Catalog Critiques: Making Bad Good, and Good Better (jschmid.com)

When was the last time you truly enjoyed scrolling through page after page of search results on Amazon? Settling into your favorite chair to just explore and see what comes next? If you’re like most consumers, probably never, really. Search for products online is more like a task-oriented scavenger hunt to find the thing that best matches your keywords, “lost in the noise of digital advertising.” A catalog, on the other hand, is a journey in itself, an inspiring experience that opens up new ideas in a tactile way that our brains relish. Recent news from IKEA that they are doing away with their catalog after 70 years is going to break a lot of hearts; they were a prime example of catalogers who “get it” and turned paper and ink into a journey of possibilities. (And their wickedly good catalog marketing campaigns ensured robust buzz about it.) It’s a mistake, no doubt. Given the resurgence of catalogs during the pandemic lockdowns, marketers have no doubt that catalogs serve a critical function in the retail and e-commerce experience. much more at: https://freeportpress.com/the-experience-of-the-catalog-is-what-makes-it-work-so-well/

Marketers and their creative partners know there is no sure thing when it comes to marketing. They spend resources creating assets; producing images and messages hoping to drive success for their brands. No matter the category, competition is always fierce and consumers have become increasingly fickle when it comes to their brand preferences. The pandemic has presented new challenges for marketers. With non-essential stores closed or closing, many retail brands have had to play catch up by creating or significantly increasing their digital presence as customers’ traditional shopping patterns adapt to this “new normal.” Brands and creative agencies are constantly looking for ways to improve their odds of success in today’s evolving marketplace. Research can certainly play an important role in this quest. Successful campaigns start with the answers to three critical questions: *What do your customers really want and need? *Do your customers believe your product meets those wants and needs? *What do your customers need to see/hear to convince them that your product is the right choice? read more at: https://www.jschmid.com/blog/breakthrough-creative-research/

Adobe announced the completion of its acquisition of Workfront, the leading work management platform for marketers with more than 3,000 customers and one million users. Adobe’s acquisition of Workfront will bring efficiency, collaboration and productivity gains to marketing teams currently challenged with siloed work management solutions. Both companies are established partners with strong product synergies and a growing base of over 1,000 shared customers, including Under Armour, Nordstrom, Prudential Financial, T-Mobile and The Home Depot. Satisfying the increasing expectations of B2B and B2C customers today requires large volumes of content and personalized marketing campaigns delivered at lightning speed and scale. This must be accomplished across increasingly dispersed teams, as remote work becomes prevalent in today’s environment and the future of work is redefined. Workfront has deep leadership in orchestrating marketing workflows. Workfront’s platform is agile and uniquely architected for the enterprise, with extensive integration capabilities that can be easily configured to meet the varied needs of companies of all sizes.