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.
Weekly brochures as key drivers in retail marketing
Weekly brochures are the key drivers of purchase decisions in the retail – How the print automation saves your marketing budget in the process
Major retailers are in the midst of a difficult transition. After COVID, inflation and the supply chain crisis, innovative ways must be found to make brands successful. As a result, the demand for creativity has never been greater. The weekly prospectus continues to be a tool of choice for many major retailers in this regard.
According to survey data collected by Vericast, weekly leaflets are still an effective tool for customer engagement. Weekly leaflets are an important sales driver: 66% of consumers study the discounts and special offers in a leaflet before they go shopping. The study also shows that 87 % of shoppers read the brochures as long or longer than in the previous year.
One reason for the continued popularity of brochures and leaflets is their ease of reading. According to Vericast, printed materials, including mailed brochures, require 21% less cognitive effort to read than their digital counterparts. So the question is: why aren’t retail brochures more in the focus of creative marketers?
An undeservedly bad reputation
There are several reasons why leaflets can be marginalised in the complex world of multichannel retail marketing. For one, brochures and flyers eat up a significant portion of a retailer’s marketing budget. Some of this is due to less controllable factors, such as the cost of paper and postage, while other factors, such as the labour involved in production, regional versioning and distribution, are only seemingly uncontrollable. (More on this later.) Shrinking or constrained marketing budgets have tempted some retailers to reduce their brochure programmes, but this has often had negative consequences, including millions of dollars in lost sales. According to Vericast, cutting your grocery prospecting budget by as little as 5% can cause your bottom line to shrink due to lost sales that you can’t make up through other media.
Another reason for the undeservedly bad reputation of the leaflet is the supposed “uniformity” of the format. Each leaflet contains a mixture of many featured products, special offers, discount coupons and limited time offers. Such a complex combination is very labour intensive. (More on that later, too.) But because so much information has to be packed onto a fixed number of pages – and under deadline pressure – design too often has to take a back seat. The results are highly functional, as the enduring impact of brochures proves, but it’s hard to produce a design that stands out from the crowd.
How to make a grand entrance
As it turns out, there is a way to reduce the cost of this valuable marketing medium and open up new opportunities for creative design: Automation. With the right automation strategy, a creative marketer can achieve greater cost efficiencies and make this important channel for promoting the retailer’s brand more memorable. It is the design version of the “best of both worlds”.
Automation starts with eliminating repetitive data-related tasks that plague all modern businesses. Retailers often deal with data from fragmented data sources, including product information management (PIM) systems, digital asset management (DAM) systems, pricing and inventory systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other proprietary systems. The effort required to create a prospecting campaign can be expensive. Add to that the need to create separate, regional versions of a prospectus, and automation can radically simplify the process.
Fortunately, Comosoft LAGO can do just that. By linking all these data sources into a single workflow, LAGO’s marketing production automation process overcomes these challenges and facilitates both scale and speed – without compromising quality or version diversity.
Good design is also enabled by automation. When the complexity of selecting and managing the volume of product data is reduced, designers can focus on what they do best – designing.
Again, Comosoft LAGO meets this need, empowering marketing managers and their teams to make a big impression. The LAGO workflow connects multiple data sources (as specified by the company’s marketing management) with the mainstay of modern print design – Adobe InDesign. Data-intensive brochures and flyers can thus receive the full creative energy of experienced designers, even when multiple regional or demographic versions are produced.
The marketing multiverse
Of course, the brochure is just one part of an ever-growing number of marketing channels, all vying for customers’ attention. Studies have shown that a coordinated campaign with a consistent mix of messaging and visual appeal is far more effective than any individual component on its own. So when information can be effortlessly transferred from one medium to another, it creates a marketing “splash” that can lead to net cost savings.
This “splash” is also an advantage of LAGO. When a brochure is prepared for print, including multiple versions, the promotional data and imagery can be automatically exported to web-based or mobile apps, making it easy to orchestrate a contemporary multichannel campaign. Instead of struggling to execute such a complex campaign once, marketing and creative teams can conveniently do so on a weekly basis.
In today’s fiercely competitive environment, a retailer’s content, assets, channels and campaigns are growing exponentially, even as resources and budgets stagnate or decline. The need to make a big impact has therefore never been greater. But with LAGO, a savvy creative or marketing director can do just that.
Commercial Printing Industry Outlook for 2022
Commercial Printing Industry Outlook for 2022
By 2029, the results of economic, technological, demographic, ecological, and behavioral factors will change the printing industry significantly, according to a 2019 report from Smithers. Almost every industry has faced new challenges since the pandemic and lockdowns occurred in 2020 – the printing industry was no exception. But, as is the case with any industry that wishes to survive as the world evolves, the printing industry has also evolved alongside it to stay relevant and increase revenue.
Let’s Start with Some Statistics
It’s essential to understand the industry’s statistics and forecasts before getting into industry trends. Here are five industry statistics and forecasts to keep in mind:
- 25,000 companies specialize in commercial printing
- Reaching around $139 billion in 2019, digital print output is forecast to grow by 65% over the next 10 years to reach $230 billion by 2029
- 72% of companies use direct mail campaigns
- global digital printing market size was valued at $25.74 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $35.71 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 3.7% from 2021 to 2028
Familiarizing yourself is important because with these statistics, it shows the steady interest and growth potential of commercial printing. Looking at these statistics, it’s also easy to understand why many companies increase their annual print budget.
The Top Trends
The new capabilities in digital printing will enable print suppliers to offer customers greater agility while a number of societal trends will fuel overall digital print growth, according to Smithers. As a result, new products and services arise every year, and keeping up with the latest trends is the ticket to staying ahead of the game. Smithers states:
“The most significant change for digital printing over the next 10 years will be through developments integrating digital print, particularly inkjet, into broader production systems. This includes workflow and finishing to simplify and speed up time to market for many print products”.
But the changes will happen in technical innovations and other top commercial printing trends that are expected to surface throughout 2022.
Design Services
Having a design team is becoming essential for even the smallest printing companies. Whether it’s a single graphic designer or a whole group, focusing on this business area will ensure you stay competitive in the industry. Moreover, instead of solely depending on print income, you can now earn revenue from logo and website design.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing available today. One single campaign can potentially reach millions of potential or existing customers. Social media advertisements are a perfect example as they can reach targeted viewers for an indefinite time with one looping piece. Digital marketing is not limited to social media ads, however. It also includes services such as website hosting and podcast creation. As a result, printing companies that utilize these services can substantially grow their business in 2022.
Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns
Direct mail marketing campaigns are widely known as one of the most basic forms of advertising. They are a consistent, effective way to reach new customers while remaining relatively affordable. Direct mail marketing campaigns are a great way to influence current or inactive customers and provide an opportunity for companies to keep their image in the public eye. Direct mail marketing campaigns are expected to rise throughout 2022.
Sustainability Will Have a Higher Priority
Reducing their environmental impact has become a top priority for many organizations, and as such, manufacturers and channel partners must provide more sustainable technology services. Sustainability can be achieved through enhanced data analysis and reporting, circular products and services, carbon data analysis, and process automation. In addition, moving customers from on-premise servers to the cloud can reduce IT consumption of energy and related carbon emissions.
Customization is Key
It comes as no surprise that most customers desire a personalized product. Personalization has taken over the eCommerce industry in this day and age, so the printing industry must adapt to keep up. Corporations should not be afraid to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the coming years. In fact, by combining the two, you can provide personalization, predict paper usage, and send alerts about possible breaches, making the printing environment efficient and reliable.
The most significant change for digital printing over the next 10 years will be through developments integrating digital print, particularly inkjet, into broader production systems. This includes workflow and finishing to simplify and speed up time to market for many print products. This has already happened in some cases, for example books, where high-speed single-pass inkjet presses are linked to servo-controlled finishing lines that slit, fold and collate book blocks, delivered for loading into a binder. This allows printers to add real value to their publisher customers by helping reduce the publishing risk through delivering lower run lengths cost effectively, down to single copies.
Print catalogues: Why they are irreplaceable for retailers in their marketing mix
Print catalogues: Why they are irreplaceable for retailers in their marketing mix
In the last two decades, marketing has focused primarily on the digital world rather than physical print, but that doesn’t mean print marketing is obsolete. In fact, catalogs are essential for marketing, and studies indicate that they’re more effective than many other forms of advertising.
Now more than ever, catalogs are effective because of technological innovations that enable companies to target customers based on their interests and buying habits. Here are some of the reasons why you need to begin implementing or bolster your current catalog marketing.
Why Print Is Often More Effective Than Digital
Every day, the public is overwhelmed by constant marketing. People see ads on their internet browsers, emails, phone applications, and televisions, and with this constant exposure to digital marketing, people are quick to dismiss ads without paying close attention.
What sets catalogs apart from digital advertisements is that you can’t ignore them in the same way. Instead, a catalog may sit around a consumer’s house for months, creating more awareness for your brand. So even if they make the conscious effort to throw the catalog away, you’ve already reinforced your products and brand multiple times before that occurs – and stimulated future purchases.
The Science Behind Why Catalogs Work
Catalogs are more effective in leaving a psychological impact than digital advertisements. When a consumer flips through a catalog, they’re more likely to imagine themselves possessing a product, which increases their likelihood of making a purchase.
Neuroscience also corroborates that physical ads are often more effective than digital. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and Temple University, physical advertisements stimulate an area of the brain, which causes potential buyers to consider the product’s value and whether they want it.
Catalogs also stimulate more senses than digital ads. For example, digital advertisements reach consumers on an audial and visual level, but catalogs can be seen, felt, and may even have a subtle print smell. According to USPS and Summit Research, these different senses create more emotional associations, increasing the likelihood that someone will make a purchase.
Additionally, USPS and Summit Research indicated that people are more likely to connect positive emotions to catalogs because people frequently flip through them for entertainment and relaxation. Catalogs even reduce the anxiety associated with receiving a bill in the mail.
Although physical mail has shown to be highly effective in many demographics, they’re especially effective in attracting millennials. The same study conducted by USPS and Summit Research indicated that millennials care more about physical mail than other demographics and are more likely to spend time reading their mail, including catalogs. Millennials are a critical target age demographic, so appealing to them through catalogs is essential.
Catalogs Work Even Better in the Digital Age
One common reason why companies don’t utilize catalogs is the cost of printing and mailing advertisements. However, the digital age has enabled companies to reduce costs associated with sending out catalogs. Before the internet, companies would frequently send out catalogs without a specific target customer in mind, which was particularly expensive because of the large number of prints and their associated mailing expenses.
In the digital age, companies can send targeted catalogs to customers that are more likely to purchase their products. Online databases contain unique consumer information, including their interests and spending habits. Because of this, companies can determine who will be more likely to buy their products and market to them specifically. Additionally, it reduces expenses by avoiding sending catalogs to people who are less likely to make a purchase.
You can even use customers’ past purchases to shape how you market to them going forward. For example, if your company sells many different products and some only buy clothing, you can send out clothing catalogs to that targeted group. Personalized marketing through customer data greatly enhances the likelihood that someone will purchase your products.
Using Catalogs in a Multichannel Marketing Approach
When your business utilizes catalogs in tandem with other marketing channels, you can increase your conversion rate by reaching potential customers in different mediums For example, customers who receive a catalog may be prompted to visit your website and purchase online. You can also track your catalog’s return on investment with mail dates, customer codes, and source codes.
Utilizing catalogs in your multichannel marketing strategy is a highly effective way to reach new customers and engage your existing customer base.
How Automation Makes Print Production Successful
How Automation Makes Print Production Successful
Print is not dead! In a world where the flood of ephemeral online ads is quickly seen and forgotten just as fast, the humble printed catalog or flyer can have a long-lasting effect on the consumer. This is not just a matter of personal preference. A report in Scientific American recently concluded that “reading on paper still boasts unique advantages” over screens.
Suppose a printed catalog is well designed and produced. In that case, it is far more likely to remain on a table or counter, a reminder of the retailer’s brand and an open invitation to browse calmly at one’s leisure. The same cannot be said of an online or email ad, which is swiped aside forever in an instant by the next frantic, on-screen interruption. As publishing pioneer John W. Seybold once said:
“Print speaks to us, quietly and patiently.”
Production depends on various data sources
Catalogs and brochures depend on the correct functioning of some systems and data sources during production, which makes the process prone to errors. Each one is described by a whole table of data. The data include (but are not limited to) the following information on each product:
| SKU number | Manufacturer ID number(s) | Make and model |
| Full product name | Abbreviated name | Short product description |
| Long product description | Version number | Size or dimensions |
| Color(s) | Material specifications | Component parts |
| Relation to other products | Manufacturer | Purchase history |
| Overall inventory quantity | Store location(s) | Warehouse location(s) |
| Projected availability | Item price | Item cost |
| Gross margin | Rebates and discounts | Sale pricing guidelines |
| Product reviews | Marketing campaign history | Shipping information |
| Warranty information | Disclaimers | And more… |
Of course, not all these data points will make it into a catalog or flyer, but many will. The others are all relevant to planning every campaign – AND they are typically scattered across many separate databases. If you multiply all those data points by the sheer volume of individual products advertised, then you’ll get an inkling of the formidable challenges every marketing production manager faces.
Each printed marketing piece includes an array of products selected by the marketing team for their importance to the company’s bottom line. Item pricing strategies offer specials on desirable but price-sensitive items while charging normal prices on other products to make up the difference. Campaigns differ by geographic region and demographics, meaning that each printed piece must have multiple versions. Print versioning makes it even more critical to have a production process that reliably maintains a solid connection to all data sources during the design process.
Automation offers enormous advantages
With so many time-consuming variables, and so many chances to make costly errors, the only solution is to automate the process. As Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other large retailers have learned, there are enormous benefits to automating the print and media marketing process:
- Greatly reduced user intervention at each step in the process, accelerating time-to-market and targeted volume of marketing campaigns
- Greater and more efficient collaboration among siloed departments within a large organization
- Sustained cost savings, among other things due to less cost-intensive error sources through automated correction cycles
- Greater return on marketing campaigns that can be targeted and measured with greater accuracy
Automation applies to everything, from planning the marketing campaign to producing well-designed printed pieces and their umpteen versions. Only by automating the tedious, repetitive tasks can a production team find time to design. Moreover, once tasks become streamlined, other departments are freed to pursue nonroutine tasks, such as SEO strategy and mobile development. Only with a single, controlled chain of events can a marketing production manager and peers survive, and even thrive, in this ever-changing, data-driven world. Here’s how it plays out:
Start with the planning stage. Single product and product line marketing teams spend their time visualizing the next campaign and turning it into practical steps. The goal is to produce an attractive campaign, and track its progress and improve future marketing efforts. Even though they know their products intimately, something is always changing. For example:
- A new version of the product may be imminent.
- The product’s availability, price, or margin may have changed.
- The product’s photos or descriptions may have changed.
- A supply chain problem may affect delivery for some stores.
- A specific color or size may no longer be available.
These and a hundred other changes may affect which products to feature prominently, if at all. However, marketing teams need access to data in real-time and in one place to make the best possible decision.
Visualizing the printed piece is the next step. Using a web-based whiteboarding environment, LAGO also gives marketers the ability to place high-value products where they belong in a catalog or brochure. For any selected product, all the related data is connected. When the marketing team hands the project off to designers, each product “block” automatically connects to the current product data, images, and any other information the designer may need.
Designing and producing the printed piece is equally automated. The designer receives an InDesign template file, automatically including all the marketing team’s decisions. Thanks to a LAGO plugin for Adobe InDesign, the designer is free to do what they do best – create a memorable design concept – without having to hunt down all the related data from various PIM, DAM, and other databases. If any data elements change during the design process, like an updated product image, the layout is updated in real-time until the piece is sent to be printed. For example, if a regional or demographic version is called for, the system maintains all the common elements while allowing the designer to customize the new version.
Review and approval can be a tedious, largely manual process. Fortunately, LAGO also provides a real-time, bi-directional, and auditable process for marketing teams and designers to identify errors, communicate changes, and verify the final layout before printing.
That’s not the end. LAGO is still at work once the catalog or flyer and multiple versions have gone to print. The data for that particular campaign can be automatically exported to online and mobile advertising channels. Also, since the data for each advertised product is automatically tracked, the marketing team can gauge the success of each component to help them plan the next iteration.
The Smell of Success
Automated, integrated, and multichannel campaigns have enormous potential, not just to relieve the burden placed on marketing production managers. They can also increase profitability exponentially. Printed materials play a vital role in that success. In a New York Times article on the resurgence of catalogs, retail strategist Bruce Cohen remarked, “It’s a pronouncement in favor of what all retailers are recognizing – that there are moments when people want to slow down, and there’s still an important place for the catalog.”
Print is not dead. It is alive and effective. Thanks to automation tools like LAGO, that prediction is now a cost-effective reality in a data-driven world.
Why brochures are valuable
Why brochures are valuable and how your retail chain can simplify their production process
Retail chains continue to rely on printed and digital brochures when it comes to distributing their advertising budget, as these are still one of the most valuable and reliable ways to reach consumers.
Why are brochures so valuable for retail chains?
Research shows that weekly circulars are still a key driver of shopping decisions. In fact, according to a Brandspark 2020 U.S. Shopper Study:
- 66% of consumers study circulars, promotions, and discounts before they go shopping
- In 2020, 87% of shoppers read circular the same amount or more than they did in 2019
- 74% of shoppers consulted their grocery print circulars in search of lower-priced specials
According to the September 2020 Shopper Behavior Monitor Survey of 1,000 primary household grocery shoppers:
- 30% of respondents were using digital store sales flyers ad digital coupons even more than they were earlier in the pandemic
- 27% of respondents said they used store sales flyers more often than during the beginning pandemic
- 28% said they were using digital coupons more often
The brochure production process
When it comes to creating the most promotional leaflets, design is crucial. In addition, retailers need to create multiple versions of the brochures. These are additional factors in an already complicated process.
For example, at a large grocery chain, the production process begins with the marketing department, which is in charge of the high-level planning of the circular. Then, category managers locate offers and determine whether an advertisement should be available, globally, nationally, or in a specific region.
Next, the design team lays out the circular, including copy and pricing, to create the regionalized variants from global and national offers. Once complete, the digital files go back to the category managers to review the ads and identify any necessary corrections. The design team implements the corrections and then sends them back to the marketing team for approval.
This entire process can be particularly hectic when creating multiple versions for different regions, languages, and other demographics or if the team needs to pull product assets from various data sources.
Simplifying brochure production
LAGO retail circular production software makes the entire process effortless, from concept to production. Here’s an example of how LAGO can simplify every step of print or online circular creation:
- At the beginning of the process, LAGO Whiteboard helps the marketing department determine how much space to allocate to each page.
- The marketing department can send the page layout to the category managers via the workflow engine. They can use LAGO Whiteboard to search for each offer and then drag and drop it directly on the page.
- At the same time, category management can select whether an offer should be global or local. LAGO's version optimisation automatically synchronises global offers and takes regional differences into account.
- Once planning and version optimisation is complete, LAGO automatically converts the planning into an Adobe InDesign file with its exclusive LAGO Layout InDesign plugin.
- Designers receive a pre-planned InDesign file with all necessary information from the LAGO PIM and DAM, allowing them to create pages more efficiently and avoid errors. Once the layout is complete, a correction document is generated and passed to category management for review via the workflow engine.
- In LAGO's integrated proof module, all correction requests from category management and marketing are noted directly in the proof document and passed back to the design team. The design team can see the desired changes as soon as they open the pages in InDesign and implement the correction requests.
- The implemented corrections are displayed in LAGO Proof via the workflow engine to Marketing and Category Management for checking the executed corrections.
- With a few simple clicks in LAGO Proof, category managers can check all changes made.
- Any price or text updates are automatically imported so that last-minute corrections do not cause unnecessary stress or chaos.
Ready to see how Comosoft LAGO can simplify circular production for your retail chain?