Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 87)

Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases For this trial product, there was no interaction; customers still had to call on the phone to get more information or place an order. Even so, Welco was satisfied that this was a good technology to incorporate into their marketing mix. They were agreed that the digital edition would not replace the print catalog; it would be one of multiple channels to their customers. They put plans for a full digital catalog together and discussed them with YUDU. They had various options in terms of what types of products they could turn into digital catalogs; for example, they could produce multiple i-brochures by categories of merchandise. They decided to turn their entire workplace and education catalogs into digital catalogs. They judged the healthcare sector not to be ready to accept i-brochures at this time, owing to its more complex purchasing process; two sectors were enough to start with. Welco launched its big workplace catalog in March 2008 at www.welcobigbook.co.uk using YUDU Publishing Pro. At 926 pages, it is one of the largest digital editions ever created; it lists 30,000 products in 21 categories. As of March 2008, YUDU has also developed the education products digital catalog for Welco. The Welco Big Book digital catalog takes advantage of YUDU’s tabbing feature and separates the book into tabbed sections for each category. On the front page of each section is a clickable table of contents that takes the viewer to a specific product category: for example, the “presentation” tab has clickable entries for such product categories as Projection Screens and Flipchart Easels. When customers view catalog pages, they can use YUDU’s continuous zoom feature to get a close look at product photos. Welco has supported direct e-commerce with a small number of its B-to-B customers, and the new digital catalog provides an alternative ordering channel. A viewer of the workplace catalog can click on a button marked Show Order Form and enter items (by product code, quantity, and price) into an electronic order form that can be emailed or printed and faxed to Welco. Welco currently calls customers to validate the order before processing it. Results Welco was able to put together a digital edition of its catalog with much less effort and at far lower cost than it would take to build an e-commerce Web site. Welco’s customers and customer service staff were both pleased with the 56page trial catalog. Lessons Learned Welco doesn’t see digital catalogs replacing print catalogs, but it does give them a lot of possibilities. If they decide to offer products in a new area, they might do a digital-only catalog. They still have to do product management, artwork, and design, but they save on costs of printing and mailing. The digital edition turns out to give Welco a highly flexible way of marketing to a very specific group of customers at very low cost. For example, the recent UK ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 87 http://gilbane.com http://www.welcobigbook.co.uk http://gilbane.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions

Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section One: The Data
Section Two: Best Practice Cases
Nxtbook
Bentley Systems
Graduate Prospects
Hearst
Information Today
Marine Log
Vendor Description
Section Three: Buyer’s Guide
Section Four: Visionaries
Section Five: Conclusions
The Authors
About the Gilbane Group, Inc.
Our Sponsors

Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions