In 1845, Tiffany & Co. released the first-ever Blue Book catalog. For the first time, customers could shop for goods without stepping into a store.
This retail revolution changed product accessibility and drastically improved the customer experience. Other retailers were quick to catch on to Tiffany’s innovative concept of mail-order shopping.
In 1872, a traveling salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward printed a one-page catalog featuring 160 items and ordering instructions for his customers in remote areas. Inspired by the Montgomery Ward catalog, Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck printed the first Sears Roebuck catalog in 1888. Initially focusing on watches and jewelry, it soon expanded to include a vast array of goods and became one of the most famous print catalogs in American history.
Today, print catalogs continue to thrive–but with a digital twist.
Here’s how modern businesses leverage the trusted tradition of print catalogs with the flexibility of digital technology to create a customer experience that's as memorable and enduring as Tiffany & Co. jewelry.
- From Page to Screen: 3 Ways to Integrate Print Catalogs with Digital
- Tailoring the Narrative: Personalized Catalog Printing Techniques
- Picture Perfect Catalogs: Color Consistency Across Mediums
From Page to Screen: 3 Ways to Integrate Print Catalogs with Digital
QR Codes
QR codes have evolved from simple scanning tools to powerful interactive platforms, seamlessly blending the physical nature of print catalogs with digital content. With QR codes, catalog recipients can access a variety of content in real-time, such as videos, product demonstrations, and live customer support chats.
For instance, IKEA allows customers to visualize furniture in 3D within their own spaces, significantly elevating the shopping experience and boosting sales.
QR codes offer a wealth of opportunities for businesses to engage with their customers in a more targeted and effective manner. Here are three examples of how:
- Dynamic Content Adaptation: QR codes can redirect to dynamic content that changes based on time, location, or consumer behavior. For example, a print catalog with a QR code that links to breakfast products in the morning and dinner products in the evening.
- Boost Consumer Trust and Transparency: QR codes can build a deeper level of trust and transparency between brands and consumers by linking to detailed product stories, sourcing information, or ethical practices. This is particularly effective in sectors where product origin and sustainability information are key purchasing factors.
- Enhanced Tracking and Analytics: QR codes that link to personalized URLs allow for granular tracking of user engagement and behavior. This data can inform businesses about which products or pages capture the most attention.
Informed Delivery
The USPS offers a service called Informed Delivery®, which bridges the gap between the physical allure of print catalogs and the instant gratification of digital communication. This is one of the easiest and most affordable forms of integrated marketing.
Here’s how it works.
Informed Delivery provides recipients with a digital preview of their incoming mail–including catalogs. The standard digital preview is just a basic black-and-white scan of the mailpiece; however, for a small fee, USPS allows businesses to amp up the standard scan with vibrant, full-color images and banners, known as “ride-along” content.
Example of a standard black-and-white scan vs. scan enhanced with ride-along content.
Ride-along content turns a standard direct mail campaign into a digital preview that reignites the excitement traditionally associated with receiving a printed catalog in the mail. To maximize the benefits of Informed Delivery for your catalogs, here are three strategies to consider:
- Tease key highlights or new product launches featured in the catalog. The goal here is to reveal just enough to spark interest and excitement strategically.
- Promote exclusive offers through Informed Delivery that can only be accessed in the printed catalog. This encourages customers to thoroughly explore the physical catalog while also increasing its perceived value.
- Highlight interactive elements, such as video demonstrations that can only be accessed through a QR code in the physical catalog.
Email Marketing
The teaser strategies used with Informed Delivery also work extremely well with email marketing. In fact, e-commerce businesses that sent a sneak peek of their catalog contents via email saw a 15% increase in sales. Here’s how.
Use email marketing as a teaser to highlight key features or new products that will be available in the upcoming catalog to build anticipation for its arrival. After the catalog has been delivered, follow up with personalized emails that offer customer reviews or limited-time discounts.
Tailoring the Narrative: Personalized Catalog Printing Techniques
Modern print catalogs are a far cry from their one-size-fits-all predecessors. Businesses are now creating personalized shopping experiences and tailoring catalogs to align with specific customer preferences.
How does personalization work with print catalogs?
Variable data printing allows for unprecedented personalization by leveraging customer data to customize individual elements within each printed piece–such as text, images, and graphics.
Here are three tips for using personalized print catalogs.
- Analyze your customer data to identify specific niches and verticals. This will allow you to hyper-target catalog content and ensure it hits the mark every time.
- Use digital catalogs for their wide reach and complement them with hyper-targeted print catalogs to provide diverse audience segments with the products and content they are most interested in.
- Reference data from digital catalog interactions to inform future content and strategies for personalized print catalogs.
Picture Perfect Catalogs: The Importance of Color Consistency Across Mediums
Color consistency is the backbone of brand integrity and customer trust. However, multi-channel marketing strategies come with one major challenge.
The challenge lies in the inherent differences between digital (RGB) and print (CMYK) color models. This disparity can cause significant variances in how colors are perceived, leading to potential customer dissatisfaction and harm to brand reputation if colors aren't represented accurately.
Understanding the distinct technical aspects of each medium, such as color profiles, is essential for ensuring consistent colors across print and digital mediums.
Catalog images before and after color management to showcase the product's true colors.
Capturing the true essence of a product's color requires expertise in catalog printing, editing, photography, and color management techniques.
For most businesses, it’s best to partner with a catalog printing and production company specializing in color management. They will utilize sophisticated color-matching systems and calibrated workflows to achieve accurate color representation across all media.
Catalog Printing Excellence with Artisan Colour
Many of the nation’s top brands entrust Artisan Colour to produce their catalogs–and your business can, too.
With comprehensive catalog production and printing services under one roof–including in-house photography, on-site photography, image retouching, color management, and digital asset management–businesses across all industries have relied on Artisan Colour for over 25 years.
Connect with Artisan Colour today to learn how our expertise can transform your print catalogs into powerful marketing tools.
