SAB NewsSAB Members Design Their Ideal CatalogPosted 4/1/2008 In a recent SAB study we presented the following scenario to participants: In an effort to “think outside the box” and design a catalog (either print or online) that REALLY captures scientists’ attention, a leading life science vendor has decided to borrow catalog design concepts from mainstream catalogs (e.g., Pottery Barn, Patagonia, JC Penny, Oriental Trading Company, Penzey’s Spices, Boden, J.Crew, Frontgate, etc.). You are the consultant for this project. What catalogs might inspire you and WHY? "Argos Catalogue with their own standardized ratings for each of similar products in addition to the manufacturer's own description" -Abi, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "IKEA--Fun to go through this catalogues. because they have so many products even similar products with different designs, almost all in pictures. It is also easy to find the price and different sizes of products." -Kuniko, Staff Scientist, North America "L.L. Bean, because we can see attractive figures wearing their products." -Eiji, Staff Scientist, Asia "the best catalogue i think would be the one that provides very good search capabilities online. i have seen amazon.com, target and walmart websites and some of them have nice search engines. Therefore, an online catalog if provides all the information in one page or with relevant links would be great." -VIKAS, Post Doctoral Fellow, Asia "The cataloque should have references cited from journals and articles. for the verification interests of researcher " -Boredi Silas, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Africa "Crate and Barrel because the pages to draw you in (with the colors used) and everything is easy to find. You feel that could use the examples on the pages in your own lab setting (as the Crate and Barrel catalog does with furniture)." -Elina, Staff Scientist, North America "Touch of humor will be most welcome. Best model for that comes from our own: science catalog, Novagen!" -Pradip, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Obviously Victoria's secret" -Milind, Staff Scientist, North America "Invitrogen catalogs always the best" -Giotis, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Victoria's secret...You know how scientists are..." -Todd, Laboratory Technician, North America "The Sharper Image; because most scientists are gadget-lovers at heart!" -Paul, Staff Scientist, North America "LL Bean - photos of products in use, description which captures your imagination" -John, Principal Investigator, North America "I'm trying to avoid catalogs whenever possible, thus I wouldn't know what is cool and what captures other peoples attention." -Michael, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "I would design something along the lines of "Sharper Image" just because of the 'geek' factor (capture the interest of scientists to get the most modern technology, etc...)." -Kendra, Principal Investigator, North America "Find ways to link specific vendor's product use to high profile journals. Scientists track success even more than costs." -Robert, Professor/Teacher, North America "Victoria's Secret: At the rate the prices go up and the grants get cut, we'll soon end up losing the shirt off our back." -Mike, Professor/Teacher, North America "Invitrogen for the visually appealing of the contents Promega for the cover design (very beautiful photographs" -Javier Gonzalo, Principal Investigator, Europe "Online travel brochures - they are colourful and fun, always easy to navigate while offering added value at every stage so that I (the customer) always end up spending more than I meant to on things I didn't necessarily intend to buy that improve the purchase (holiday or business travel) for me! Winning strategy all round!!" -Elaine, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Australasia/Pacific "The catalogues of JC Penny, J. Crew would be more inspiring as there are 'novel approaches' that these catalogues use to catch an attention of a savy customer. These include, photos which catch attention, a brief description which allows a customer to look at the items without getting to look at them." -Makarand, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "I used to like the format of Pierce print catalogs that included some trivia and cartoons. I would probably prefer to use some of the "MAD" magazine features rather than any other mainstream catalogs as framework for design." -Venkataraman, Staff Scientist, North America "Amazon: the online catalogue is vibrant and very eye-catching as well as being extremely user friendly. A few amusing scientific quotes and cartoons at the front and a few throughout would be entertaining as well. " -Danielle, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Pottery Barn, the way product is presented in their environment, the illustration and the way the product come to life" -Gil, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Pottery Barn Kids would inspire me most. Products sold at Pottery Barn Kids are just cute, beautiful, useful, and safe, and this is exactly what science is all about and, thus, what we need the life sciences catalogs for." -Wim, Staff Scientist, North America "Ambion might use tha Starbuck's logo and advertise "Turbo-DNAse on caffeine"" -Katherine, Staff Scientist, North America "Simple not too fancy, but have protocol and troubleshooting index." -Seema, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Pottery Barn- everything is neatly organized and yes, color coordinated which makes things not only more pleasing to look at but also easier to follow. IKEA- things are organized by theme AND are color coordinated AND organized by style" -Sheri, Staff Scientist, North America "Peterman. Interesting factoids related to specific methods - especially if a little racy or gossipy attract scientists." -Brian, Principal Investigator, North America "Applied Biosystems for allowing us to manage shopping basket, order history & discount/promotion, etc. on-line." -Weihua, Staff Scientist, North America "Patagonia has a great catalog, with stories and features that make it worth reading even if you're not in the market for a new fleece sweater! I can see NEB or Stratagene with a feature in their catalog on a postdoc using their enzymes for some cutting edge research. The story has to stand on its own, though. Not just BUY BUY BUY! That's what makes Patagonia work." -Chris, Staff Scientist, North America "A site I really like for computer and technology related items is newegg.com. It has a very intuitive interface; it's easy to find products by name, category and functionality. It gives a description, pictures, and related information as well as customer feedback/forum opportunity as well (this might be a really useful feature for scientists trying to determine if this is the right product for their application as well as a good source of feedback for the vendor). I think it would make biotech and related products easier to find, research and determine applicability to your application if more companies’ would use a format similar to newegg.com. Take a look, its a really well thought out and presented website." -Roy, Principal Investigator, North America "Williams-Sonoma - shows all the products in an appealing light - actually gives you real recipes (so these could be "protocols as an example" or "applications as an example" highlighted in a separate box). Also shows you what is new. They do a great job of selling their products even though they are quite high-end - they are sort of the Martha Stewart of the catalog biz. So a scientific catalog could be like that - showing how their products could actually be used in an appealing way." -Randy, Staff Scientist, North America "Pottery barn as they are pretty consistent with the life sciences products" -Nagina, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Does it really have to be a box that I am thinking outside of?" -Ray, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "For print I would use Readers Digest because it is so consitant and uniform in the way things are ordered and presented." -Ryan, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Restriction enzyme / NEB" -Chang, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia "Pottery Barn - I would use the illustrations of products in use - Such as, a scientist using the product that is being sold. Many times I have seen an item listed and unsure of what it is. Or if a picture is shown, sometimes it still isn't clear how this might be useful to myself. So, using the ideas from Pottery Barn, I would create 'scenes' of related products together in use." -Matthew, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Cabela's, since this is a catalog that I frequently look at, am familiar with, and in which things are organized in a way that makes them easy to locate (by discipline). The Cabela's catalog also shows a picture of every item with a detailed description of its uses/advantages along with the price of the item." -Todd, Laboratory Technician, North America "The catalog that might inspire me is the catalog with lowest prices and the good quality of products " -Anna, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Abercrombie and Fitch, because it gets your attention and generates controversy." -Alex, Principal Investigator, North America "Print catalogs are necessary for the inspiration. Why! Being a consultant I do not have to spend all my time downloading information regarding the products. What I need is pages for information to arrive at my conclusions / recommendations being a consultant" -Subba Rao, Staff Scientist, Asia "JC Penny: customer is tempted to look in the pages inside for the 'surprise' offers" -Sushil, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Trader Joe's: They present their products as unique and high quality but still a value. They also use humor effectively." -Michael, Principal Investigator, North America "The IKEA catalog (be it in print or online) with it's eye-catching layout and photography, ease of use, and supply of relevant information inspires and tempts me to make changes... even when I wasn't planning on redecorating. " -Tansy, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "JC Penny. Because: It is straight forward, sexy design but yet, you know what you are looking for and it's there, obvious no misleading path to get the info!" -Sylvain, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "eBAY - I think their search engines and the auction principle are a good way to go for eBusiness, Nextag - direct price comparison by pulling from different vendors, Overstock - Why not give vendors the opportunity to manage their stockrooms more dynamically, But definitely ONLINE!" -H. Peter, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Victoria Secrets! Uhh Outstanding articles uh yeah thats it the articles." -Eric, Staff Scientist, North America "Amazon's catalog is very easy to use. It compares products, prices, gives enough technical information and includes user's reviews!" -Jiannis, Principal Investigator, Europe "Patagonia because research is an extreme adventure! " -Miriam, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Patagonia, images of nature will always capture the attention of most scientists." -Adolfo, Staff Scientist, Europe "Pottery Barn catalogs are very visually pleasing. While this format would work well for hardware items (e.g. centrifuges, flasks, freezers, etc.) I am not sure how well it would work for reagents. Also, these catalogs are not necessarily sorted by a category, so it would be interesting to to see how the scientific catalog would work in this context." -Bernardo, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Patagonia - I would like to hear lab stories. It was really late the night before an important lab meeting. I had not analyzed my clones yet. Good thing I had the..... This product really saved the day!" -Mark, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "i would model it after amith and noble who sell blinds. They offer support on how to measure and fit. They also offer samples to be sure you match your materials. they are very helpful and offer a lot of resources" -Paula, Other, North America "ABCAM- Mr. Shankar Datta, KOLKATTA" -Dipshikha, Professor/Teacher, Asia "I think print catalogs should become a device that you sift through in your "leisure" time in the lab (you know, waiting for a gel to run or a wash to finish). Rather than something you turn to for specific information (or maybe in addition to that), they can be something you leaf through and explore to get new ideas for experiments or new products to augment your own experiments. These would have the barest information along with web addresses to fill you in on the details. It would be visually appealing with just enough info to let you know if each product or system might work for you. In some cases, this just wouldn't work, for example, the Sigma catalog is great just the way it is. You want to a chemical, and you go right to it, but for more complex offerings across many disciplines, I think the print catalog can augment the web-based information. It should also feature personalities, i.e. people who have used and benefited from an approach or product outlined in a catalog. In a nutshell: Personal, Visually appealing, and a Gateway for exploration on the web." -Eric, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Lego catalogue -visually appealing and informative!" -Sally, Principal Investigator, Europe "USB Memory stick catalogs that can be re-cycled and updated " -Gary, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Whole Earth Catalog...B-)" -Ed, Professor/Teacher, Africa "The main difference between a domestic catalog and scientific catalog is the number of pictures and having people in the pictures, I would like to see that increase in scientific catalogs." -Judit, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Ikea catalog is great: easy to use, lots of pictures showing how your house will look like, the program to designing your kitchen. Imagine a program to create your own protocol using the products of the company (you could select it from a list), print it out and start working!" -Belen, Professor/Teacher, Europe "It might be fun to browse by photo (or clipart) to find a product of interest. So the way I would envision it, there would be an initial set of pictures (captioned) that would help direct you to the general field of reagents/supplies (e.g. DNA (see the double helix), or FACS reagents (see the FACS plot). Then, from there, the next set of pictures would offer a submenu of choices within that group of supplies. On the side of the page would be a recently ordered section, tailored to the customer. And an additional section would highlight items with current special offers. Lots of color, lots of easy to see things." -Vivian, Staff Scientist, North America "The first think to do is to turn it simple to use. Logins required are the worst thinking when you need a fast result. I have a lot of logins and password to reminder and to do a registration and store one more set of data that I rarely use is dreadful. Sometimes I simple stop to try to search the on-line catalog and phone to the sales rep, is more simple and easy. If you want to customize your page, the user should choose to do it or not. I prefer to do not. A beautiful presentation is preferred but the most import point inside a catalog is the information concerned. A beautiful but an ordinary one is unpractical and uninformative being the worst marketing for a company. The use of a lot of plug-ins, pop-up windows and heavy movies are disgusting. A simple and informative is preferred. The main reasons to look for inside a catalog (printed or on-line) are the necessity for specific information. I normally search for protocols, specifications (concentration, number of samples, recognition site, etc) and use guide. It seems to be simple, but normally is so difficult to find that I prefer to phone to my sales reps. The objective of a catalog should be inform but normally is put in second priority in order to do marketing of the company. You need to keep in mind that the best marketing is the competency of a company and the quality of products and service (in this case inform about the products in a easy way). The objective of a catalog should be inform but normally is put in second priority in order to do marketing of the company. You need to keep in mind that the best marketing is the competency of a company and the quality of products and service (in this case inform about the products in a easy way). So simple to describe, but so hard to find." -Pedro, Staff Scientist, Central/South America "A recycled catalog" -Laurent, Principal Investigator, Europe "not oriental trading, if you follow their distribution, my wife is a public educator and they send her about 4 per month and they fill up our mailbox " -Ronald, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "The White Company. The clear well organized catalogue allows you to move through the process from start to end in a logical manner with products that go together grouped together" -Jonathan, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Without naming a specific catalog, I would seek support from an architect/designer. Aesthetically, many catalogs could be improved enormously, simply by providing the eyes of the scientists’ things they do not see daily. Science is an art, why not present and sell the it's tools in an art-like way." -Andreas, Principal Investigator, Europe "As long as there is a search box that you can put anything in to gain information, I can't see there being a problem. I do prefer the dorothy perkins web site as index is down the left hand side at all times to refer back to" -Dawn, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Fermentas catalogue is simple, easy to use and presents funny photographs of some products." -Agnieszka, Staff Scientist, Europe "BIORAD CATALOG HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST DESCRIPTIVE ONES ALONG WITH THAT OF SANTA CRUZ HOWEVER THE DISADVANTAGE IS PRICE LIST IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE CATALOG IT WOULD BE REALLY HANDY SOMETIMES TO SEE THE BUDGET ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRODUCT OF CHOICE AND SAVES ALOT OF TIME." -Gaganjot, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia "I would go with Amazon.com as the model. Here are some reasons for my choice: 1. They are very good at categorizing products, which makes it easy to search for similar products. 2. They have a system that remembers the purchases you make and makes helpful suggestions. 3. The ordering process is very easy. 4. Each product has a thorough description. 5. They have lists of top selling products, which may give ideas of what are products of high use." -Max, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Harriet Carter catalog for senior scientists!" -Paul, Principal Investigator, North America "I like Patagonia catalog since it organizes their product by function and activity. Description of the product is good and the catalog is fun to browse." -Tae Hoon, Professor/Teacher, North America "I feel Invitrogen has been doing good with catalogs. But at the end of the day it would be nice if there is a comparison shown among the old and the new products in a graphical style, the pros and the cons. " -Prashanth, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "A superior life sciences catalog would show how a product may be used in context of a larger workflow or process; ideally, it would also show complementary technologies." -John, Laboratory Technician, North America "J.Crew--like it or not, a (male) buyer's decision is easier if the product is used by a good-looking, well-dressed women. " -Alexander, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "As I am in Europe I might have different ones then those in the list, and maybe not so well known for US. I think maybe the Ebay kind of design could be an idea? " -Nancy, Staff Scientist, Europe "Well, in my opinion, most of the traditional mainstream catalogs are mostly outdated. I we are to follow a model for the future, I would choose a dynamic online shop as amazon.com" -German, Professor/Teacher, Europe "Definitely Pottery Barn -- prices are good, products are of high value and the results are clear -- picture of nice homes." -Enal, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Water Quality for agriculture management" -Chingiz, Staff Scientist, Africa "Car catalogue - overall view, together with pictures of specific features which are not included in standard (base price), and which are so costly that you "never" buy it, because "from outside there is no difference"." -Radovan, Professor/Teacher, Europe "LLBean catalog has the same effect" -Colette, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Nice and neat - visual appeal of the IKEA catalogs..." -Nagavalli S., Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "I don't care to mention details. The idea is so good I want to take the opportunity to implement the application myself... =-)" -Sean, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Apple Computer" -Joahnnes, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "It is the future and a fascinating application." -Vincenzo, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Abercrombie & Fitch. Nudity sells..." -Seth, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "LL Bean environmentally friendly" -John, Staff Scientist, North America "Consider what puts people off buying a product i.e. catalogues that are full of junk such as smiling faces and pictures/information not directly related to the products." -David, Principal Investigator, Europe "Yuk. The only thing I would like transfered from such commercial catalogues is the multiview pictures of the product. Otherwise, please no more hype than necessary. No testimonials, just publications with links if need be. I much prefer the format of Abcam with the Amazon-like user ratings, a little like a discussion forum." -Heather, Principal Investigator, Europe "I am most impressed with Amazon's online catalog, search engine, and recommendations feature. However, I'm not sure that recommendations are necesarily what I am looking for in a scientific catalog- I almost always want to use the exact same supplies from experiment to experiment. The Burpee online catalog remembers my previous orders and lets me easily place similar orders from year to year. That WOULD be a useful feature." -Nirah, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Probably I'll take inspiration from Ikea. The first BECAUSE is because both catalogs (print and online) are centered on PRODUCTs and not on PRODUCTs TO BE SOLD. The second BECAUSE, that I feel more important, is because to buy something to ikea doesn't mean to need also to buy other stuff exclusively from ikea. Each ikea product is STAND-ALONE. Scientists are Experimenters, so probably they indulge in buying new kits. Anyway, they doesn't love to buy a proprietary kit when such kit necessarily need also a proprietary machine to work." -Gianpaolo, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "The ones that have pictures of their staff wearing the company's clothes with funny captions and a brief description of each person" -Elizabeth, Principal Investigator, Australasia/Pacific "Honestly, if i see one of these catalogues you are mentioning above, I wouldn't know what they were standing for anyway… And anyway, it is a bad idea to steal someone else’s design concept; Also, how could a catalogue for pottery barn EVER be the standard of design in a science catalogue, I mean, really, pottery barn sells furniture, I want to buy life science products; I really really don't care what color my Eppendorf tube has or whether my electrophoresis kit matches in style with my protein quantification kit; This is a really really DUMB suggestion, and if i ever see a catalogue that looks like something else but a catalogue for science products, it will sure PREVENT me from buying there." -Verena, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Pottery Barn and Lands End would inspire me the most because of their overall aesthetic appeal. The color photography captures your eye and makes you want to read about the product. The pictures often include accessories that will "go with" the main product, which leads you to look further at these additional products. There is often a detailed description and pricing right in front of you and you don't have to go searching in the back for prices; it's right there. The beauty of the layout captures your eye and the description let's you know exactly what you will get and for what price. No surprises!" -Alison, Staff Scientist, North America "L.L. Bean - clothing. They have excellent photographs of all options on all items along with useful product descriptions. There are never any surprises." -Paul M., Principal Investigator, North America "Nova Naturals They have beautiful pictures as well as explanations of products and how products can be used together." -Simone, Staff Scientist, North America "A very nice catalogue was the General Catalogue 2005-2007 from AppliChem. It has all-important information (price, formula, storage, safety & hazards, solubility, hints, references, information on where to find related products, etc.) closely together in a brief and informative way. Triggers you to look up information on compounds even when they were bought from another provider. As you use it more frequently than catalogues from other providers this is the first supplier you tend to purchase from. " -Ulrich, Staff Scientist, Europe "Take a catalog with a highly scientific background; make references to scientific publications." -Andreas, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "The catalog from Abercrombie and Finch. Except instead of just young half dressed beautiful people, I would fill it with half dressed Scientists also. Nothing would be better to entice people to science than a pretty girl wearing a lab coat and nothing else. Hmm, I just had a new idea for Pippette tips." -Rob, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Cross reactivates for anti human mAbs against other non human primates?" -Makoto, Post Doctoral Fellow, Asia "Victoria's Secret. I think you know why. Because of the extensive MSDS and technical protocol sections." -Dave, Laboratory Technician, North America "The Argos catalogue - gives picture, brief description, item reference no., quantity/size and price in an easy to use alphabetized format." -Hilton, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "The old "Big Book" from JCPenney (I think). It had everything listed according to the person the product was meant for. There was a woman's section, a men's section, a kitchen section, a toy section, etc. I think this would be useful for scientists too. For example, a cell biologist would need certain reagents but wouldn't care about the same things an immunologist would. " -Sarah, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "The old-time Sears catalog. It gave you all the information you needed to determine if you wanted to buy something, including a picture and the prices, was easy to navigate through, had things grouped by rational categories, and was issued every year." -Carole, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Fisher Scientific should style their catalog after Penzey's spices." -Anthony, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "GQ- I would have gorgeous models holding and/or using the products. At least it would be visually appealing." -Barbara, Principal Investigator, North America "I look at catalogs only when I have a specific need. If I were to browse a catalog, it should have an artistic look, so the design concept should be patterned after catalogs produced by museums. Basically, a pleasing catalog should have big pictures of products, with clear descriptions and prices beside each picture. No ambiguities regarding what the product is or what it costs or how to buy it." -Marilyn, Principal Investigator, North America "Peppers. They present the necessary info and are easy to use." -William, Staff Scientist, North America "IKEA, because you remember their names of products very easily." -Linda, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Would always prefer the one's with a "sober-corporate-appeal". Many-a-time, people tend to pick up 'whacko-kinda-designs'. Whacko designs might catch the attention of the user for an instant; but when these catalogs are used for long time, such designs tend to be irksome and many put-off the user..." -Chetan Datta, Professor/Teacher, Asia "Williams-Sonoma because they include recipes!" -Diane, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "The IKEA catalogue of course... because it has these nice pictures of products in their "natural environment" - i.e. furniture + accessories from different catalogue categories in one picture, with a bottom line explaining why they go together so well. In lab language, picture would e.g. show centrifuge, spin columns, tube racks etc all designed to give a nice overall design :-)" -Dirk, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Harley Davidson - The sight of some serious heavy metal is always interesting!" -Patrick, Professor/Teacher, North America "I think that using colorful eye-catching photos and wording would enhance catalogs. This, however, should not be too gaudy as to distract from the search for the product or make the catalog too hefty! Time saving products should be hightlighted in the catalog." -Jayne, Professor/Teacher, North America "Victorias secret.....who doesn’t browse through it?.....its true, and would get attention." -Gregory, Staff Scientist, North America "I would definitely use the concept of streaming pictures at the bottom of the Pottery Barn Home page to advertise the company's most innovative products and other products that either new or that most people might not have heard about. I always helps to put an image of the products that might have revolutionized research (this gives the customers the confidence that they dealing with a reputable company or a cut above the rest. Shop online is a very good concept although this has to be supported by a personnel who are physically present to process orders and make the process efficient. I mean let's face it if one company doesn't deliver nowadays you just go to the next one and you get relatively the same quality so it's in the company's best interest to be up to date and act fast. Prices should be updated as and when the need arises. Using the shop online availability should be linked to selection of products (gray any products that are out of stock). A database with related publications hould also be maintained so that new customers can acquaint themselves with the usefulness of a product." -Joseph, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Africa "Abercormbie and Fitch- because the models are eye-catching." -Jackie, Laboratory Technician, North America "Don’t know. It is not my work. An specialist should find out the most interesting catalog design. " -Ildefonso Marcelo, Post Doctoral Fellow, Central/South America "Penzey's is great; product descriptions, pictures, pricing, and recipes (ie protocols)." -Leslie, Laboratory Technician, North America "A VINTAGE JC PENNY CATALOG (FROM THE 80's) IT WAS A "SHOW OFF" TIME, NOTHING WAS "TOO MUCH"" -Mathias, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Amazon because it is easy to search and purchase" -Richard, Professor/Teacher, North America "I would go with pottery barn catalog. Making pottery takes innovation in design and involves a lot of effort. The same skills are needed for a successful experiment. so interesting designs on the catalogs might be attractive to the scientific community" -Narasimha Rao, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "No pretty girl´s/boy´s images. Lab-derived rustic images would be the best." -Alexander, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "The 1970's JCPenny catalog that shows the styles of the age. Kind of a retro feel. The why is because I like it!" -Gary, Staff Scientist, North America "I would choose the Ikea catalog, the most reading catalog. Easy to find your product, lot of colors, an index, found online too. With many pictures and descriptions." -Jean-Luc, Principal Investigator, Europe "I don't know much about mainstream catalogs, so I can't compare them. Sorry." -Alexander A., Principal Investigator, Europe "Don't care who you emulate, just make it FAST (Invitrogen sucks - slow as a turtle), show me the list prices WITHOUT logging in (BioRad sucks for this!), have category and related items (Novagen is great for this), tech info (Sigma is great, invitrogen is getting better but still sucks 'cause they're so slow, NEB Strategene Clonetech Novagen all rule). ps print catalogs suck if they're just an excuse for sales reps to harass me." -M., Staff Scientist, North America "Food and cookery - aren’t all scientists hidden chefs?" -Renate, Principal Investigator, Europe "JC Penney's motto: "It's all inside" applied to an online website. A big banner on the home page states "Looking for life science answers: It's all inside." -Renee, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Oriental Trading Company- They have a lot of products on each page,so the catalog isn't huge and it is divided into different "topic" sections. Each product has a picture and enough information so that you know exactly what you are going to get and how much it will cost you. " -Kelli, Staff Scientist, North America "LL Bean, the format is easy to follow and the descriptors for the merchandise are quite good." -Owen, Professor/Teacher, North America "JC Penny since they are more lively." -Vaishali, Principal Investigator, Asia "A concise but appealing catalog! More useful products for now: specialized micropipettes!!!" -Anastasia, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "I am preferring all products from Agilent, Waters, Bioscince" -Nikola, Principal Investigator, Europe "Ikea. They could highlight simplicity in design and function. Also, they could show some uber cool ways to organize lab benches and offices with some funky style mixed in. Something like 60s retro funk meets functional organized molecular biology lab (even with some fake scientists dressed in very hip fashion)." -Meredith, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "I like the LL Bean catalog because it is recognizable. They could use the same font as the "Bean" logo. Also, they usually have cute puppies in it!" -Julie, Staff Scientist, North America "Sierra Trading Post, online it says if a product size/style is running low, print has great pictures, descriptions, and sizing recommendations. Not too crowded visually. Print is organized into logical sections. New catalogs titled by product type (ie Women's or Adventure), sale name, or season, online you can search by brand, product #, keywords, or browse by category, even specifying categories in sales/specials. Can also select to view a catalog online to find your product's availability, Very easy to use, plus live chat help -- huge bonus" -Katie, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "A combination of Oriental Trading Company and JC Penny. I my opinion most people like to see products in different picture sizes. For example, most people order new products, but are not necessary familiar with technologies. Therefore, they need to see the products in different angle view for computer plug compatibility (mass spectroscopy), for appropriate tube size (PCR machines), etc. Like these company catalogs, biotech and pharma companies can adopt a similar approach to represent at best an instrument that costs a lot and it worth the price and the sale to receive from companies this kind of advertising." -Benoit, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "LL Bean. Hugely successful and fun." -John, Staff Scientist, North America "The Pottery Barn catalog design concept being the simplest and most effective way. " -Anjali, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "I will think about a digital catalog, not in the sense of a internet catalog, but a touching screen catalog where there is all the information a customer needs and more. It should be enough touching the screen with a pen to find an item or draw a sub-structure to find al the chemical reagents that fit the request. No more paper, only a digital catalog (like the digital book)." -Guido, Department Head, Europe "Oriental trading company; a shocking and attentive to the customer whom catch up the ideas of new products." -Esther, Staff Scientist, North America "Victoria Secrets. Even if you don't want the product, you still find a need to research the possibilities. " -Thomas, Professor/Teacher, North America "Think different! I detest mail order catalogs - we get about 15-25 PER DAY! Can't stand them!" -Sandy, Staff Scientist, North America "I would inspire to the Sigma-Aldrich catalog and would add a well working search tool (similar to the Google system)" -Antonio, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "I'd go back to the old fashioned catalogs that had a lot more narrative than pictures. Pictures are great, but most of the time, the catalog does not tell me WHY I might want to pick one related product over another. I'd like to see more introductory guides in the various subsections." -Michelle, Laboratory Technician, North America "J. Crew's catalog is inspiring because it is simple, concise and to the point. For example, the "Exclusives" they have in various sections such as J.Crew's Cashmere wear are eye grabbing." -Kesh, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "In my opinion, an ideal catalog may contain a description of the product with a picture, price, application, full protocol with references, storage conditions including safety sheet, availability, list of related products with their applications, advantages of the product compared to same product from different manufacturers. Orders placement forms should also be designed in the easiest way. Example of good catalog: Amazon.com " -Wassim, Professor/Teacher, Asia "It would be most helpful to have an online "biocompare catalog", which (for example) compares ELISA kits for detectecting a specific human protein from several companies. The information I would like to see for each company that produces the products includes a picture of product, description of item, format of kit, information on limits of detection (or sensitivity), price, technical help contact information, alternative antibody choices (formats) and information on antibodiy affinity for the particular antigen (, and directions for quantitating accurate and reproducible results. I would offer a clip out box -- although you need a stamp to claim your special. Better yet, a check box on a web page that issues a "special offer" of the week (half-price trial kits or "buy 2 kits, get 3rd free" offers)" -Andrew, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Apple and the MAC lines - visual product driven images that are simplistic and catchy" -Ri-Chee, Staff Scientist, North America "Victoria's secret - Let there be some spice in your research! " -Michel, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Amzon.com - I like their on-line catalogue because it has reviews/comments from others, lists what else I might be interested in based on what I am looking at, and often has extra information on the thing I am looking at (Look-inside option for books etc)" -Sean, Principal Investigator, North America "Apple, frontgate, oldnavy, nespresso" -Jean-Louis, Principal Investigator, Europe "The REI catalog because research is an adventure." -David, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "L.L. Bean. Shows products in action and usefulness." -Mark, Staff Scientist, North America "Land's End - I like their clothes, and they have a good reputation for quality." -David, Professor/Teacher, Europe "In addition to the normal, serious, once-a-year catalogs, it might be fun to get a periodic catalog that is a little more lighthearted. Maybe something like Trader Joe's "Fearless Flyer," which is a grocery store circular, in which the general idea is that they're traveling around the world getting interesting foods to sell. Maybe something like that, where some of the most popular, inexpensive life science items are featured, with vignettes of people who use them, in order to get customers to try new products." -Michael, Staff Scientist, North America "Nike - the web site is interactive and visual, and allows the customer to design their own pair of shoes pretty easily." -Jamie, Principal Investigator, North America "The catalogue would show a good picture of the product as well as a useful description of size and it's function and any other linking product that might be useful, for example, if you are ordering eppendorf tubes, maybe a link to products such as an eppendorf tube rack, an eppendorf storage box and an eppendorf centrifuge." -Kirsten, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "The catalogs I love to get and read are: Crutchfields...electronics for sale, but a lot of easy, fast reading pieces on the latest stuff and what's in store for the future. Also, they introduce their great tech support staff. Home Bistro: great photos of luscious food and how they could be served. Since I have horses, I love my horsey catalogs filled with photos of the staff doing the things they, and I, love, riding! The staff model the clothes and staff horses model the tack! The catalogs I like best are sport-specific. I don't want to see western/cowboy stuff in my jumper catalog...!" -Lori, Principal Investigator, North America "Promega-MOlecular Biology kits and reagents" -Soorej, Post Doctoral Fellow, Asia "The Ikea catalogue would most inspire me because it displays how the furniture can be arranged around other pieces of furniture within a room. This concept could be used in the life sciences catalogue by displaying related products within the same discipline in a similar manner. For example, DNA extraction kits could be displayed around DNA analysis kits, instrumentation, consumables, etc." -Neil, Staff Scientist, Europe "For an ONLINE Catalog- it would be fun to be able to interact with a 'product' - click on a button and watch a test run and see the results " -Carolyn, Staff Scientist, North America "Fashion catalogs would inspire me, such as marie claire, vogue etc. They show real people using/ wearing their products advertised. I think it would be really good to see photographs of real scientist using equipment/products that the life science vendor is selling." -Nadya, Staff Scientist, Europe "Sur la Table: Arrange the products according to use. Use colorful attractive pictures and put recipes along side that the products could be used in." -Greg, Staff Scientist, North America "I would to align with the Penzey's Spices Calalog design. In the same way, the spice champs list their products alphabetically and add a few descriptive sentences; I would list chemicals or biologically products and describe them. I literally want to throw some science catalogs across the room, e.g., the SIGMA Life Sciences Catalog that assumes one would automatically know if a particular will appear in the "KITS" or "Molecular Biology" section or perhaps in the chemical section." -Myrna, Staff Scientist, North America "Would be great to have an optional flash-driven IKEA-like environment online catalog (where you can browse and interact with the merchandise in a number of specific "actual use" virtual environments (centered around tasks like protein analysis, from the tissue sample to final results for example.. could have all the reagents, equipment etc "clickable" to open new areas for exploration, and drill-down to more and more specific items to the point of ordering (and have the option to save to "wish-lists" or temp. shopping carts too).. bookmark interesting reagents/equipment.. have immediate information on price, related items, perhaps with a "flash" pop-up/hover sticky that gives options for more information to MSDS, specific C of A's, promotions and links etc. Is a great way to introduce new products as well to show their relative benefit to "standard" ways of doing things (eg: show how much time is saved, and/or the convenience of having single-use pre-measured buffer packets etc). This would be in conjunction with a text-only fast, stripped down search function for item# etc to get information immediately if required (say C of A)." -Terence, Staff Scientist, North America "Lakeland (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/) and Sky Mall (http://www.skymall.com/shopping/homepage.htm?pnr=ING) because they manage to create the need to buy products to solve the problems you didn't know you have! In the same way, kits could be sold aimed at solving problems in the lab that have never bothered us!" -Gillian, Staff Scientist, Africa "As a customers, I'd like to see the interaction online catalog that can give you the option to view the product s as text file or flash. It will be nice to have the product desription/application as a video clip show what that product can do/perform. The 3 D viewing of the items is something great to see before making the decission and buying the products especially the equipment that you haven't had any experience with it." -Nanthawan, Laboratory Technician, North America "Victoria's Secret - REALLY captures scientists’ attention. As long as we're being frivolous" -Dale, Staff Scientist, North America "Homebase catalog - for the DIY style" -Ruta, Professor/Teacher, Europe "Cayman; stunning photography" -Richard, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Australasia/Pacific "I would say Pottery Barn because the product pages would show scientists using the prodcuts and the products that are related to each other. They also show the products separately with the specifications which allows you to see the product be itself or in arrangement with other products. In addition, the pages are visually pleasing." -Michelle, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "I would use the Frontagate simplicity concept, easy to read, nice lettering , good photos. " -Daniel Tavares, Principal Investigator, Europe "Though I prefer to have print catalogs on hand and use them to search for products it becomes difficult. For general laboratory supplies (glassware, instruments, consumables) I always resort to the print catalog as it is usually the one with the best and most descriptive pictures and product info. For chemical reagents, kits, and antibodies/protiens/DNA I prefer online catalogs. It is easier to compare products and do reference searches through the web. Also online catalogs often offer a plethora of protocols, application notes, and reference documents that are invaluable. Having those materials a click away is essential at times for planning out experiments and/or assuring the essentials are available and fully researched. " -Liliana, Staff Scientist, North America "I like Optimize Technologies print catalog (due to the large pictures with extreme detail) as well as Upchurch Scientific's print catalog, because they have their actual staff pictured in their catalog doing funky stuff. It seems to make it more personable. The other one I liked from the past (before Agilent technologies acquired it) was J&W Chromatography. They actually printed recipies from their staff in the catalog pages. I got some really good recipies that I use to this day from that catalog. Things that "humanize" the process in this day and age of automation really stand out to me." -Heather, Staff Scientist, North America "Apple online catalog always catches my attention. The flash images are always well done. There are funny ads that you can click on as well as in depth info on any of the products. The info is well done, the voice overs used are soothing. You can easily get pricing." -Amy, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Patagonia advertising strategy that combines high technology and environmental consciousness should be appealing to scientists." -David, Principal Investigator, Central/South America "Promega. The catalogs are never bulky, and very easy to use." -Lorraine, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Africa "Oriental Trading Company...the way it is laid out with thumbnail pics is easy to see the product. It also would be nice to havr pics w/techs using the product. The pricing wpold be easier to read when under each pic per gross amount." -Anjilene, Laboratory Technician, North America "ToysR'US as science can be and should be as colorful and fun as purchasing kids playthings." -Gary, Principal Investigator, Africa "Pottery Barn. In this company's catalogues, there is a 'set' of items that go to make up a complete look. For example, there will be a picture of a kitchen complete with accessories. Similarly, in a life sciences catalogue, it would be helpful to have related items for a procedure or technique as links in the procedure category. If, for example, we are running a gel electrophoresis procedure and are looking for ready kits, there should be related links to reagents, antibodies, solutions, etc. within the product category so that we can easily assemble items for our entire procedure without wasting too much time." -Gail, Professor/Teacher, North America "Macy's Things are always on sale, but actually they are never really sold at its marked price." -Betty, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Best Buy. It is the one usually I noticed first." -Xiao-Song, Principal Investigator, North America "Random comes from real." -Jun, Staff Scientist, Australasia/Pacific "I would be inspired by the catalog for Gap since it would be very appealing and get people's attention" -Suzy, Professor/Teacher, North America "Oriental Trading Catalog groups all related items and also suggests other similar items that are found on different pages. This type of setup would be ideal for a researcher who is trying to target a specific signaling pathway or find a biological assay. Also would be good for one who has an idea of where he/she should be but is not in the exactly right place in the catalog." -Victoria, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "I would have to say IKEA. It is eye catching, with a clear selling point and prices placed next to the product with its possible use in the given space. Similar concept could be applied to a science bench top." -Dhananjay, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "The perfect catalog, in my opinion, compares a specific product with other similar ones on the market, if that is possible!" -Sorina, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "J. Crew Good design with appealing look." -Yungfeng, Principal Investigator, Asia "Penzey's would spice up any catalog." -Mark, Laboratory Technician, North America "Surely a function like amazon's "users that were interested in this item also looked at..." would be nice. " -Naim, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Invitrogen(Life Science & Mol Bio Products),I think invitrogen catalog and web contents are the most comprehensive and therefore the best amongst the others . GE, Pierce,Sigma ,Abcam ,BioRad are also good ,However they should do lot of surveys to cut short un necessary print catalog to reduce the carbon usage (especially brands like Sigma and Pierce)" -Girish, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Qaigen catalog, because it provided detailed information on the product, their lab results etc." -IFTIKHAR, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia "ToysRus catalog, since really we are all just big kids looking to play with giant chemistry sets." -Heather, Staff Scientist, North America "L.L. Bean. It reminds me of life outside the lab and allows an escape-even if only for a moment." -James, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Use our kits and turn these little cells into beautiful gene expression arrays" -Adrienne, Principal Investigator, North America "My "perfect" catalog should be like a Lonely Planet guide" -Ennio, Staff Scientist, Europe "The catalog which inspire me is the catalog of SIGMA-ALDRICH, because it contains more scientific information on product than any other catalog." -Noureddine, Staff Scientist, Asia "Pottery Barn and Frontgate. The content is visually appealing." -Kimberley, Principal Investigator, North America "The most inspiring for me would have to be the printed KEA catalog. They have a gift for always making you feel like you're the only one who can put all of their individual pieces together, even if all of us that shop at IKEA have the same things! Packaging everything together in the first few pages of the catalog by room is also effective in targeting the reader for each section (ie: a picture of an new IKEA kitchen with product info and a link stating "kitchens:pg. 45-56.")" -Douglas, Staff Scientist, North America "I would use catalogues that indicated that 5% of sales were sent to a charity (a list of non-profits could be specified: Alzheimer's disease foundation, Huntington's disease foundation, American Cancer Society, National Assoc. Research in Schiophrenia and Depression [NARSAD]" -John, Principal Investigator, North America |
|
