Planning brochures and catalogues

The most common brochure error is deciding to produce one before deciding how it will reach anybody.

Distribution first

A brochure with no distribution plan gets printed in three thousand copies, of which four hundred are used and the rest are stored until they are out of date.

Decide first: who hands it to whom, in what situation, and how many of those situations occur per year. That calculation gives the print quantity and usually a much smaller one than the printer's price break suggests.

What belongs in print and what does not

The insert solution handles most of the problem: a stable outer brochure with a separately printed price list or specification sheet that can be reprinted cheaply.

Length

The instinct is to include everything. The result is a document nobody reads.

Eight to sixteen pages is sufficient for most purposes. A brochure is not a reference work; it is a document handed to someone in a meeting or posted to an enquirer, and its job is to be read once.

Where more detail is genuinely needed, put it online and reference it.

Structure that works

1. What you do, in one sentence on the cover or first page.
2. Who it is for, so the reader can place themselves.
3. The evidence: two or three reference cases with figures.
4. How it works, the process, briefly.
5. What it costs, in ranges if not in figures.
6. What happens next, with a name and a direct contact.

Most brochures spend six pages on company history and one on what the customer gets.

Production decisions that matter

Paper weight affects perceived quality more than any design choice. A brochure on lightweight stock reads as cheap regardless of the printing.

Finishing, so matt lamination or a spot varnish, costs a modest amount and changes the object's feel substantially.

Format matters practically: anything that does not fit a standard envelope costs more to post, and anything larger than a standard folder does not get filed.

The catalogue question

Catalogues remain effective in sectors where people browse: furniture, tools, garden, specialist supplies, industrial components.

They fail where the range changes frequently. In those sectors the catalogue's function has moved online and the printed version survives only as a curated selection.