On catalog calendar, holidays near

NEW YORK

Open your mailbox anytime these next few weeks, and you’re likely to find Christmas in many shapes and sizes.

At Pier 1, the holidays are all about shimmery grapefruit-sized ornaments in pink and red. Crate & Barrel builds a vision of antiqued candlesticks and jewel-tone glass. L.L. Bean conjures up a roaring fireplace hung with needlepoint Christmas stockings.

Almost as much an annual tradition as “Jingle Bells” and cookie baking, those cheery catalogs seeking to inspire impulsive, spontaneous holiday joy — spending, in other words — are the product of months of forethought, market research and a strong belief in the power of the printed page. Even in an Internet/TiVo/satellite-TV age, a well-planned catalog still can deliver a message in a way no other medium can.

“What the catalog brings to the table is the lifestyle element. It can showcase these great looks that you’ve spent a year putting together in a way that you might not be able to in a store because of space or other constraints,” says Daryle Gibbs, director of trends and product development for home goods retailer Pier 1, which began offering a holiday catalog a year ago.

Catalogs are expected to drive $144.2 billion in sales in 2006, up from $134.3 billion the year before, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group.

With so much at stake, the foundations for this year’s crop of Christmas catalogs were laid in fall 2005, when Harriet Miers, not Nancy Pelosi, was the Washington woman in the spotlight. Hurricanes dominated the headlines, and YouTube wasn’t quite a household name.

That was when Mr. Gibbs started to see pink and red as part of the look for Pier 1’s 2006 Christmas.

Mr. Gibbs and his “trend team” settled on the theme after what is an annual ritual for many retailers. They scour European trade shows for hot new products and hire color consultants to identify customer-appealing palettes. Then they analyze sales data from the most recent holiday to see what worked and how to apply it to the next holiday season.

The result this time: more of the oversized vases and other items Pier 1 customers loved last year, but in combination with the pinks, reds and metallic tones showcased in store windows this year.

By the May or June before Christmas, the catalog department gets the merchandise and starts developing a marketing and layout plan.

“They’ll want to know what the big buys are, the themes and what’s going to anchor the season,” Mr. Gibbs says. “They’ll also supplement and buy products themselves” if they think the catalog needs them. Those items then are available only online or in the catalog.

Mr. Gibbs, who already has completed most of the work for Christmas 2007 and is starting work on spring 2008, says the advance planning is tricky, but retailers know how to hedge their risks.

“What we consider trend is 10 to 15 percent of our assortment. We also have a core color palette that is not influenced by a theme or a fashion. It’s not trendy, it’s just great home furnishings,” he says. “We treat trend as the spice; it sets the mood for the season and draws people in, but as you wander through the store, you start to see that core merchandise.”

Catalogs can bring a mood into the home in an instant, letting consumers envision how those trendy pink and red ornaments might light up their Christmas tree or how nice the more classic dining set that Pier 1 sells year-round would look in their homes. With glossier photos than Web sites can offer, a more polished layout and easy-to-read text, a good catalog can be just plain fun to read.

“One thing you can do with a catalog that you can’t do online is cuddle with it,” says Eugene Fram, a marketing professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business. “Just before you can go to sleep, you can look through it and decide what you’re going to order.”

Of course, a compelling cover is key.

Hammacher Schlemmer, a catalog retailer specializing in high-end novelty items, plans its covers up to half a year in advance. Catalog production also starts several months in advance to allow time for the detailed product descriptions the company says set it apart from its competitors.

One of this year’s holiday covers will feature Zoltar, the classic animatronic fortuneteller found in arcades. Even if no one actually buys the nearly $9,000 item, the company is betting the striking image, which appears on one of its holiday covers, will prompt consumers to browse and buy the rest of the catalog.

“We try to capture the imagination of our customers,” says Fred Berns, Hammacher Schlemmer’s general manager. “We want our covers to draw you in, and we want you to look in the book.”