E-commerce has disrupted almost every aspect of product marketing in its bid to attract consumers and help brands win more business. However, there is one marketing medium that e-commerce just can't match, and that is the look, feel and pulling power of a high-gloss product catalogue.
When the popularity of other printed media is falling left, right and center, it is the printed catalogue that still holds marketing appeal. There is something very special about being handed a beautifully printed 200-page catalogue and being left to browse at your leisure in your own personal space. You only have to look at brands like Ikea to appreciate this sentiment, and it's a truth that applies equally to B2B.
Catalogues not only show how much you care about your customer and your brand, but help the customer to picture your products in their home or to understand better how your services will be of benefit to them.
Where Do Catalogues Fit in the Marketing Mix?
According to statistics from the Direct Marketing Association, billions of catalogues are delivered across the U.S. every year. Additionally, according to consumer research, 75% of consumers made purchases after browsing a catalog. If this is still a marketing medium that you are ignoring, it could be at your own peril. Even if you are marketing to an audience that is predominantly online, adding printed media to your marketing mix could extend your reach and boost your conversion rate even further.
There are many benefits to choosing printed catalogues, including:
A Tactile Experience
Printed catalogues engage more senses than an online brochure ever could, and are more accessible. You can pick up a catalogue whenever you want without an internet connection and without being bombarded by distractions or alerts. What's more, catalogues are story books all about your brand that can show customers what makes you different.
Your Brand Bible
Whether you have marketers working from their desks or sales reps out on the road, catalogues are your brand bible, a main source of information that salespeople can turn to whenever they need to explain a point, showcase a product or describe particular features. They are an impressive calling card that will go on delivering information long after the sales meeting has finished.
Your Catalogue Your Way
Printed catalogues and their continued popularity are a case in point of how digital and traditional marketing methods can work together in harmony. The barrier for many brands is the creation of the catalogue itself. With 10, 100 or even thousands of products to manage and market, the process may seem a little daunting.
Fortunately, Product Information Management (PIM) systems like Perfion hold the answer to the conundrum, delivering high quality catalogue design and product management that you control. Perfion's InDesign feature gives you the freedom to create your own catalogue templates and to reuse them for multiple products however you wish - and you can literally update all catalogue data at the click of a button and thus avoid the time-consuming, back-and-forth review process with your agency.
With Perfion PIM, you can even create astonishing catalogs without using InDesign at all. The built-in report designer allows you to create catalogs, flyers, datasheets, etc. directly in Perfion, on the fly and with always real-time product data.
Case story: Catalogue production takes 1 week instead of 9 months
At Schäfer + Peters, the Perfion PIM solution has revolutionized catalog production completely. Where it used to take several full-time employees up to nine months to create the 1000-page main catalog, the work is now done by two people within a week.
Get an online demo
See for yourself how you can create product catalogs much faster using a PIM system.
