If you never experienced the delights of Google Catalog then you missed a great resource. I have no idea when it actually went online but at a guess I would say 2002. The concept was great. You sent in your catalogue, Google scanned it and then everybody from around the world could look at it. It only featured US catalogues, but I quite liked having a look at what the guys over the pond were doing. The site was so good it allowed you to see the full catalogue page by page and at varying sizes. It could also be sorted by category and sector.

Ian Simpson Director Catalogues 4 Business www.c4b.co.uk

The one thing that always intrigued me was; why? It was a free service and presumably cost a fair bit to administer – Google seemed to suggest that it existed as a test bed for their OCR technology, as once the catalogue was uploaded it was fully word searchable. Looking back through the web archives, many just couldn’t understand why Google was providing this service. This link (circa 2002) fully explained the process www.netmechanic.com/news/vol5/promo_no18.htm.

Google appear to put the Catalogue Search demise down to cost-cutting and cut or reduced a number of other services (G Notebook, G Video, Mashups, and Dodgeball – whatever they were!) but a quick hunt round the interweb (sic) seems to suggest a different reason. At www.rimmkaufman.com they first hint at the Dodo syndrome – did Google pull it because catalogues were in decline and not quite as ‘sexy ‘ as they once were? They suggest they are on an inevitable decline into oblivion, particularly as a prospect medium. I happen to disagree (as you would expect) and I have written numerous times about the value of a catalogue within an integrated, multi channel strategy.

Prospecting is always a challenge and recruiting on the web is very cost effective, but I would really like to see a definitive study on lifetime value. Web recruitment can be fickle and driven by price, the key is to develop the relationship on from the initial order; but then hasn’t that always been the case?

Are Google right in assuming catalogues are facing a demise? Certainly the way ahead is challenging and the recycling lobby is starting to home in on the direct mail industry once more. I won’t get into the issues surrounding recycling and the pressure on diminishing landfill capacity. But from my experience, the catalogue is here to stay for the foreseeable future. I think, as an industry, we will have to be far more accountable and justify our targeting – but that makes sense for cataloguers anyway. Recently, I have seen a catalogue so over-received as to be almost criminal. It was inserted into subscribed magazines and if the recipient subscribed to all the relevant titles they got a catalogue with each publication – from the same magazine publisher!

There was no attempt to understand the distribution and no attempt to limit the amount of catalogues sent out. The environmental lobby will round on us at some point and some say that the process has already started. The utopia of ‘zero waste’ will never exist, in any walk of life (but I stand to be corrected). The argument is that the more we rely on digital communication, we push the decision to print further down the line. With digital catalogues (of the page turning variety or otherwise) the recipient will be given the choice to print a hard copy – if they choose not to, then technically, they have reduced paper usage and all the other associated costs of a hard copy contact. But the relationship that we, as cataloguers, fight so hard to cultivate has been damaged by this process.

So are we being consigned to the ranks of the Dodo? I have referred many times to the excellent research carried out by the Royal Mail and other data rich groups and all of them point to the success of catalogue mailings. They lift response, increase average order value and increase the propensity to buy – all good stuff!  Your own testing should confirm this and should highlight the segments in your database that are under- performing and those that could benefit from increased contact.

And what of the future? As a society and a species, we are going to have to reduce the amount of waste we produce. As cataloguers we are going to be held far more accountable for our actions – so we have to be prepared. We don’t know, as yet, the full impact of all the digital media, from SMS to Twitter and everything else in between. The fundamental is, that all generate contact and interaction and the catalogue has its role to play.

The catalogue is not yet approaching  Dodoism  – nor will it ever be. We are a tactile species and the relationship we have with print is far more intimate than often realised. When we pick up a piece of printed material, the interconnection between sight and touch is almost taken for granted. The values and proposition of your brand are communicated with this simple action. The size, weight and quality of the catalogue relays so much more information than a digital product ever can; A5 catalogues never have the same gravitas as an A4 catalogue; lightweight paper is totally inappropriate for a quality brand – but communicates exactly the right values for a value brand; a glossy laminated cover adds integrity and tactility – it feels a quality offering. When the visual stimulus, promoted by the design and copy, combines with information generated by touch, it instigates a powerful process (provided the two are in sync!).

There is also the feeling that there has been an investment in the recipient, the catalogue is proactive and has a different voice to the web. This is particularly true when you send out a catalogue to your existing customers. It reinforces brand loyalty and allows you to talk directly to your customer – from the pages they are familiar with and from a brand they know and trust. It much more than, simply, another marketing touchpoint. It is a device so simple in concept, so ancient in application and yet so easy to use in universal environments (except in the swimming pool) that the catalogue will be here to stay for some while yet. I have yet to be convinced that sitting down with a laptop, or other digital browser, glass of wine in one hand, feet on the coffee table is somehow more enjoyable than reading a catalogue in the same circumstances, and so do the vast majority of Joe public.

We have to remember that the catalogue cultivates a completely different relationship with the reader/viewer/customer than a digital communication and it will survive because of it. Perhaps if the Dodo had had the wherewithal to cultivate a better relationship with hunter it would still be around today. It just stood there and took the shots – and that’s what we can’t afford to do as cataloguers. We must recognise the unique place the catalogue enjoys and build it into our marketing strategy and, yes, cue for a song … We will survive!


Ian Simpson
Catalogues 4 Business