Catalogs are a tried-and-true instrument in a marketer’s toolbox delivering an in-depth product experience right to any home or office door. With the rise of the digital age, many thought that e-commerce would supplant catalogs, but the opposite has been true. Catalogs continue to hold their own as a marketing channel operating steadily alongside its digital brethren. Catalogs originated as a method to communicate product availability and highlight new goods. Now a company’s website functions in the same capacity and in real-time. Catalogs of today have evolved to serve as a means of inspiration, allowing consumers to visualize products in real-life situations with thoughtful detail and narratives. They also allow brands more room to tell their story and gain consumer trust. This can occur because, unlike the more frenzied pace of online shopping, catalog readers spend between 15 minutes to 30 minutes turning the pages and catalogs are retained for several weeks as a reminder to place an order, shop online, or visit a store.

Understanding how to stand out in the mailbox is more important than ever in 2020 and beyond, especially so because of today’s competition for consumer attention. In fact, a 2015 study said the average American is exposed to anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 ads per day. That’s madness! With the large majority of these being digital ads, this provides a huge opportunity for direct mail and print marketing campaigns. Though the average person’s mailbox is much less crowded now than it has been in decades, this competition for consumer attention is more fierce than it has ever been. That’s why when it comes to your direct mail marketing campaign, you need to be very calculated in your approach; understanding cost, attribution, average ROI and the overall health of your house file are vital considerations that must occur with the launch of any successful direct mail program. Click Read More below for details

President Mary Anne Hansan shared more about the phaseout of the industry marketing initiative. Corporate and market changes, and difficulty aligning the shifting priorities between paper and packaging stakeholders, contributed to the recent move to shut down a more than decade-old paper packaging marketing campaign, explained Paper and Packaging Board President Mary Anne Hansan. “Every referendum, it’s been increasingly more difficult to keep people on board,” Hansan said. “And many times, just like this time, it really has to do [with] what’s going on in the economy. The paper market has been contracting for years,” she said. On the corrugated side, companies are concerned about extended producer responsibility, Hansan said. Additionally, there’s been a lot of leadership turnover from the executives who were in charge when P+PB was developed and launched. “We’ve had an awful lot of CEO change,” Hansan said.