Geoff Wolf, EVP Client Strategy
Ecommerce has been changing at digital speed since it showed up in the marketing world 25 years ago. Print marketing has taken 100 years to evolve from the early days of newspaper to magazines, then to direct mail and finally catalogs. Catalog circulation is the sturdy bedrock art of targeting what records to mail, when the printed piece should arrive in the mailbox, and exactly how to make that happen. This art seems to be the one thing that still exists out there all on its own, and it is becoming a dinosaur in many ways.
Dinosaurs are scary! What is scary to chief marketing officers about catalog circulation is that the people who know how to do this intensely analytical work are becoming extinct. At the same time, catalog marketing is not. Millennials are certainly tempted to choose ecommerce analytics as a path for career advancement. Catalog circulation expertise is time-consuming to learn. The work has a very, very small margin of error, may have little relevance to one’s own shopping preferences and sounds really boring.
So, here is a pitch to all the millennials reading this post: think job security and more fun than meets the eye! The few of us left who have mastered catalog circulation and are still doing it will be like dinosaurs in the next decade or so. We may be disappearing from the direct marketing planet into retirement. Yet mailing catalogs is NOT going away any time soon. If you allow us to teach you this craft, your skills will be in high demand and the supply of experts will be very small. Basic economics teaches that anything in short supply commands more money.
Can catalog circulation work be fun? Absolutely! Circulation managers work with email, search and social marketing data on a regular basis. Making sense of what works and does not work involves all these data points. In fact, teasing apart today’s data overload and serving up actionable recommendations is quite a challenging puzzle. It is like a video game. Choose the wrong path and our plan bounces back like a pinball. If we learn how to drive the plan well, we win the jackpot at the end of the tunnel.
Dinosaurs have absolutely no sex appeal! Years ago, direct mail and catalog circulation experts used to roam the executive suite. Recently, these same strategists and analysts have been totally dominated by a newer ecommerce species of marketing expertise. The pace of planning and deployment has changed from months to minutes. Few have the patience to plan a meal that takes months to prepare and more months to digest the results. It is much more appealing to hatch a plan today and read the results tomorrow and then do it again. The reality is that the slower tactics of catalogs are proven to be more valuable and last longer.
In the hallways of our offices or cyberspace, catalog circulation analysts are now being asked to participate in broader marketing conversations. The connection between catalog circulation and all other marketing channels, from page design to ecommerce tactics across the board, is more important than ever before. The brands that understand this are the most successful ones. Catalog mailing targets are sharpened from input into merchandising, page design and digital marketing. The more accurate the target, the bigger the prize.
Dinosaurs are big! The marketing information and data that exists out there is huge, gnarly and cumbersome. The result is that many multichannel marketers can’t determine what works and does not work in the catalog circulation programs. Catalog circulation experts are experienced in understanding the content and expectations of marketing programs across all media channels. They look at catalog mailings in the context of budgets and response rates necessary to win, and win big. This involves navigating both “big data” and the priorities that define success. Catalog circulation experts discover how to make sense of the multichannel marketing. They are able to define what is working and not working, and then deploy a well-crafted sales plan that adds value to all other print and digital investments.
Dinosaurs can dominate their space! Catalogs have evolved over time and are now able to consume so many new and different objectives. Catalogs can drive 1) sales, 2) web visits, 3) brand engagements, 4) retail store visits and 5) sales force efforts to close deals. Catalog circulation experts are experienced in all these objectives and have little option but to link media together. Catalog planning itself may move like a dinosaur, lack sex appeal, be very big and sometimes scary. However, catalog circulation experts have huge appetites for marketing success and need to challenge themselves daily to survive.
And survive they will. So millennials, take note: the catalog itself is still very profitable for many brands and shows no signs of being destroyed by a meteor anytime in this century. Being a dinosaur might prove to be a giant career.
If you would like to learn more about how catalog circulation incorporates elements of digital media and can offer exciting results, contact Geoff Wolf at geoffw@jschmid.com.
Tags: analytics, catalog industry, catalog marketing, direct marketing, Geoff Wolf, multichannel, Strategy