The Simple Truth about Printed Catalogs … They Work

It’s an online world, and we are all Amazon crazy, right? If that’s true, what’s with all the shopping catalogs?

That’s what reporter Rena Sarigianopoulos of NBC News affiliate KARE11 asked in this video clip. She received a mailbox full of printed catalogs in the days leading up to the holiday shopping season and decided to look into the phenomenon.

“According to the US Postal Service, it’s not so strange at all,” she says. “Research shows that physical ads leave a longer-lasting impact than digital ones.”

We learned a few years back that if you really want to reach and engage with millennials, you need to be in print and not focus so exclusively on digital. Print, it turns out, is more likely to be remembered – create those memorable marketing campaigns – than digital ads (and especially more than video ads). Neuromarketing studies at Bangor University show that print is more likely to become part of the consumer’s memory that digital materials.

The results speak for themselves. As Sarigianopoulos notes, 72% of people surveyed say catalogs made them more interested in a product, and 84% say they have purchased an item after seeing it in a catalog. And when faced with print materials, we have to make conscious decisions about them. You can’t simply hit “delete” like you can with an email.

In the modern marketing catalog, brands can make an emotional bond with their readers, tell their story in a way that stands out above the noise, and make readers feel they are a part of the story in some real way. And this kind of connection is priceless.

After doing all the research, what’s Rena’s take on printed catalogs?

“Keep sending them. I’ll keep reading them!”

We couldn’t agree more.