Tactics > marketing
Which is the tail
and which is the dog?
Why you should think of the print catalogue
as a website traffi c driver fi rst and a
standalone sales vehicle second
hen ecommerce
W
arrived on the direct
marketing scene,
cataloguers viewed it as
It’s not enough to
an auxiliary channel. The
simply publish your
print catalogue was the
URL on your catalogue
core business, and any sales generated online
footers; you need to
were considered ancillary.
That may have been the correct
provide readers with
attitude a decade ago, but not anymore,
compelling reasons
says Bill LaPierre, senior vice president
to visit your website.
of list and marketing fi rm Direct Media/ I Want One of Those
Millard. Direct marketers have to realise
does this with an icon
that now the web is the core business, he
indicating products
explained during his ECMOD2009 session
that are demonstrated
“Crucial Techniques for Your Survival
in videos on its site.
That Successful Catalogues Don’t Want
You to Know” in London last month. The
catalogue’s primary purpose is to drive
business to the web, LaPierre says; any sales
that result directly from it are ancillary.
Of course, this is counterintuitive to limited to the product name, the SKU
most multichannel marketers. As a result, number, and the price. Want to learn more?
LaPierre contends, they’re not leveraging Visit the website—and while you’re there,
the unique benefi ts of the internet to their you can see Cabela’s entire, exhaustive
fullest potential and are wasting money product range, read customer reviews,
on less-than-effective catalogue mailings. watch product videos, and more.
“The successful cataloguers we work with Cabela’s still mails its “big book”,
focus on having a website that’s better than complete with detailed product copy, to
their catalogue,” he said. “The successful some of its stalwart customers. But by
cataloguers understand that the web is the analysing and segmenting its customer fi le
cheapest way to acquire a customer.” it has determined which customers are just
Which is not to say LaPierre thinks as likely to order from the smaller traffi c
catalogues should go the way of the Betamax driver as from the more costly traditional
and the eight-track player. Rather, they need catalogue and sends them the cheaper-to-
to be reevaluated as web traffi c drivers fi rst produce version, enabling Cabela’s to cut
and as standalone sales vehicles second. costs without cutting response or sales.
“Instead of mailing a 150-page catalogue,” For this strategy to work, your website
he suggested, “you might mail three 50-page needs to be top-of-the-line. It should
catalogues that are better targeted.” offer alternative search and sort options
LaPierre cited the print catalogue of (for instance, search by size, by colour,
US womenswear merchant Chadwick’s by material; sort by price, by popularity,
as an example. Product copy is virtually by newness), extensive product specs,
nonexistent; the images sell the apparel, customer reviews, effective cross-selling—in
and the callouts of specifi c web features— short, the elements that distinguish the web
customer reviews, the ability to view the as a marketing and sales channel.
looks on models—sell the website. One last caveat, which you no doubt
Another US merchant, outdoor-gear know but which we feel compelled to say
A typical page in the Very magalogue:
seller Cabela’s, produces similar catalogues: anyway: Don’t forge ahead with any huge
product pictures, prices, and SKU
spread after spread of products, with copy changes without testing them fi rst.—SC numbers—all you need to order online.
20
Catalogue e-business www.catalog-biz.com
ceb175.indd 20 7/11/09 13:10:07
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