No more cut-and-paste

This construction supplies distributor used a Web-based tool to publish its print catalog.

by Rich Vurva

After completing J.J. Hammond Company’s first-ever full-line catalog in 1984, Joe Hammond vowed he’d never do another catalog again. He refused to put himself through the laborious and time-consuming cut-and-paste process that took more than a year to complete.

Fast forward about 10 years. Joe’s son, Joey, who has worked at his father’s Columbus, Ohio-based company on and off since the age of 12, took on a project of finding a better way to publish a new catalog. He wanted a cost-effective, simple method to produce a print catalog, but also store the content for retrieval for future catalogs and other marketing pieces. After considering a few publishers, Hammond settled upon Webcom Limited in Toronto, a book and catalog printer that offered a Web-based system to develop custom catalogs.

Webcom’s Digital Content Management (DCM) suite of publishing tools enables companies to build Web, CD and print documents from a centralized, Web-accessible digital library using flexible formatting and layout options. It simplifies how distributors create, organize, manage and deliver their catalog information.

Because all images and data are digitally stored online, the Web-based system eliminates the need to track down product and price information, and proof the same content over and over. It will also enable the company to easily retrieve data when it comes time to reprint the catalog or develop other marketing materials. Webcom also posted the content online at J.J. Hammond’s Web site (www.jjhammond.com). Users can search the site by product category, manufacturer or specific item. If information is added or changed in the digital library, it’s automatically updated in the online version.

“Our original goal was to produce a printed catalog as a buying reference to keep our name and capabilities in front of customers,” says Joey Hammond. “Now, besides having a print catalog that we are proud to give customers, we’ll be able to produce custom flyers and other marketing communications.”

J.J. Hammond paid about $30,000 to publish 3,000 copies of a 248-page catalog, which included all design, layout, content management and printing costs, plus the online version. About 15 percent of the cost was offset by suppliers whose products and logos were included.

Because Webcom digitized the catalog content using the company’s Digital Content Manager, it will enable Hammond to make full or partial updates to the content as needed.

“All of their data is stored on our server, so all they need is access to the Internet,” says Webcom’s Anton Krusic. “When they get ready to produce their next catalog, if they only need to change 10 to 15 percent of the content, it should only take six to eights weeks to get on the market vs. the months it took the old-fashioned way.”

Hammond expects to use the catalog for several years.

“We’re pretty selective about who we give them out to because they cost about $10 each. At the counter, we try to put them in the hands of our main customers and serious prospects only,” Hammond says.

Outside salespeople also give copies to regular customers and selectively hand copies to prospects.

Hammond says only about 10 percent of his customers use the Internet today to search for products. As comfort and familiarity with using a Web-based catalog grows, he anticipates J.J. Hammond Co.’s Web catalog will become a valuable resource.

“This industry is still paper-based. The print catalog sits on the customers’ bookshelves. They’re in job trailers or warehouses and they’re not going to log onto the Internet. They like to pull the catalog off a shelf, look up what they need and give us a call,” Hammond says.

Future marketing plans
Hammond says the company plans to use the system to develop flyers and mini-catalogs in the near future. He hopes to produce marketing pieces aimed at specific customer segments, such as electrical contractors and mechanical contractors.

“I can go in and pick and choose what I want to include in the mini-catalog,” Hammond says. “I can pick out what items I want through a Webcom interface and they will develop the catalog for me. I just tell them how many copies I want. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to use.”

Using pre-defined templates, the system can generate catalog pages or flyers in a variety of formats. Users can generate a portable document file (PDF) that Webcom could use to print the piece, send the file to their local printer or, for short-run marketing pieces, print from their desktop printer. For companies with in-house graphics capabilities, users can request a QuarkXpress document, which would allow them to personalize the material even further.

“If a sales rep wanted a product sell sheet, they could log on and select an item and generate a PDF sell sheet to e-mail to a client. It gives them that sort of flexibility,” says Krusic.

What Hammond likes best about the system is its ease of use. With a staff of just 12 employees, no one has the time it takes to build a catalog or multi-page flyer from scratch.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time, which is what we had to do before. We don’t have to re-scan images or re-enter information. All the data is already there,” he says. “When it comes to other marketing materials, the sky is the limit. We’re still not tapped into the system’s full potential.”