In 2015, content remains king, says branding specialist and executive director of the Australasian Catalogue Association Kellie Northwood. Consumers are more sophisticated and are demanding more than they ever have. They expect detailed content-rich information not snippets, so they can truly engage and align with your brand.
Retailers are already moving towards brandzines and magalogues – Seasonal stylebooks, product guides and celebrity ambassadors filling catalogues with information and page-turning content. Content marketing can also be a great leveller for small business, but it needs to be quality, not just social.
Strengthening this is online brands becoming print publishers to grow their offline presence. Airbnb has recently brought out a glossy new print publication called Pineapple. Their inaugural issue is $12, 128 pages, ad-free, and designed to spark coffee-table conversation.The physical presence is effective at proving a company as more than a website or an app, but as a lifestyle.
Reality takes front position
Whilst millennials aren’t rejecting technology, they are de-teching. Moving to a place where they are ‘switching off’ technology and moving to a place where they control the technology as and when they want to access it.
Paper based media, including the catalogue, becomes a stand out marketing vehicle in a place where tech is no longer welcome. A catalogue isn’t intrusive, it doesn’t require anything from the consumer that is to be feared. Local branding and micro-brands are the trend prediction of 2015 and their marketing is local paper based communication, something the larger retailers will need to engage within.
Workable and seamless integration
Despite the ‘de-tech’, technology will still play a role assuming it delivers value. Apps, virtual technologies, micro-chips and more will become more common using catalogues, leaflets and brochures as the launch pad. However, as opposed to previous applications of these technologies within paper, these technologies will expand on the user-experience and be seamless. The days of expecting the consumer to take several steps to review the same information already supplied is gone.
