Prospectus (advertising)

Prospectus for Pierer's Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , fourth edition 1856, distributed by August Sorge

Brochure from 1906 in the Art Nouveau style of Carl Küster , book and art print shop , Hanover for the low-pressure steam heating of the Fritz Kaeferle company

The (South German and Austrian also “the”) prospectus (v. Latin prospectus “view, view, view”; Latin pro-spicere “look, look out”) is an advertising publication, mostly a print product , but more and more often also digital than E-brochure , in extensive form also a catalog . It mostly contains descriptions of the goods or services of a company or of the company as such. Brochures are primarily used by commercial enterprises, but are also published by public companies and institutions.

Product and image brochure

A distinction is often made between product and image brochures:

In a product brochure , a very specific product, a coherent product series or several different products of a company is usually presented, whereby “product” is generally understood to mean both certain goods or groups of goods, as well as special services (e.g. banking or Insurance products and others, → capital goods marketing ). In product brochures, the prices of the advertised products are usually also mentioned, especially when the "low" price is supposed to act as a highlighted purchase argument. It is common practice to mention prices in mail order catalogs . But the prices are not always mentioned in brochures - either to get potential customers to contact you or to keep open the possibility of submitting individual price offers, for example in capital goods marketing.

In an image brochure , special emphasis is usually placed on the presentation of the company and its philosophy ; In contrast to the product prospectus, it focuses on the company as such. Here, essential aspects of a company's corporate identity play a major role. Image brochures are therefore often more complex and sophisticated than, for example, weekly, monthly or seasonal product brochures. In the case of large companies ( stock corporations , corporations , organizations, etc.), certain parts of the company can also be presented in a separate image brochure. Parties, organizations (for example NGOs ), clubs or associations (along with other media) almost exclusively use the form of the image prospectus for their self-presentation.

The so-called corporate design plays a decisive role in the design of all types of brochures, especially for larger and larger companies . This ensures that the external appearance of a company within its brochures or other publications ( multimedia ) remains constant and thus immediately recognizable.

Brochures are increasingly appearing in digital form (e.g. as a PDF file), mostly parallel to the printed edition, in order to ensure that they are also distributed via digital media.