Clarifying My Position On Catalog Marketing
My e-mail inbox is split 50/50 with feedback this week.
- Feedback Category #1 = "I've been thinking that the articles we read are terribly biased as well. Thanks for pointing out the propaganda we're being fed."
- Feedback Category #2 = "You are a rube. There are tens of thousands of catalogers out there who serve a hundred million catalog buying homes. Catalogs are alive and well, you're the one who is out of step, spewing propaganda."
Catalogs are a vital part of the shopping experience for many brands and customers, especially brands that have a female customer over the age of fifty who lives in a exurban or rural area or live in New England or the Mountain States.
In general, I have two criticisms of the catalog industry.
- The vendor community can take a stance that promotes the well-being of the vendor community, not the well-being of the brand/customer relationship. This is the basis for my critique of the recent Multichannel Merchant / DMA / Abacus article. This is the basis for my rants about Best Practices.
- My industry was quick to see the benefits of e-commerce. My industry is way behind in the evolution away from catalogs and toward what I would call "social shopping". We continue to mail catalogs to customers who no longer want catalogs, who no longer find catalogs relevant to their life. This practice gives power to third party opt-out services, folks promoting an agenda that may be planet friendly.
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