannel software LAGO. LAGO enables retailers to unify PIM and DAM data entered by their manufacturers and suppliers, eliminating duplication and potential for error. In addition, LAGO’s whiteboarding feature brings marketers and product managers together, allowing them to draw from all data sources. This includes regional pricing and customer purchase history to create and manage effective, measurable catalogue campaigns.
LAGO Whiteboard is the central module for the efficient and effective production of print advertising material, with which pages can be quickly designed and populated even without layout knowledge. The results are made available to the creative staff (graphics department), whether internal or external, in InDesign as a layout document. Here, the pages can then be professionally prepared for printing. In addition, the whiteboard is also the perfect bridge to involve or integrate product or category management in the marketing production process.
Once the marketing team has finished designing the campaign, LAGO continues to work and automate the catalogue production process. For example, the graphic designer is automatically provided with each product’s PIM and DAM data as a ‘block’ of related information. In turn, they use a LAGO-generated Adobe InDesign template to design a high-quality layout – and don’t waste time manually searching for and placing individual SKU-related data.
One advertising medium – many variants. LAGO Whiteboard also supports the planning of a large number of regional or market-specific variants. Even at this stage of production, it is displayed whether individual variants have already been completely filled. In this way, regional exchangers can be easily planned in a controlled manner without losing the overview.
This drastically reduces costly errors. In addition, LAGO maintains a live connection between the PIM and DAM data sources and the InDesign layout. So changes in the data, such as a price change or an update to the product image, automatically update the catalogue layout right through to print.
The biggest advantage for marketing production managers, however, is LAGO’s ability to handle complex versions. This can range from region-specific catalogue versions to detailed adjustments based on demographic data or buying behaviour.
The LAGO Version Optimization module makes it possible to reduce the generation of print variants to the number of variants that actually have to run through a production and coordination process. It does not matter at which level you produce a variant. The entire range of country-specific, regional/market-specific and customer-specific variants is covered.
What would otherwise be a huge investment of time and money (and a greater risk of error) becomes a manageable, data-driven process. Although the benefits of data-driven catalogues cannot be overstated, LAGO also facilitates the digital side of the marketing equation. For example, complex product SKUs and special offers included in a catalogue campaign can be automatically exported for use in web and mobile applications.
LAGO Digital Output is an advanced module specifically for managing and outputting content for publishing online, interactive digital brochures and digital catalogues. The module creates JPEGs or PDFs from the LAGO InDesign pages and an associated XML file with overlay coordinate data as well as data on the project, project variants and product details. Digital Output can be configured to fully automate the creation of overlay coordinates. It is also possible to handle the assignment of gallery content automatically.
Learn more about how Comosoft LAGO can make complex catalog production more efficient, while also improving their quality and impact. Or you can book a demo via the button on the right to see it for yourself.
Do consumers still use printed circulars?
Do consumers still use printed circulars?
Once upon a time, value-conscious consumers eagerly open their Sunday newspapers, searching for the ubiquitous print circulars with weekly retail deals. Those coupons and specials helped inform their decisions regarding where and when to shop and what products to purchase.
With today’s rising inflation, consumers seek ways to make every dollar count by taking advantage of special values and promotions, and retailers offer more coupons to keep their prices competitive.
But the consumer landscape is rapidly shifting as savvy shoppers turn to their digital devices to shop online and find retail deals. However, that doesn’t mean print circulars have become entirely obsolete!
Context is the Key
While circular advertising is seeing positive momentum toward to a digital medium, that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain circumstances in which print circulars are still advantageous. Not all consumers are digitally savvy! Senior shoppers may not be used to shopping online or using digital advertisements and coupons. Other younger consumers prefer the print medium, which is easier to read and digest.
Consider the following statistics:
- A recent study (post-pandemic!) found that 87% of shoppers were reading circulars the same amount or more than a year earlier!
- For customers who feel inundated with information, print circulars can be easier to digest. Those advertisements that come in the mail or are included in newspapers take 24% less cognitive effort to process than digital marketing.
- Post pandemic, 40% of consumers were still searching for deals by reading print circulars.
Yes, customers are still using printed ad circulars, but context and age are significant factors in the consumer’s preference. With high market volatility and supply chain uncertainties a multichannel marketing approach to circular ad production will pay off in the long run for retailers.
Digital offerings expand opportunities to reach consumers
The future of retail will inevitably become more digital. Historically, print circulars were included in Sunday newspapers. But with newspaper circulation rapidly decreasing, this is no longer an effective way to reach consumers. Daily newspapers have lost approximately 20 million subscribers in the past ten years. In addition, paid Sunday newspaper subscribers are losing 7% or more households each year, with a combined reach of less than a fifth of American households. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online shopping. In 2020 and 2021, Americans spent $609 billion more online than the two years before COVID, according to new data.
Younger target groups often rely to a greater extent on digital advertising offers, but if you look at the conversion rate of a personalized advertising e-mail (approx. 5%) compared to a personalized print brochure (approx. 30%), it quickly becomes clear that there is no equivalent digital alternative, especially for personalized print products. At the end of the day, it’s all about reaching consumers where they can access the retailer’s offerings. And this accessibility depends on various factors such as age, life circumstances and situation, both for print and digital media.
Nevertheless, the advantages of digital offerings in terms of sustainability and lower costs are beyond question. For eco-conscious retailers, transitioning to digital circulars also minimizes their carbon footprint and saves money on expensive paper and ink costs, which will continue to rise.
We can therefore conclude that the digital offer is a very useful supplement to the printed brochure and that the importance of the digital catalog will also continue to increase in the future, but from today’s perspective it cannot replace it as the sole advertising medium in the retail sector. The retailer who offers consumers the most touchpoints and whose offers are taken up by consumers in the right situation will continue to be successful. These diverse touchpoints can only be offered by successful and well-thought-out multichannel marketing, which picks up the consumer with both well-designed print and user-friendly digital media.