Product Catalog Examples

Your product offerings are the lifeblood of your business. Customers are looking for a great product, whether a light fixture, medical device, or heavy machinery. Each and every product is just as important as the other when a potential lead has that specific pain point only your product will alleviate. With so many products on the market, the competitive landscape is fierce, and many brands are forced to pivot to differentiate themselves and remain relevant.

You may already know that product catalogs have been around for a long time, beginning as early as the 1400s. How can you and your team put a new spin on a traditional method to make it stand out? The answer lies throughout this comprehensive guide.

Join us as we explore the world of digital product catalogs and the immense benefits they offer to the manufacturing, CPG, and medical device industries. We will answer critical questions such as "What is an example of a product catalog?", "What is an example of catalog in business?" and even "Is it a product catalog or catalogue?"

Let's begin.

What Does a Product Catalog Mean?

Have you ever wondered if it should be written catalog or catalogue? There is virtually no difference. "Catalogue" is the British English spelling often used by the UK and the former commonwealth. "Catalog" is the American English spelling, which makes the word more efficient — much like a great product catalog.

A product catalog, guide, or list is an interchangeable set of words to describe one thing: it is the way that your company consolidates all information and assets on a product. Product guides can be helpful for numerous things. Specific product lists are essential for the design and manufacturing team to identify items by SKU, description, sizing, dimensions, and request or work order.

Product lists are also crucial for marketing teams to communicate the proper distinctive features to clients: core functions, standout benefits, and other relevant information.

At any given time, there is probably a product catalog that could be better maintained, updated, or created within your organization to ensure that all versions coincide and everyone is accessing the latest update. This is made easy through a Product Information Management (PIM) tool, a powerful software we will explore within this guide.

What Is the Purpose of the Catalog?

Your brand officially publishes the main product catalog template when new offerings are available, primarily for the customer's benefit. Potential prospects can look through the catalog at leisure and imagine the solution benefiting their personal or professional lives. Catalogs that offer consumer goods focus on defining the distinctive benefits of the offer. At the same time, enterprise solutions from large manufacturers heavily emphasize functionality, practicality, and competitive advantages.

Catalogs are crucial for brand continuity and for your customers to trust you and the quality of your products. Suppose a product is well-known for its attention to detail, craft skills, and significant positive net benefits. In that case, mimics and imitators may flood the market in addition to your competition. The catalog acts as a verifiable source that gives customers the confidence they need to get the product from the source.

Product catalogs have many other benefits other than confidence and advertising. Parts, accessories, and complementary equipment should also be showcased beside the product so customers can order any replacements or additional parts they need directly from you and your channel partners.

What Is a Product Catalog Example?

Product catalog and digital catalog examples vary by industry, but here are some examples of the most common catalogs by sector:

Manufacturing: product catalogs in the manufacturing industry include raw materials, tools, equipment, and industrial machinery. They can be enhanced through high-quality video demos, detailed descriptions, and part pricing and ordering information.

Consumer-Packaged Goods: Some of the most common examples of catalogs in this space are home and living - decor, lifestyle, cleaning supplies, and household items. Personal care and wellness products are also a famous example. Usage instructions, benefits, and bulk pricing are sought-after by the customer and can be enhanced through high-quality usage videos, pictures of the label, and skincare ingredients.

Medical Devices: Medical devices can be offered commercially, industrially, and retail channels. CPAP and home blood pressure machines are products marketed directly to consumers, while diagnostic and surgical equipment are available for smaller clinics and larger hospitals. Products are grouped by specialty and can be improved by offering patient care accessories, demonstrations of imaging quality, etc.

How Does a Catalog Look Like?

There are mainly only two product catalogs: printed PDF versions and digital catalogs. Product catalogs showcased in magazines are usually the result of transforming a static PDF document into a more appealing delivery mechanism. Still, at its core, it may have started with a PDF version.

Many manufacturers and other product-related companies use static catalogs in their product catalog design process. While this may be the industry norm, it causes an inherent issue - it makes the PDF feel like a flipbook or picture book that can be picked up and put back again without compelling anyone to action.

A fully digital version of the product catalog does not have to replace the catalog fully but can transform the experience entirely. When the digital catalog is tied to a PIM solution, the product data and any related digital and creative assets in the Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool are automatically updated on the digital product catalog when any information changes on the PIM platform.

How Do You Structure a Product Catalog?

Building out and structuring a product catalog has some intrinsic challenges within the traditional process. Initially, this begins with gathering all product information and related assets from within the organization, which is arduous. Team members throughout entire divisions may have access to different information as a common practice is to create localized spreadsheets and files to suit specific needs.

This kind of data fragmentation poses a considerable obstacle before building a product catalog, much less planning its structure. The marketing team could place outdated information and products not even in production without a centralized place to store version information and pertinent descriptions.

Structuring a product catalog is frustrating without a PIM tool, even after gathering everything. Translating the data from Excel, Word, and shared drives into a stunning digital catalog and product placement is cumbersome and can take a considerable amount of resources and technical assistance to create. A PIM saves your team hundreds of work hours that can be spent on operational duties instead.

How Do I Make a Simple Product Catalog?

A simple product catalog is easy, provided you have all the necessary information. In a typical environment, this involves using Adobe InDesign to create a product catalog. Some free tools (or tools already within your company's ecosystem) exist, such as Microsoft Word, Canva, and other online design boards.

Regardless of the tool that you are using, your team will manually upload product information into the catalog - page by page. Depending on the final destination, this process may be repeated over time so that it can be altered to place in different places. For example, a catalog put on display on your product catalog website will most likely be other than a niche page on your app that delivers specialized products.

Once you and your team have finalized the product catalog, exporting to PDF is the standard way of uploading files. PDF files generally cannot be edited after the fact and are compatible with most upload formats.

How to Make a Catalog With Pictures?

You can upload pictures and videos onto the solution before covering them in a PDF during the catalog design process. Creating a simple product catalog is made longer as team members must manually upload and update the catalog as they go.

The best product catalogs have appealing creative assets, which include user manuals, high-resolution photos, video demos, and an interactive experience. Embedding videos in a PDF document often causes playback issues, and the team can work endlessly on reformating the entire document to no avail.

Lumavate's platform combines a PIM and DAM solution into a Digital Experience Platform (DXP). It can unilaterally synchronize all uploaded pictures and videos with the product information and translate them into experience. This saves your team significant time and ensures that the videos and photos are seen without issues after uploading.

How Do I Create a Product Catalog PDF?

Creating a product catalog PDF is straightforward when using any of the tools mentioned within your company: Word, Canva, InDesign, and other related solutions. The issue with creating product catalog PDFs is that they are static, so every time there is an update, however minor, it may take a complete reformatting of your catalog to make it work.

Creating a product catalog PDF using a PIM solution is much more manageable and combines the benefits of a physical and digital product catalog. After your digital catalog is uploaded to its final destination, you can still employ traditional mail marketing, which is still effective for many customers, especially when they can cross-reference it with any digital experiences you have created.

Printing a physical product catalog PDF from your digital catalog is attractive for existing and potential users who can access the information through every channel they value.

What Program Can I Use to Make a Catalog?

Throughout this guide, you will have already sampled the benefits of using a PIM solution to create a digital product catalog. Product Information Management is more than just a tool; it is a methodology and management strategy that helps to market, sell, and service products. PIM tools are a way of centralizing all product information into a single location so that it can be managed and accessed by multiple people in the organization.

PIMs drive better marketing campaigns, strategy, sales resources, events, spec sheets, labeling information, etc.

What Is an Example of a Catalog Software?

Lumavate takes the process of creating a digital guide and transforms it into a new experience. While there may be other PIM solutions on the market, we pride ourselves on having a truly comprehensive platform that has multiple integrations so that you can deploy the tool with minimal downtime and without disrupting your operations. Here are the benefits of using a Product Experience Management (PXM) platform for creating digital product catalogs:

Unified Approach

A PXM provides a single source of truth for the brand, which provides a place to check for product information and create entirely new experiences from brand-approved assets and content.

No-Code Environment

The need for technical knowledge shouldn't stand in the way of your marketing team doing what they do best: create and innovate. With a no-code platform, you can manage digital experiences without reallocating resources or hiring external firms and consultants to fill in the gaps. When the marketing team owns the entire process, they can visualize the end solution better.

Real-Time Updates

Centralizing information and assets prevents fragmentation and data silos. Users are discouraged from saving their versions of the products or product guides since they have access to the newest version with the click of a button, provided they are granted access.

Intuitive Platform

Lumavate's intuitive platform is convenient for manufacturing, CPG, and medical device companies. There is no need for specialized knowledge to integrate the PXM platform into your operations.

What Is the Cost of Creating a Product Catalog?

The primary costs for creating a product catalog are the financial investment required and the time commitment to producing, managing, and updating the catalog.

A simple product guide with limited products can take a team more than 30 hours to create and much more to keep track of changes and update the catalog accordingly. Realistically, creating and managing product guides are multiple FTE roles, and using a PIM solution can save you thousands of working hours throughout the months.

Depending on the brand, solution, and additional features, PIM solutions range anywhere from $1,000 to $250,000 annually. Lumavate is considered to be 75 percent more cost-effective than its competitors and publicly displays its pricing options.

How Do I Create a Product Catalog?

Creating an exemplary digital product catalog is more intensive than making a simple and static catalog, yet it is much more rewarding for your brand and the buyer's journey. Using all the tools we have mentioned, here is a step-by-step process to creating a stunning digital product catalog that will proudly represent your company year after year and season after season:

Start With a Foundation

Begin by brainstorming with your team about how you want your product catalog to look and how often it should change. Ask yourself critical questions like "Should we list seasonal items?" "How can we best categorize our products?" and "What products should we lead with?". Remember that it doesn't have to be perfect, but everyone should know their roles and responsibilities when getting started.

Collect Your Assets and Info

Once you have a rudimentary structure, gather all your products and have them ready by a deadline. You can always add (or remove) products later if there is a better fit elsewhere. Your team should be clear on what they are gathering: product information, creative assets, sizing, dimensions, frequently asked questions, parts, and disclosures.

Enlist PIM Support

Everything until this step was gathering the puzzle pieces; now is where the PIM starts to shine. This is usually where the marketing team starts to work on using the raw ingredients they have been given to properly allocate the products, product information, and assets into beautiful representations of your brand.

A PIM and DAM will ensure that all information and assets are centralized so all stakeholders can access the required data.

Turn Products into Experiences

The product section of the catalog may be done, but the digital product catalog is far from finished. Turn your catalog design templates into a digital experience on your product catalog website, company app, landing page, and other channels for messaging and delivery for your clients.

You can use brand portals to properly divert information to where it is needed. Retail customers may want to focus on core functions, while commercial customers may focus on applications and dimensions.

Stay Synchronized

This is where the DXP platform truly starts to shine. Lumavate's functionality allows you to effortlessly manage your product data and related assets with the click of a button. As your team updates the catalog throughout the process in the PIM and DAM, it will instantly reflect in your digital product catalog and any associated experience.

Customers appreciate having access to the most up-to-date information via modern channels such as text messaging without waiting between sessions for your team to update information throughout the months or years.

Lumavate: Your Holistic Catalog Experience

Creating a stunning catalog is the best way to demonstrate your dedication to your craft and establish thought leadership trends throughout your industry. When comparing the products between you and your competitors, customers want the product that performs better, stands out, and is backed by a supportive brand that innovates and employs modern tools.

Building on an age-old tradition, the static "picture books" are made much more appealing by integrating these products into interactive digital catalogs that can update seamlessly with the right tools, settings, and platforms.

Lumavate is your comprehensive way to dominate the catalog experience and establish your presence on the market while securing growth and reputation for your brand. By combining product information and their related creative and digital assets with a PIM and DAM solution, you can seamlessly create digital experiences using Lumavate's DXP integration, which helps your marketing team be a step ahead.

Ready to dive right in and take control of your product catalogs? Demo Lumavate for FREE today to learn how an effective solution can save you time, risk-free.