In animated discussions about the role of printed catalogs (or online, digital metaphors), there is something not being said about the fundamental difference between web search and print browsing. In a recent post by Polly on the Directly Speaking blog, a part of the Growth Strategies Group of Belardi/Ostroy, she posits the question “Can web merchandising do the same thing as a well-executed catalog”. I think the fair answer is “not yet.”
The holy grail of cataloging is to eventually and profitably achieve multi-buyer status with prospects (they are prospects for some logical reason). We do this by targeting those “likely to buy” and providing them with the information and exposure to products they most likely wanted as well as those they did not know they wanted. It’s kind of like why we read newspapers. We know we’re generally interested in politics, sports or whatever and turn to those sections of the paper. When we get to that page, we also learn about things we did not expect to see, i.e. related news … and we read it. When I was in the newspaper business we referred to this as “unexpected serendipitous connections“. Merchandising geniuses may not know it, but that’s what they are doing with a well executed catalog.
