Brendan Straw: “Want to reach Millennials with your marketing? Use a catalogue”

By Brendan Straw, chief customer officer, Ovato

It’s easy to consider the paper catalogue as a bit of a throw-back. Many see it as an old-school marketing tactic, and one that’s easily ignored. Yet Big W’s recent Snapchat powered AR-enabled catalogue, launched for their Toy-Mania sale, shows that it’s possible to bring fresh digital approaches to a traditionally analogue format.

And there’s good reason to do so: catalogues continue to maintain a special place in Australia’s collective hearts. Recent research by Roy Morgan shows that catalogues are still a highly relevant and impactful marketing tool, with appeal that carries across multiple generations. And sceptics would be surprised to learn that it’s Millennials who – despite being seen as digital natives – are leading the charge when it comes to catalogue consumption (3.2 million readers), ahead of Baby Boomers (3.16 million), with Generation X (3.15 million) not far behind.

An unexpected shopping tool
Roy Morgan’s research also found that catalogues aren’t just reaching more people, they’re having a huge impact when they do. More than half of those who read catalogues find them more useful than other types of advertising and 70 per cent of the 13.4 million people who read catalogues in Australia say that they find them a helpful shopping tool. In an age of declining faith in online platforms, print continues to be seen as a subconscious indicator of authority and trust.

It’s why online giant eBay recently released its first print catalogue in Australia. At the time, Julie Nestor, chief marketing officer at eBay Australia, said: “We wanted to find a way to showcase our fantastic range of products. We know retail catalogues have long been the way Aussie shoppers prefer to browse and purchase the best deals.”

These might be surprising statistics to many, especially considering the shift towards digital marketing. However, the increase in catalogue consumption goes hand in hand with a rise in book sales and Millennials’ love of reading.

A surprising secondary market
According to Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, “catalogue readers are avid consumers of content and close to a third read catalogues cover-to-cover and spend an average of six minutes reading catalogues. An added bonus for advertisers utilising the reach of catalogues is that over a third of catalogue readers share their catalogues with friends and families and over two-fifths have emailed or texted a picture of a product to a friend or family member.”

The digital reach of catalogues through organic sharing is something few marketers consider, but in the age of the smartphone it’s incredibly easy to take a photo of something and upload it to social media or send it directly to a friend. This means your printed marketing is no longer just relegated to the letterbox – it can extend to new audiences in unexpected ways, as the lines between digital and physical consumption blur. Sharing bargains and interesting buys via word-of-mouth provides an unexpected secondary circulation that extends the reach of catalogues even further.

Currently, few would consider this secondary audience to their catalogues. Even fewer are experimenting with ways to push it further, by tailoring creative to be more relevant on social. This could involve playing with how you present product on a page and trialling styles like flat-lays that resonate well on social. And in the age of the influencer, recognisable social talent could be used instead of more traditional models. Other technologies can also be used to boost interest and engagement as with Big W’s recent work; this could extend to creating additional complimentary content online, from recipes to style-guides, that could be accessed by readers with a simple scan.

Turbocharged purchase power
While digital channels are known for their easy-attribution, the conversion power of print-marketing has historically been harder to quantify. This is no longer the case. As the Roy Morgan research shows, catalogues don’t just have an incredible reach. When they land, they have an impact on the reader. Close to half of all people who read catalogues (47 per cent) have made a specific trip to a shop to buy a product after seeing it. Catalogues also often trigger unplanned purchases on expensive items – 20 per cent of consumers who spent “over $1,000 on their most expensive catalogue purchase in an average six months purchased an item they were not intending to buy before they saw it advertised”. These are conversion rates digital can only dream of.

And with increasing access to customer data and trends allowing for a better understanding of your audience, the marriage of digital marketing principles with traditional printing is driving unique opportunities for catalogue design and use. Armed with transactional, locational and behavioural data, it’s now possible to limit distribution to only the households you know will purchase from you, or trial different catalogue designs in different areas to measure the impact on sales. We’ve entered a new era of print, where targeting, segmenting audiences, split-testing and accurate measurement are no longer just the preserve of online marketing.

Myer is one firm that has tried new approaches with this ‘traditional’ format, by delivering a personalised Christmas catalogue to its highest value customers. Using variable printing technology and customer data and insights, the catalogues were made with first name personalisation that appeared on the front and back covers, along with Myer’s Christmas message and details regarding the location of the member’s local store. As a result, the catalogue drove an increase of spending in the campaign period, giving Myer a strong point of difference in the saturated retail market and turbocharging the sales power of its catalogue. It also gave readers more of an excuse to snap and share the catalogue online, extending the reach even further.

Massive reach, high impact
Catalogues continue to deliver results for Australia’s biggest brands, and bringing new, digitally-minded approaches promises to extend their reach and resonance. While digital channels will remain key tactic for many businesses, with so much pulling power over hard to reach demographics, and a whole new world of tools and techniques to take advantage of, marketers who ignore this ‘traditional’ tactic do so at their peril.