1. The next generation
of cataloging is here
but like any form of retail these
days, it’s constantly evolving.
Consumers have many
options for shopping – not just
in stores, on TV or even by
catalog, but also online and
while mobile by simply using
their smartphones. While all of
these channels may contribute
to a brand’s consumer strategy
and ultimate outreach, plenty
of people are surprised to
find that catalogs even exist
anymore.
Marketers mailed 11.9 billion
catalogs in 2013, according to
the New York City, N.Y.-based
Direct Marketing Association,
and the hefty number marks
the first healthy bump in years.
Back in 2007, total catalog cir-
culation was at its peak
of 19.6 billion, but
the 2008 recession
and its lingering
after-effects forced
catalog companies
to tighten their
mailing lists and wise up
on the number and fre-
quency of their mailings.
“So many times
people will say to me
‘Oh, I guess the catalog indus-
try was killed by the Internet,’
and that seems to be a popular
consumer perception. But my
response is no, it is the best
thing that has happened to
the catalog business since the
invention of the high-speed
printing press,” said Hamilton
Davison, president and execu-
tive director of the Providence,
R.I.-based American Catalog
Mailers Association.
Not only has the old-school
marketing format survived,
but it now plays a crucial role
in the exploding world of e-
commerce. Today, the catalog
is a carrot to dangle in front of
the consumer. It’s no longer
a huge slab of what some
call “products on a page,” but
instead more like a fashion
magazine with
engaging content, stories,
lifestyle images and plenty of
oversized photos.
The ultimate hope is that
shoppers will mark pages they
like and then either go online
or head to the store to make the
purchase.
Catalogs are quite a phenome-
non, according to Lois Brayfield,
CEO of Mission, Kan.-based
J.Schmid & Associates, a 30-
year veteran of direct marketing
and the catalog industry who
has worked with Brookstone,
Ikea and Sears Canada.
“The role of the catalog has
changed, but it is still a power-
ful advertising tool,” she said.
“Traditional catalogers, let’s
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You’ve Got Mail
C ata l o g s , i f d o n e r i g h t, a r e pa g e t u r n e r s , b u i l d a b r a n d a n d p r o m p t a
p u r c h a s e . H e r e ’ s h o w t h e y ’ r e fa r i n g i n a w o r l d t h at h a s g o n e W e b w i l d .
c h a n n e l c h a n g e r s
by Jamie Sorcher
2. say Pottery Barn before they
had retail stores, have a busi-
ness model that has absolutely
changed. Previously, a catalog
was seen as a store in and of
itself – as a channel – and it
really isn’t a distinct channel so
much anymore as it is a call to
action. That is where the power
lies. It is a proactive tap on the
shoulder.”
As Brayfield and other
industry experts acknowl-
edge, a physical store requires
a customer to get in the car
and drive to the location. If a
customer shops online, they
have to direct themselves to a
specific website.
“A catalog taps you on the
shoulder and engages you into
the brand in a tactile way,”
Brayfield said. “You can touch
it; you can browse it. Even
though there are still a large
amount of people who will call
on the phone, we’re finding
that 65 to 70% of the people get
a catalog, are reminded of the
brand, are engaged in some
way and then go online or go
to the store, and then place the
order or purchase the product.”
Closing with a click
How consumers ultimately
make the purchase varies,
industry sources agreed, but no
one disputed the importance of
the virtual store these days.
“Retailers absolutely have
to have a presence online,”
Brayfield said. “You’ve heard
the term consumers are
in control. They really are.
Consumers choose where
they want to shop, when they
want to shop and at the price
they want. We have found that
consumers that shop both in
the retail store and online have
a lifetime value that is almost
double. These consumers are
extremely profitable. A lot of
times a company will have
brand confusion about losing
people at their stores or moving
people online, but if consumers
go online the chances of them
going to the store grow expo-
Williams-
Sonoma Inc.
Founded: 1956
Headquarters: San Francisco
Background: Parent company
to seven brands with catalogs
including Williams-Sonoma
Home, Pottery Barn and West
Elm
Store Count: Williams-So-
noma: 248; Pottery Barn: 195;
West Elm: 58
Trivia: Williams-Sonoma re-
portedly maintains a database
of 2,000 privately owned houses that serve as locations for its
catalog photo shoots. More than half the company’s marketing
budget goes to catalog production and mailing.
Restoration Hardware
Founded: 1979
Headquarters: Corte Madera, Calif.
Background: Restoration Hardware decreased its number of physical stores and reinvigorated
them as “galleries” with cafes, art installations and wine bars. Customers interested in finding
more products can go online or peruse catalogs while in the store.
Trivia: Company is rolling out 13 giant source books this year for its products.
Frontgate
Founded: 1991
Headquarters: West Chester, Ohio
The administrative offices are part of this facility along with an
860,000-sq.-ft. national distribution center, call center and Front-
gate Outlet Center.
Background: Part of Cornerstone Brands Inc. (CBI), which
includes home and lifestyle brands Ballard Designs, Chasing
Fireflies, Garnet Hill, Grandin Road, Improvements and Travel
Smith. Frontgate is a $3.3 billion interactive multi-channel
retailer.
Trivia: In September 1991, Frontgate mailed its first catalog to
300,000 households. This year, the company will circulate 83
million catalogs.
Design Within Reach
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Stamford, Conn.
Background: Founder Rob Forbes bought 20 containers of product, mailed out a catalog and
waited for the phone to ring. Today there are 37 store locations in the United States.
Trivia: The company is “passionate about design.” Linger through its “look books” for inspiration.
L.L. Bean
Founded: 1912
Headquarters: Freeport, Maine
Background: In 2013, L.L. Bean produced more than 50 separate catalog titles that were dis-
tributed to customers in all 50 states and over 170 countries. In 2013, more than 10.6 million
customer contacts were received, with over 128,000 contacts received on a single day.
Trivia: In July 2000, L.L. Bean extended its retail store presence beyond Maine for the first time
when it opened a store in McLean, Va. Today, the company operates 19 stores outside of Maine
and plans further retail expansion in the upcoming years.
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To smartphones and
beyond
Smartphone shopping with
all of the apps is another area
that is somewhat new to the
mix and still evolving.
“Today, the Web represents
our biggest revenue center,
with over 50% of our Web
traffic growth being generated
by mobile devices, which repre-
sents a very different dynamic
than traditional Web traffic,”
said L.L. Bean’s McKeever.
“The sharing of information
and experiences among cus-
tomers on the Web is redefin-
ing the shopping experience
across all channels.”
The product categories that
tend to be the most successful
for L.L.Bean across all chan-
nels include a wide variety
of outdoor gear, apparel and
outerwear, the company’s
iconic Maine-made Bean Boots,
men’s and women’s apparel,
the Maine-made Boat and Tote
Bags, footwear and more. “Our
all-weather outdoor furniture
is very popular and, best of all,
it’s made from recycled milk
containers,” McKeever said.
Ikea has also evolved its out-
reach to keep up with today’s
consumers. “We continue to
innovate the catalog to create
an experience that’s consis-
tent with how consumers
are consuming media today,”
Whitehawk said. “In addition
to a printed catalog, consum-
ers can also access a digital
version of the catalog online or
via tablets and mobile phones
with the Ikea catalog app. And
the digital development has
also allowed for the introduc-
tion of new features, like an
interactive app that combines
augmented reality, video
galleries and extra product
information – allowing readers
to really interact and personal-
ize their experience with the
catalog.”
According to Whitehawk,
the 2014 digital Ikea catalog
has been a success so far. “An
estimated 16 million unique
users will visit the digital cata-
log approximately 55 million
times this year,” she said. “The
usage of the extended content
has increased by about 35% – a
significant growth.”
The company’s annual
catalog shows the breadth
of Ikea’s range and features
most of its product catego-
ries, Whitehawk said. “We
typically promote the outdoor
category during the time of
year when most consumers
are in that mindset, which for
many this starts as early as
January! As such, we engage
our customers with other
types of media like e-mail,
homepage banners on our
website, and even through our
digital catalog.”
For a glimpse of the catalog
industry outside the furniture
The sharing of information and
experiences among customers on
the Web is redefining the shopping
experience across all channels
5. casualliving.comJuly 201452
c h a n n e l c h a n g e r s
Continued
world, one only needs to look at
the closely tied fashion world to
see some venerable examples
of cross-channel conversions.
A classic example is cloth-
ing retailer J. Crew. It began
as a mail-order business,
but now has more than 300
stores across the United
States and Canada. The com-
pany still mails out approxi-
mately 40 million catalogs
per year.
In fact, some businesses that
have never published catalogs
before have decided now they
want to be included. Ap-
parel retailer Express has done
direct mail, but then got into
publishing catalogs. Not only
does it show up in a consumer’s
mailbox, but it can be accessed
on social media channels like
Facebook as well.
“Zappos is probably one
of the most predominant
examples,” said the ACMA’s
Davison. “They have moved
into catalogs. Home Shopping
Network, which started as
direct response TV, has moved
to both Internet and catalog.”
What Davison said he found
especially interesting from
consumer research that he
was privy to from a notable
company was the attitude
toward catalogs by those
often-mentioned Millennials.
“One of the surprise findings
that came out of the research
was the 20-somethings and
30-somethings find relevance
in catalogs,” he said. “It is a
lean back experience for the
consumer while the Internet
is a lean forward experience.
It can feel too much like work
where a catalog is a recreation-
al shopping experience.”
Don’t call it junk mail
For those who are commit-
ted to catalogs or those think-
ing it might be time to publish
one, there is no worry that
they’re going the way of the
cassette tape or the typewriter.
“The catalog has some
unique attributes that are
hard to replicate elsewhere,”
Davison said. “The Internet is
great if you know what you’re
looking for, but it’s a lousy
browsing vehicle. You can’t
force me to open your e-mail.
You can’t force me to go to your
website, but you can force me
to devote a third of a second
of mindshare to your catalog
cover as it comes uninvited into
my house as I am sorting my
mail. I am either going to read
it or recycle it. In that third
of a second, the high visual
profile that a catalog has gives
the marketer the ability to tell
the consumer what they’re all
about pictorially in a very rich
and engaging manner.”
Victoria’s Secret, as J.
Schmid’s Brayfield acknowl-
edges, is an example of a
catalog done very well with a
lot of them mailed out – and
frequently. “They wouldn’t do
it if it didn’t work,” she said.
“Gone is the day where you get
a catalog, take a look, select
something, pick up the phone,
and order it. Still, 20% of the
people do that. But here is what
a catalog must do: Disrupt,
delight and drive. It must dis-
rupt the consumer’s life – and
grab attention. Delight them –
engaging customers to be part
of the brand. And it must drive
customers online or drive them
to the store. If a catalog isn’t do-
ing that, it’s junk mail.”
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