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Catalog Doctor: Analyze Digests and Slim Jims

Your antidote to hyper-postage

July 2007 By Susan McIntyre
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Patient: Doc, this postage increase worries me. Should I switch from a standard-size catalog to a digest or slim jim? How can I switch without making my business sick?

Catalog Doctor: A digest or slim jim can produce a strong, healthy business. The smaller size often evokes a more personal, “company-that-cares” feel. When combined with upscale design and photography, it also evokes quality and “best of class.”

Patient: How can I tell if a digest or slim jim is right for me? And how do I avoid the potential pitfalls?

Catalog Doctor: A digest or slim jim might work for you if you fall under one of these categories:
• You mail small quantities.
• You sell specialty products in a tightly targeted niche.
• Your full-size catalog doesn’t exceed 48 pages.
• Your full-size catalog has high product density. (Smaller trim sizes’ lower product density can be easier to read, thus lifting response.)
• You have upscale products that could work with just one image to a page or spread.

Patient: Why do digests and slim jims mail at lower postage rates?

Catalog Doctor: They both fit the U.S. Postal Service’s definition of “letter” size, so they’ll run through the letter equipment that’s supposedly less expensive to operate. The USPS wants to bring rates more in-line with its actual costs.

Although full-size catalog mailers just got skunked, one client that switched to a digest actually saved postage compared to its old 2006 full-size rate (sticking with 2006’s trim size would have stuck it with a 30 percent postage increase).



Patient: What sizes are digests and which are slim jims?

Catalog Doctor: Slim jims are as tall as standard 8.5-inch-by-11-inch catalogs, only skinnier. Instead of the normal 7.5-inches to 8.5-inches wide, they run around 5.5-inches to 6.125-inches wide.

On the other hand, digests are the same proportion as standard catalogs, only half the size. Imagine an 8.5-inch-by-10.5-inch catalog folded in half width-wise, then stapled on its long side. There is no one size for digests or slim jims. Talk to your printer about what’s most economical to produce — most will have a range.

Patient: Are there any size, paper or other limitations?
 

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COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Susan McIntyre - Posted on June 30, 2009
Dear John,

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my column. ROI (formerly Catalog Success) passed your question along to me. You asked:

"Are there any reports on increased response rates for going up from a slim-jim to a full size book? My customer has always been a slim-jim and now entertaining a jump to full size. This is an upscale product line, not a sale or off price book."

There are not any reports specifically of going from a slim-jim to a full-size that I know of but here's what I do know.

1. Almost any redesign will increase response. A bigger trim size tends to act like a redesign. But higher response from a redesign (and presumably from a "redesign" that results from an upsize) won't hold up year after year. That increase will be lower the following year, and in year 3 or 4 will usually drop back to the pre-redesign response rates.

2. A cataloger I know tested an upsize from a DIGEST to a full-size. But they kept per-square-inch density exactly the same. So a 48-page digest turned into a 24-page full-size. Response was just about the same, with a minor increase for the full-size (possible due just to the newness of the look), but not enough to pay for the extra postage.

3. Another cataloger went from a digest to a full-size and response went up dramatically (I don't have the numbers, and this was years ago). What they did differently from #2 above was to keep the SAME number of pages but just make all the product images way bigger. Since copy length didn't change, this also made the image-copy ratio way heavy on the image side -- always good for getting attention and having graphic impact.

4. A B-to-B cataloger I know did an extensive test of slim-jim (test) versus full-size (control) over a 6-month period. The initial results had the slim-jim ah
John Forgit - Posted on June 19, 2009
Are there any reports on increased response rates for going up from a slim-jim to a full size book? My customer has always been a slim-jim and now entertaining a jump to full size. This is an upscale product line, not a sale or off price book.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Susan McIntyre - Posted on June 30, 2009
Dear John,

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my column. ROI (formerly Catalog Success) passed your question along to me. You asked:

"Are there any reports on increased response rates for going up from a slim-jim to a full size book? My customer has always been a slim-jim and now entertaining a jump to full size. This is an upscale product line, not a sale or off price book."

There are not any reports specifically of going from a slim-jim to a full-size that I know of but here's what I do know.

1. Almost any redesign will increase response. A bigger trim size tends to act like a redesign. But higher response from a redesign (and presumably from a "redesign" that results from an upsize) won't hold up year after year. That increase will be lower the following year, and in year 3 or 4 will usually drop back to the pre-redesign response rates.

2. A cataloger I know tested an upsize from a DIGEST to a full-size. But they kept per-square-inch density exactly the same. So a 48-page digest turned into a 24-page full-size. Response was just about the same, with a minor increase for the full-size (possible due just to the newness of the look), but not enough to pay for the extra postage.

3. Another cataloger went from a digest to a full-size and response went up dramatically (I don't have the numbers, and this was years ago). What they did differently from #2 above was to keep the SAME number of pages but just make all the product images way bigger. Since copy length didn't change, this also made the image-copy ratio way heavy on the image side -- always good for getting attention and having graphic impact.

4. A B-to-B cataloger I know did an extensive test of slim-jim (test) versus full-size (control) over a 6-month period. The initial results had the slim-jim ah
John Forgit - Posted on June 19, 2009
Are there any reports on increased response rates for going up from a slim-jim to a full size book? My customer has always been a slim-jim and now entertaining a jump to full size. This is an upscale product line, not a sale or off price book.