Comment: Bring back paper-based catalogues
Something disappointing dropped through my letterbox the other week. The renowned curer of salmon, East London-based H. Forman & Son, dispatched a letter announcing that it was celebrating its 25th Anniversary by going digital and scrapping its paper-based catalogue.
I’ve been a buyer of its top-notch smoked salmon and other food stuffs in recent years as a result of leafing through its mouth-watering catalogue in the run up to Christmas. Its appearance has been the nudge I needed to get me onto its website and placing an order. Once it is in my hands then I find the mouth-watering imagery too tempting to resist.
I can understand the company’s reasoning that going online-only “saves paper and it makes sense” as everyone has gone digital. But I can’t help feel it is bad timing as now could be the time for a renaissance in paper-based catalogues. We are in a period when vinyl records and physical books are finding increasing appeal, especially among younger generations. Hence the rising sales of vinyl (albeit from a low base) and the opening of new bookstores.
This scenario has been recognised in the US by clothing brand J. Crew that has re-launched its catalogue after last publishing it in 2017. The return of the publication coincides with the company’s ‘Fall 2024’ campaign. This comeback has been driven by Brendon Babenzien, creative director at J. Crew, who says he has been longing for the return of the catalogue for some time.
“I really like tangible things – vinyl records, books, all those things. The catalogue is this physical thing that really gives a little more gravity to the images and the clothes. And the timing is really good, essentially, because we do live in the digital age. It feels like now’s a really nice time to see something different, and to touch something and flip through it and actually live with it, because digital stuff is so fast. Having things in your personal space that you can refer back to in your own time and at your own pace is really nice,” he explains.
My thoughts exactly. However, this thinking is counter to the prevailing trend in the UK where the catalogue is a rare beast indeed. It has only just been jettisoned by some of the longest-standing purveyors of such printed materials. Freemans ditched its printed catalogue just last year after almost 120 years and it followed the move of Argos that abandoned its big book in 2021 after nearly 50 years in print.
Like pretty much everybody else they’ve gone gung-ho for digital. This widespread manoeuvre surely presents an opportunity for those retailers and brands that make the contra trade of investing in paper-based communications. It can be the ideal vehicle to achieve some marketing cut-through.
At the time of its move Freemans suggested its customers were now taking inspiration from phones and social media rather than from physical catalogues. There’s no doubt social media is a great provider of purchasing cues but there are myriad other sources that provide inspiration and that absolutely includes printed materials such as catalogues.
Much of what passes through social media is incredibly fleeting. It can be viral for its 15 minutes of fame but then the audience is scrolling onto the next new thing. Catalogues represent the antidote to this and rather than being seen as a product of a bygone era they are surely a refreshing alternative that goes against the current grain. There’s something very much of the back-to-the-future about catalogues and the likes of H. Forman & Son with its history should rethink its actions. Personal experience suggests catalogues are the best way to smoke out certain customers.
