A fifth of UK-based businesses regard catalogues as out-dated, despite a third of those using them crediting 40% of their overall sales as a direct result of them.
According to a new report, recently released by a direct marketing specialist, one in five businesses believe catalogues to be out-dated, despite those that used catalogues seeing two-fifths of their sales driven via the channel.
The report, put together by direct marketing, design and print specialists Catalogues 4 Business (C4B), questioned more than 300 UK organisations as part of research into corporate marketing strategies. Respondents to the study were drawn from a diverse mix of businesses, both B2B and B2C, which spanned multiple industry sectors.
According to the results of the study, only 5% of businesses plan to implement a catalogue within their marketing strategy over the next 12 months, despite the apparent success of incorporating catalogues as part of the marketing mix. Of the companies polled, 49% believed that they didn’t need a catalogue, despite a fifth (20%) saying that they used a website with e-commerce.
Ian Simpson, managing director of C4B, said: “It’s quite baffling that businesses don’t recognise the benefits that having a catalogue can bring. If you sell products via your website, a catalogue is an excellent additional method to market your product and your brand.”
He continued: “They’re also great tools for networking. Previous analysis of our study revealed networking to be the main driver of sales for 24% of businesses, making it the number one deliverer overall. Combining networking with a catalogue gives you that extra edge and allows you to leave something tangible with a potential client.”
The findings also revealed that a quarter of businesses (24%) believed that the biggest barrier to sales and marketing success was the fact that ‘people were so bombarded with emails that something in the post provided more impact’.
Simpson said: “Everyone is familiar with receiving junk emails, the majority of which end up in a SPAM folder, and even those that don’t often get deleted without being read. The prevalence of direct email marketing means that it’s easy for your message to get lost in the flood. However paper-based marketing provides that physical element, which is harder to ignore. And when it comes to paper-based marketing, catalogues have the highest opening and highest retention rate of any form.”
Simpson concluded: “While businesses might believe that printed marketing material is dead, that’s far from the case. With digital marketing becoming more and more predominant, paper-based marketing offers something different. Not everyone likes trawling through page after page on the Internet. Catalogues have a physical presence and can communicate by the way they feel, smell and unfold in your hands, something that an online equivalent simply doesn’t provide. They also have huge ‘pass through’ potential and a catalogue is often read by several people, with a similar demographic. Catalogue marketing has never gone away and, if anything, its influence is increasing.”
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Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
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