Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases
Two years ago, company management – led by Adrian Reeve, the CEO – bought out the
company when the founding family decided to sell. Before the buyout, the group also
owned a manufacturing business, which accounted for 30 percent of the products in the
catalogs.
Welco’s unique sales proposition is to provide whatever products meet their customers’
needs through expertise in product selection and customer service.
YUDU Media (
www.yudu.com) delivers state-of-the-art
interactive digital editions that enhance the reader's
experience with rich media, allowing clients to effortlessly
create digital magazines, digital brochures, digital
newspapers, digital catalogs, digital directories, eBooks, and more.
The Challenge
During the summer of 2007, Welco got feedback from some of their customers,
particularly those in the government, which buys health and education products.
Customers were concerned about the impact of printed catalogs on the environment –
even though Welco’s print catalog has always used the most environmentally friendly
methods possible, including recycled paper from replenishable forests. The customers
asked if Welco could conduct its business without causing trees to be chopped down.
Welco decided to accept the challenge, because it fit with its image as an innovative,
technology-friendly business. They would be the first among their direct competitors to
launch a digital catalog, which would help differentiate them among what would
otherwise be a similar product offering.
Meeting the Challenge
Reeve first became aware of digital editions in mid-2007, when he saw a travel
brochure published as a digital edition. He thought it was an interesting technology and
tucked it away in the back of his mind. Once he had gotten the mandate from customers
to become more environmentally friendly, he started looking into digital edition
technology. He came across YUDU and started talking to them. He found YUDU
receptive to his ideas, experienced in brochure and catalog publishing, and more than
willing to work with him and his team to create a product that met their needs.
During the second half of 2007, Welco put together a trial digital catalog as an
introductory brochure, just to see how customers would respond to it. The 56-page
brochure was a low-cost way to test the technology. The internal staff liked it, finding it
to be a good way to talk to customers; they could send customers an email link to an “i-
brochure” to get them information about specific products. They could then analyze the
statistics about which users looked at the catalog, which pages they viewed, and where
they clicked.
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©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc.
http://gilbane.com
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