December hasn’t even started yet and already many of the major retailers have kicked off their festive season marketing campaign with thick, glossy catalogues showcasing all the latest gift ideas and stocking stuffers. Christmas catalogues have a long history and for many consumers, they remain a key tool in making purchasing decisions over this period. This week, we take a look at some of the reasons why catalogue marketing comprises about 60% of the total spend on print advertising in Australia.

Customer connection

No piece of advertising is quite so warmly welcomed by customers as a catalogue. Customers perceive catalogues as a trusted source of information and tend to keep them around for future reference much longer than they would with any other form of print marketing.

Digital link

Catalogues are a fantastic tool if you’re working with an integrated digital and print strategy. The perfect way to communicate with customers offline and garner attention, catalogues work to drive traffic to your digital platforms and help any online campaigns gain additional traction.

Cost

The higher initial outlay of catalogue marketing is often held as a criticism against it. However, this is a rather short-sighted view to take as catalogue marketing has the highest ROI of any print marketing product and studies suggest that as much as 8 out of 10 buyers are converted through catalogue marketing.

Aesthetics and information

Catalogues are a great vehicle to provide detailed information about your products and showcase their aesthetic value with high quality, glossy prints. In this way, the catalogue format transforms your brand image and products into an aesthetic object which customers seek out to appreciate the visuals for their own merit.

Upselling

Catalogues are also a great opportunity to showcase your complete product range in context through cost-effective letterbox distribution , so that the customer can clearly see the links between each product and is inclined to purchase more than they originally intended.