For decades companies of all sizes have marveled in the new media platforms producing many old school communications casualties. Christmas catalogs were some of the first to go and became as welcome as a fruitcake during the holiday season.
Now that new media is old hat, traditional ways of communicating with customers is making a return with the Christmas catalog becoming a lucrative way to generate increased sales and foot traffic during the all-important fourth quarter.
“As companies have moved to the less expensive emails, we have found opportunity in the less crowded direct mail space,” says Andrew Furman, Managing Director at Continental Diamond.
The Minneapolis-based store has been producing and distributing their Holiday catalogs for two-plus decades. In the early years of its mailing, the seasonal catalog was mailed to increase store name awareness with potential customers while creating a touch point with existing ones, according to Andrew.
“As we’ve grown and placed an importance on constantly staying up to date with the latest trends and bringing in new product accordingly, it’s important to make it convenient for your clients by delivering your products to the customer where they are, in this case into their homes,” says Andrew. “It’s a very big project for us, as we create it in-house, but it’s been very successful for us. We have people call about the product images that they see in the catalog and bring the catalog in to point out the pieces that they love.”
Similar to their retail jeweler peers, a majority of Continental Diamond’s fourth quarter open-to-buy budgets has been expended by the June Las Vegas Show. This gives Andrew and his staff most of summer and early fall to complete the Holiday catalog.
The catalog production time span is roughly four to five months. This is “somewhat dependent” on when new products arrive at the store from the designers. Continental Diamond has their own staff photographer that produces most of the product images used in the catalog.
The product mix is paramount for every seasonal catalog with a strong emphasis on new inventory. Continental Diamond has worked diligently over the years to position itself in the Twin Cities’ market as a trends leader. “Our clients look to our team to learn about the latest trends and to see what’s hot,” says Andrew.
Customer loyalty and name brand awareness speak volumes for the store’s trend-setting inventory – especially in the bridal category. Since 2010, Continental Diamond has been voted “Best Jeweler” by Minnesota Bride magazine. And the catalog reflects this category dominance not just with breaking trends and traditional designs, but with a practical “Shop By Style” page highlighting the top-five engagement ring design types with the opposite page showing thumbnail images of nine “Continental Couples.”
Fashion trends are also important in the catalog. Yellow gold continues its hot streak in 2024. Last year’s catalog provided a host of trending yellow gold designs, namely fashion pieces. And, the never-ending stacking band trend got its own page.
Bread-and-butter goods and everyday essentials, as well as the usual assortment of fine and fashion jewelry, is equally important as trending designs. In the spirit of “you can’t sell what you don’t have,” Continental Diamond’s catalog visually conveys that it’s a jewelry store destination for all things to all people, from fancy colored diamonds to colored stones – and everything in between. And, of course, there are pages of timepieces – Andrew’s personal obsession and professional favorite product category.
But the key is layout for print. Too many choices in a catalog is just as detrimental as too much inventory in a display case. People get numb to too much.
With a Christmas catalog, layout and page design are of critical importance. Continental Diamond’s cover choice is purposely understated – the store name and year, that’s it. The color choice is the store’s corporate color – royal blue.
The inside cover page reads and looks like a magazine with a table of contents, a seasonal note from the staff, a Minnesota Bride logo to promote the store’s yearly win, and contact details. (There’s small print at the bottom of the page denoting retail prices and availability mostly.)
Having an in-house photographer not only allows for quality control over product shots, but also allows Continental Diamond’s choice of models. Last year staff was chosen to model inventory. Typically local media and sports celebrities are asked to model jewelry and timepieces.
Whether it’s just products or a person wearing jewelry, every page of the catalog denotes the store’s product identification number and the most current retail price of every piece of merchandise in the catalog. This helps the customer make purchasing decisions while easily communicating such choices to the store’s sales professionals.
Another less obvious goal of the holiday catalog is to create brand awareness with the chosen vendors. The upside is vendors can help reduce the cost of the catalog’s production, which Andrew admits is a “significant investment” of the store’s annual advertising budget.
Vendor placement in the store’s holiday catalog depends on a few factors. Highlighting new or newer vendors is always important. But as many retail jewelers know the retailer/vendor relationship is a balancing act.
“It varies a lot depending on the designer. Some have very strict placement requirements, others require that we use their images, and some will let us shoot and require only image approval,” says Andrew. “Many are willing to co-op their page.”
Lastly the seasonal catalog can function as a reminder of services. Continental Diamond is well known for its custom design work as well as its bench jeweler shop. In recent years the store has delved deeper into estate jewelry and the secondary market. The one-of-a-kind pieces as well as the products and services that come with an estate department got a two-page spread featuring estate buyer Kimberly Thompson.
For retail jewelers fence sitting on whether to upgrade, update or bring back your store’s Christmas/Holiday catalog, Andrew says: “All the effort pays off in the end. The buzz about your store that it creates, the excitement for your product because you’re able to present it so beautifully, and the idea that you’re able to deliver it to your clients where they are, in their home, works for us. But the main judge of its effectiveness – we get a lot of positive feedback from clients and they often bring it into the store with the items they’ve chosen to purchase or even with items circled by their loved ones.”
And, on the topic of new media versus old, Andrew adds: “Email notification’s impact has slowed. Our personal inboxes have become flooded which has become really difficult to get through. Mail is something that they can feel and hold. People have to touch it and see it, even if it’s to pass on it. Plus, traditional mail is also more trust worthy than emails. I still believe that there is a place for email marketing in your overall marketing strategy but it’s not as effective as it once was. This opened the door for direct mail again because our mailboxes aren’t nearly as flooded as our inboxes.”
