The year was marked by closure announcements: the Argos catalogue followed by Ikea and from the world of magazines, Q.
The finger points to the internet and how the modern shopper wants to use websites rather than printed catalogues. It wants to use social media rather than read a magazine. The supposition is supported by the numbers. According to ONS spending on magazines has dropped sharply in the decade, the value of catalogue printing also spiralling downwards hand in hand with direct mail.
In 2008 spending on printed advertising literature was worth £2.5 billion to the UK printing industry. By 2019, this had fallen to £1.35 billion. This is unlikely to have risen sharply in 2020, though the decline may have been arrested.
Both sectors, however, remain vast markets for printers though sectors that are undoing substantial structural change rather than facing an extinction event. The printed catalogue is less tied to the big retailers, brands well known on the high street and which have dominated the last half-century. The demise of the UK’s gravure industry and shrinking of its web offset base is testament to what has been happening.
When the pandemic added to the pressure many of these businesses were under due to over expansion and the costs of maintaining a presence in town centres, it is no surprise that Debenhams, the Arcadia group and others have succumbed. Even though clothing sales in 2020 were down perhaps 20%, the existing online brands are proving resilient. They have the right model for the times.
And associated with this, the mailed catalogue is enjoying something of a renaissance. JicMail, the body campaigning for the effectiveness of direct mail, has published research showing that engagement with printed mail is on the increase. And that it is effective at driving consumers to the websites to complete a purchase. The Q3 survey found that 8.7% of printed advertising material received by households prompted a website visit, a 33% increase over last year when the equivalent was 6.5%.
The same survey found the impact of ad mail to prompt a web site visit in search of more information had also increased. The roll call of brands that are using direct mail in this way includes the likes of HelloFresh (also a big user of the printed insert and door drop), Wayfair, Beer52, Harry’s and Bloom & Wild. there is a growing recognition that the printed message can achieve greater cut through than yet another email, and that the increased cost per contact of direct mail is worth it. Other surveys have discovered that a piece of direct mail is welcomed, perhaps the more so to relieve the tedium of lockdown.
What is happening however is that mass campaigns that gave rise to comments about junk mail have gone. Where money is spent it is spent in a targeted manner with shorter runs and more precise messaging. Print technology with faster turnaround and lower set up costs is helping this. The ability to adapt the message for the audience comes into play as does the performance of digital print machines.
It would be equally easy to suppose that printed magazines are on the way out. In the decade the value of magazines to UK print fell from £1.25 billion in 2008 to just £470,000 in 2019. Magazines circulations have continued to fall, though many have been successful in persuading readers to switch from casual purchases to subscriptions. Work from home put paid to commuters purchasing a magazine to read on their journey to work.
Titles have closed during the year, listings titles without events to advertise for example are next to useless.
Business magazines have cut issues and reduced paginations as advertising has melted away. Some have become online only. Again this is a trend that has been underway for a number of years as advertisers have spread their presence over digital as well as print, let alone the consolidation that has reduced the number of potential advertisers.
But if the large general interest magazines are suffering as are newspaper supplements, the independent magazine appears to be thriving. A younger generation has discovered that a well produced magazine, printed on good paper and carrying a price tag that makes such a magazine an affordable luxury, is a nice to have product. It is the association with a tribe or community of like minded people, appreciative of fashion, travel, sport or music, that drives readership and purchases.
