{"id":27912,"date":"2021-12-16T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T02:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=27912"},"modified":"2021-12-20T08:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T08:20:12","slug":"why-toy-shops-and-amazon-are-tapping-into-paper-catalogues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-toy-shops-and-amazon-are-tapping-into-paper-catalogues\/","title":{"rendered":"Why toy shops \u2014 and Amazon \u2014 are tapping into paper catalogues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joanne E. McNeish<\/a>, Ryerson University<\/a><\/em> https:\/\/narrations.ad-auris.com\/widget\/the-conversation-canada\/why-toy-shops-%E2%80%94-and-amazon-%E2%80%94-are-tapping-into-paper-catalogues<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you receive them? Found in many mailboxes in this second pandemic holiday season were paper catalogues from Toys \u201cR\u201d Us, Mastermind Toys and perhaps most surprisingly, the highly profitable digital retailer Amazon<\/a>. Amazon first launched a toy catalogue in 2018 and mailed it to millions of customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it might seem that paper catalogues would be relegated to history with the advent of e-commerce, it seems as if, at least for these retailers, they are still part of doing business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand why catalogues formed part of these retailers\u2019 promotional strategy, let\u2019s explore some retail history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connection to the past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost 140 years ago<\/a>, department store retailer Eaton\u2019s<\/a> produced its first mail-order catalogue, with Simpson\u2019s following suit 10 years later<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These catalogues are so important to the history of Canada that you can see them in the collections of the Library and Archives Canada and the Canadian Museum of history<\/a>. Some Christmas catalogues grew to hundreds of pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black-and-white
Catalogue mailing room in Toronto, 1953. (Sears Canada. Panda Photography. Library and Archives Canada, e011172127\/Flickr), CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia and childhood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The way we celebrate holidays is based in part on what we learned from our families as children. Consumer studies researchers have examined how holidays ideally involve the creation of special foods that take time and effort, the coming together of special people in our lives and making memories that we recall with pleasure long afterwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking positively about people, events or places that happened in the past is called nostalgia<\/a>. We can even feel nostalgia for something that occurred before we were born through seeing objects from the past, or hearing the memories of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some contemporary consumers or their grandparents in Canada today had the experience of receiving or reading the Eaton\u2019s and Sears Christmas catalogues as children. Sears even called their Christmas catalogue the \u201cwish book.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon, once focused on promoting products with a digital wish list<\/a>, promoted its 2020 catalogue as a \u201cHoliday Wish Book<\/a>\u201d and this year describes it as a holiday kids book<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is possible to remember without physical artifacts, the three dimensional and tactile information received from interacting with paper documents<\/a> help to reinforce people\u2019s memories and knowledge retrieval. People may have had the experience of going carefully through each catalogue page<\/a>, marking it up and folding down the pages \u2014 whether or not they received what they wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Simpson\u2019s mail order office, Sarnia, Ont., 1952. (Sears Canada. Photo Engravers and Electrotypers Ltd. Library and Archives Canada, e011172139 \/ Flickr), CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Archives Ontario notes, not only did the Eaton\u2019s catalogue make an emotional impression, it even made its way into some Canadian literature<\/a>. For example, in The Hockey Sweater<\/em>, by Qu\u00e9bec writer Roch Carrier<\/a>, a devastating mail-order mixup<\/a> means a most unwanted Toronto Maple Leafs sweater from Eaton\u2019s arrives at his childhood home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emotion aside, how do catalogues influence sales?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While nostalgia can be a powerful motivator for consumers who consider shopping today at physical toy stores or online retailers, companies must consider catalogues\u2019 effects on sales and return on the investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Catalogue
1966 Sears Christmas catalogue. (Mike Mozart\/Flickr)<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Toys \u201cR\u201d Us<\/a> and Mastermind Toys<\/a> (both physical stores) and Amazon<\/a> have a short corporate histories compared to Eaton\u2019s and Simpson\u2019s (later Simpsons-Sears), and none had mail-order businesses. Mastermind Toys and Amazon grew up during the advent of e-commerce, so using this seemingly old-fashioned technology seems curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s consider that while social media seems to attract consumers\u2019 attention and quickly, digital clutter is a common consumer complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home-delivered paper catalogues can be part of leisure reading and are artifacts with esthetic, symbolic and instrumental value<\/a>. Catalogues present images and text that are viewed as the retailer intended, without the mediation imposed by the consumer\u2019s screen size and device capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paper catalogues create a richer sensory experience compared to a digital catalogue or online store<\/a>. Touch creates a sense of ownership and so consumers may be more likely<\/a> to purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For toy companies, the October to December period represents almost 50 per cent of their yearly sales<\/a>. The critical job for toy retailers is to get the attention of consumers for their store. As Canada Post argues in a 2015 report promoting direct mail, research suggests direct mail paper catalogues can serve as an effective trigger for visiting an online store, and their physical presence in the home<\/a> and in leisure spaces can act as an ongoing prompt or reminder to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect in new way?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So in addition to selling toys, why is Amazon sending out paper catalogues? Amazon is likely concerned about its brand. The company has faced widespread condemnation of its labour practices<\/a>. It has responded with commercials featuring happy employees<\/a> with varied abilities and gender identities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of criticism of its impact on small and medium retailers, Amazon set up its Shop Local Campaign<\/a> to promote products from small and medium Canadian companies. I believe sending paper catalogues helps them tap into the long tradition of Christmas catalogues and connect in an emotional and surprising way with their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanne E. McNeish<\/a>, Associate Professor, Marketing, Ryerson University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joanne E. McNeish, Ryerson University https:\/\/narrations.ad-auris.com\/widget\/the-conversation-canada\/why-toy-shops-%E2%80%94-and-amazon-%E2%80%94-are-tapping-into-paper-catalogues Did you receive them? Found in many mailboxes in this second pandemic holiday season were paper catalogues from Toys \u201cR\u201d Us, Mastermind Toys and perhaps most surprisingly, the highly profitable digital retailer Amazon. Amazon first launched a toy catalogue in 2018 and mailed it to millions of customers. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[650,11003,10708,2495,11002,6858],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27951,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27912\/revisions\/27951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}