In article ,
Robert wrote:
On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 06:58:44 +0000, (Robert Bonomi)
wrote:
"Robert" wrote in message
. ..
Perhaps you could give us the date prices were finalized for the last
catalog so
I can check that. Because it certainly wasn't true the day I first
received it.
I have _zero_ knowledge of Lee Valley's actual operations.
I *do* have considerable experience with large catalog preparation,
publishing, and distribution. It is a _big_, *EXPENSIVE*, job.
You can safely assume that anything you see in the catalog was 'cast in stone'
at least 60 days before the _first_ mailings. That's the kind of time it
takes to do the printing and binding, addressing, and appropriate 'bundling'
for least-cost mail delivery.
On top of that, there is another 45 days, minimum, for the typesetting of the
changed pages, proofing, doing the color separations, etc. that are required
to have the material ready to 'go to press'.
If they're printing from a 'database', then 'applying' the 'decided upon'
currency conversion can be done for the entire catalog "shortly before" they
start the typesetting stage. If they use 'rounded' conversions -- so the
price comes out as 49.99, instead of 50.07, for example, somebody has to
review all the roundings, and possibly over-ride a round-up/round-down
decision. Pricing for every _new_ item (i.e. 'not previously published')
has to be manually reviewed, to ensure that there were no errors in the
database entry/extraction/conversion formulas for *that* item. This adds
a week or two to the time-line.
If there is any 'body copy' that makes indirect/imprecise reference to pricing,
then the pricing has to be set _before_ that body copy is written. This
shoves things back another couple of weeks, at least.
Thus, pricing ends up 'frozen' a good *FOUR*MONTHS* before the first catalogs
go in the mail.
Silly person.
Maybe back in the stone age.
In fact, _two_years_ ago. For a U.S.-based company in the same line of
business as Lee Valley, as it happens.
I used to work for a catalog giant, Eatons, and have friends who work catalog
for Sears Canada.
They set sale cat pricing 20 days or LESS before the book hits the streets.
A 'sale catalog', by definition, is not a large catalog.
The production process is much different for a sale catalog. You get that
ability to set pricing much closer to mailing date at a significantly higher
production cost.
Funny thing, too. you can get much faster turn-around on a large number of
copies of a relatively small number of pages, than on a relatively small number
of copies of a large number of pages.
There is also the issue of the _number_ of people you're willing to throw at
the task. Which has to be amortized over the number of copies produced.
And whether the catalog production is the _only_ thing they do, or whether
they have to do 'something else' _most_ of the time.
A *BIG* company, like Sears, or Eatons, has a large advantage in all those
areas; a *much* bigger base -- at least two orders of magnitude -- to
amortize costs across, *Dedicated* departments/staff doing the work. and
and producing _many_ publications per year.
They spend considerably more on advertising, per dollar of revenue/profit,
and which is reflected in the amount of 'mark-up' they have to take.
On the other hand, because of the 'economies of scale', they get *more*
'value' per dollar spent on catalog production.