WHY, IF IT HAS AN ONLINE CATALOGUE FOR ITS PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, DID WORLD-FAMOUS FURNITURE EMPIRE RELEASE A PAPER VERSION? AND WHY DOES IT HAVE A CIRCULATION OF OVER 200 MILLION COPIES?
Online may be leading the way in the growing advertising market, but big brands such as IKEA, Avon, and Oriflame still recognize the advertising and sales effectiveness of paper catalogues.
IT IS MORE CONVENIENT
Beautifully printed in non-standard formats incorporating sensory marketing or augmented reality technology, catalogues can be enjoyed in the privacy of our home, where we have more time and attention to pore over their contents. We can take our time to examine the offer in detail and better absorb the brand idea before searching for specific products online later when we can focus on additional information such as opinions/reviews or simply compare prices. This is all much easier than browsing the full offer via our smartphone, in short. As an ironic comment on the enduring appeal of its catalogues, IKEA published a film mocking the launch of new mobile devices – touching a new ‘bookbook’ (the name the company gave to the paper catalogue) is as nice as swiping the new iPad screen. Despite the calm humour of their video, IKEA didn’t miss a trick in combining the print and digital worlds by adding augmented reality to the printed catalogue. This allowed the furniture featured in the catalogue to be moved to a model of the interior of the viewer’s own house by means of a special application. The viewer was then only one click away from the website where their product of interest was featured.
BRAND CONSISTENCY ACROSS ALL CHANNELS
Avon is another brand that has its website and e-catalogue from which its products can be ordered, but it certainly doesn’t want to resign from its printed catalogues. Avon consultants may deliver the products and take the payments from clients, but that relationship which is crucial for those sales and deliveries is best built in a pleasant atmosphere over a handy catalogue that can be leafed through and discussed face-to-face. As these Avon and IKEA cases show, when it comes to anything involving a wide choice and personal decisions that require more than an instant’s thought, catalogues have a long way to go before they go out of fashion.