Catch of the day

William Powell’s customers may have been a little surprised in May to find a catalogue landing on their doormat. For many years, the retailer of sporting guns and shooting accessories had only printed an autumn/winter edition to take advantage of trade during Christmas. This year, however, the company decided to mail a spring edition to better showcase its fishing-tackle section.

Nothing new in that you might think, but William Powell gets top marks for execution; it has clearly been following some best-practice guidelines in its opening spread:

* The managing director’s letter introducing the new catalogue is warm, friendly, and informative.

* There are photos of the William Powell store, plus directions on how to get there.

* Clear how-to-order details and a service guarantee.

* A logical and well laid out table of contents with a photo for each section on page 3.

* An area for William Powell’s top picks for the season including page numbers

* A call to action to shop online.

* Promoting the availability of gift vouchers.

* As it is primarily mailed to raise awareness of the fishing tackle range, page 3 reinforces the message with a dot whack and photo.

Taking everything it has got right into account, one thing continues to niggle—just who, exactly, is Archie?