CATALOGUES AND PRICE LISTS. The preparation and distribution of catalogues and price lists has become an in dustry of enormous dimensions, the cost of printing and publish ing amounting to millions of pounds per annum in Britain alone, while the expenditure of this sort in America is probably not less than sixty million dollars per annum. It is increasingly recognized that an attractive catalogue, distributed in the right way, is one of the best aids to salesmanship. The cost of production of fifty or a hundred thousand catalogues of moderate size amounts to a seri ous item in business expenditure. In not a few cases this leads to a cutting down of expense upon the preparation of the cata logue and this is undoubtedly the chief weakness in the prepara tion of commercial price lists. Another reason for the failure of many expensive catalogues is that the publisher forgets that, although he may be successful in manufacturing a certain article, it does not necessarily follow that he is successful in describing it for catalogue purposes. It is very important, therefore, that efficient literary aid should be called in by the business man to to make his catalogues lucid. Thus, also, with any necessary pic tures. Often the printing blocks in an expensive production have little artistic merit, and do not do full justice to the products. If we suppose ten thousand pounds to be spent upon a catalogue issue, the value of the expenditure may easily be doubled or trebled by spending an additional two hundred pounds upon the editorial work.
It is not difficult for the business man to forget in preparing a catalogue that those he wishes to read it are not as familiar with his productions as he is himself. Simplicity and lucidity of description are essential, and in this connection care should be taken to avoid the listing of a complexity of types. The excellent Fork done by the Washington Department of Commerce in re ducing the number of types of products in various trades is directed to what is really the same point. Variety, of course, there should be, but the types chosen for listing should be distinctly different, and the reasons for the differences very clearly stated.
If, for example, the catalogue offers a series of gas heaters and cookers, the types chosen should not only be essentially different, but the essential differences should be made quite clear to the reader. If the stove is a heating appliance, the kind of room for which it is suited, the kind of flue needed, the method of installa tion, and the cost of maintenance should all be demonstrated. When prices vary in a series, the reason for the differences should appear. Nothing is more confusing or stultifying in a catalogue than to be told on one page that Type A of a certain manufacture is the "best," or the "finest," when the very next page refers to another thing of the same sort priced at a much higher figure. What should be done is to show clearly that the article priced is good value at its price; good value for its particular purpose; good value to meet a particular need.
The format of a catalogue is of great importance. The cata logue of a store should be divided into sections and well indexed. In the case of the small catalogue, or "folder," it is far better to concentrate upon one really good production at a time than to issue a sheaf of documents of different sizes which are only too likely to bewilder and irritate the would-be buyer. It is quite usual at trade exhibitions to be handed half a dozen dif ferently shaped folders referring to a single object, instead of being given one handy, pocket-sized, beautifully printed, well considered piece of printing.
An excellent aid to business in a catalogue, and one that is much appreciated by buyers, is the insertion of intelligent matter directly or indirectly relating to the articles offered. This may be illuRtrated by the case of a sports catalogue. The manufacturer of cricket-bats or tennis-rackets does well to include in his catalogue expert directions for the preservation of the articles sold, or hints on the laws of the game, or other interesting cognate matter. Again, the catalogue of a piano-player may well be accompanied by a lucid account of the invention, instructions for the care of the instrument, hints as to getting the best results from it, and so forth.
As to catalogues for the export market, it is an old complaint, and a just one, that their publishers too often fail to adapt them to the needs of the country to which they are supposed to appeal. If a catalogue is prepared for South America, for example, it is quite useless to prepare it in English; it should be translated into Spanish (or into Portuguese, if for Brazil) and weights and measures and prices expressed in their proper equivalents. Con sular reports from foreign countries again and again dwell upon the neglect of these elementary measures for making an export catalogue useful.