Catalog the Advantages of Catalogs

A recent CNBC.com posting documents how catalogs remain an important retailing tool:

• During 2011, almost 90 million Americans bought an item directly from a paper catalog. 
• J.Crew has over 300 stores, but still mails out 40 million catalogs annually. 
• Another apparel retailer, Express, began mailing out catalogs a year and a half ago. They now say that both a paper catalog and an online catalog work for them, but the paper catalog works better in driving sales. 

     Clearly, paper catalogs are less important than they were decades ago. One of the first items to be jettisoned when Sears and Montgomery Ward hit the financial rough seas was their Big Books.
     In my opinion, the percentage of retail sales made from paper catalogs will decrease over time, accompanying decreases in bricks-and-mortar store sales. Consumers will continue moving toward purchasing online. However, just as there will always be a place for the B&M store in the consumer’s purchasing plans, there will always be a role for the paper catalog.
     Research suggests that paper catalogs are at their best with items where sales benefit from large picture spreads and an abundance of textual description. The pictures can be gaudy, and the textual description fanciful. In fact, that could be for the better.
     A Bloomberg.com posting about Stauer, the print catalog and ecommerce retailer of luxury items, described how to do it. Owner Mike Bisceglia was quoted as saying, “We buy large stones with less clarity but at a better price. Guys like being able to afford a big, beautiful 50-carat ruby necklace.”
     Claiming you paid a good price is itself part of the showing off—even if not to the recipient of the gift. Mr. Bisceglia is also quoted as saying, “There are all different levels of pearls, but 99.9 percent of people can’t tell the difference between a string of pearls that goes for a couple hundred dollars and the thousand-dollar pearls.”
     Give the customer tales to tell about the items. The first words in the story count for a lot. In the Stauer catalog, the description for a jewelry item began, “This story breaks my heart every time….” and the one for a watch kicked off with, “When it comes to symbols that stir the heart, you can't beat the American flag.”
     With compelling illustrations and phrases, a paper catalog could be an essential component in your multichannel marketing strategy.

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Distinguish Show-Offs from Connoisseurs