Catalogue shopping for the discerning crowd
Apparently, the cycles of fashion apply not just to hemlines and the colour black but, as will become visible this autumn, retail strategies too. After many years of buzzing about the internet, labels are once again looking at one of the more traditional avenues of outreach: the catalogue.
From classic retailers Echo and Charles Tyrwhitt to the more designer-oriented Eluxury and Anthropologie, a slew of companies have either added new catalogues to their retail strategy or are implementing tremendous expansions to their catalogue offerings. Even websites Ebay and Ravinstyle, once for the digitally savvy only, have produced print editions. Since such moves often indicate an awareness of changing consumer patterns, it's hard not to wonder: post expansion of the web, are people going offline to shop?
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"The consumer's buying habits are changing, where and how they shop and how they think of a brand," says Echo's chief executive Steven Roberts. "They shop when and where they want to and they have more choice than ever. Sometimes they want internet and sometimes store but sometimes catalogue. So you have to give them a way to access your brand any way they want to."
"Before the web, you had to tell them every single detail in the catalogue," says Michael Robinson, managing director of the New York boutique Anthropologie. "Now most of our customers go to the website to shop. Anthropologie will add UK catalogue sales to its usual offerings within the next six months. "We know it's the same shopper," Robinson continues. "Fewer and fewer people pick up a phone; they go online and place the order. People don't have preferred locations to shop. They're at Neiman one day and Marks and Spencer the next."
"We know catalogues are not a new method," adds Echo's Roberts, "but you have to try every way to build stronger relationships with a consumer who is now more finicky."
It seems that brands are also worried about connecting with a whole new generation. "The younger generation dresses differently than the one before. And they don't realise we have bedding, so this is a new opportunity for us," says Roberts, who points out that in an increasingly crowded advertising market, it is impossible to tell the full story of a brand.
Since the cost of one catalogue drop could equate to one colour page in the right fashion magazine, the book format works well for a brand with multiple offerings.
"When you take a one-page ad in a magazine, you can't put scarves, umbrellas, bath, wallpaper and decorative fabrics all in," says Roberts. But when Echo's first catalogue drops in August, by contrast, the brand will be hitting up to 200,000 potential new customers with the full range.
The opportunity to start with a blank slate is not lost on the British shirtmaker Charles Tyrwhitt, whose new catalogue will appear in September after a complete redesign. The idea is to create consumer awareness of lifestyle items and new categories such as luggage, an expanded ladies' range and evening suits for men. This the company intends to do by tapping into a sense of "Britishness".
Nick Wheeler, founder of Charles Tyrwhitt, says catalogues have been stigmatised. "It was always a big book, more down-marketThere were very few small companies doing mail order. It was more mass. What we felt is the catalogue needed grabbing by the ears and pulling up into today."
Recently, however, editorial magazines have helped to destigmatise the catalogue through their "magalogues". Though men's shopping magazines Cargo and Vitals recently folded, the women's magalogues continue to expand, with Lucky, Shop Etc and the smaller Ned and Shell continuing to add circulation. In mid-2005, Condé Nast added Domino, a home-shopping book, to its editions. As a result, catalogue operators have beefed up their own offerings, with Victoria's Secret head-hunting writers from Women's Wear Daily in an effort to create a magazine feel with their copy.
According to Robinson, this autumn's Anthropologie catalogue will "step away from showing a lot of product; it's magazine-like this year: one product on a page on location, six small stories, not a lot of words".
Turning to the offline world is something that more pure "e-tailers" are also doing. "Going from web to catalogue makes us innovators in our field," says Ravinstyle's Biba Milioto. But the truth is, catalogues also drive people back to the internet. "The thing that's happening is one of the biggest drivers of online sales is the catalogue. You're just getting more people who are prepared to buy online, prepared to buy remotely and what happens is they get the catalogue, then instead of picking up the phone, they go online," says Wheeler.
"There are some people who will never shop by catalogue from the days when it was down-market," continues Wheeler. "But a lot of those people will shop by internet even though it really is a catalogue. It's a different psychology. The point is to make every channel the best it can be."
时装的“目录销售”重新走红
很
明显，所谓时尚周期，内容不仅是衣服长短的变化和黑色的回归，就像今年秋天我们将看到的，它也与零售战略有关。经过多年有关网上销售的争论后，各大品牌再次着眼于更为传统的领域：目录销售。
消费者重新从网络回归商店？
从顶级零售商Echo和Charles Tyrwhitt，到更有设计师风格的Eluxury和Anthropologie，很多公司或在其零售战略中新增了目录销售，或大幅增加销售目录赠送量。甚至连那些以往只为深谙数字技术的人士服务的网站，如Ebay和Ravinstyle，也推出了印刷版。这些举措通常意味着它们意识到消费模式正在变化，因此，人们忍不住猜测：在后网络扩张时代，人们将走出网络回到商店吗？
“消费者的购物习惯正在发生变化，其中包括在何处购买、如何购买，以及如何评价一个品牌，”Echo首席执行官史蒂文?罗伯茨(Steven Roberts)表示，“他们会选择他们喜欢的时间和地点去购物，他们拥有比以往更多的选择。有时，他们希望从网上购物，有时是在商店，还有时是靠目录。因此你必须用他们喜欢的方式，为他们提供一种接近你品牌的方法。”
“在网络出现以前，你必须在目录上把商品的每一个细节都详细告知客户，”纽约精品店Anthropologie董事总经理迈克尔?鲁宾逊(Michael Robinson)表示，“如今，多数顾客去网上购物。”未来6个月内，Anthropologie将在其英国的服务项目中增加销售目录。“我们知道顾客是一样的，”鲁宾逊继续说道，“电话订购的人越来越少；他们会上网下订单。人们没有偏爱的购物地点。他们可能一天在Neiman，第二天却在玛莎百货(Marks and Spencer)。”
目录，有时比广告更有效
“我们知道，目录销售并不是新方法，”Echo的罗伯茨表示，“然而，你必须尝试各种方法，与如今更挑剔的消费者建立更为牢固的关系。”
大品牌似乎也担心如何与全新的一代人建立联系。罗伯茨表示：“年轻一代的穿着与上一代不同。他们没有意识到我们的悠久历史，因此，这是我们的一个新机遇。”他指出，在日益拥挤的广告市场，不可能完全展示一个品牌。
制作一本目录的成本，可能相当于时尚杂志的一张彩页，因此，对于旗下有多种商品的品牌来说，目录形式的效果很好。
罗伯茨表示：“如果你在杂志上做一页广告，你不可能把丝巾、雨伞、浴缸、墙纸和装饰材料都放进去。”然而，对比之下，当Echo在8月份推出第一本目录时，它把所有商品呈现给多达20万的潜在新客户。
英国衬衫生产商Charles Tyrwhitt抓住了从零开始的机会。经过重新设计，该公司的新目录将于9月份出炉。该公司的构想是，让消费者产生一种对生活方式产品和新商品的认知，诸如行李箱、更多的女士系列产品以及男士晚礼服等。该公司希望向消费者传递一种“英式”感觉，以实现上述目标。
Charles Tyrwhitt创始人尼克?惠勒(Nick Wheeler)表示，目录已经蒙上了污名。“它常常是一大本册子，更多是面向低端市场。很少有小企业做邮购。目录销售方式更为大众化。我们感觉，需要引入现代化的目录销售方式。”
传媒集团的“目录”型杂志
然而，最近，编辑类杂志通过“杂志目录(magalogues)”，帮助目录销售摆脱了污名。尽管男士购物杂志Cargo和Vitals于近日停刊，但女士的“杂志目录”还在持续扩展，Lucky、Shop Etc和规模较小的Ned和Shell的发行量都在继续增加。在2005年年中，Condé Nast在自己的期刊中增加了家庭购物手册Domino。于是，通过目录方式进行运营的商家扩充了所提供的信息，著名内衣品牌“维多利亚的秘密”(Victoria’s Secret)从《女性时装日报》(Women’s Wear Daily)挖来写手，正在努力办一本与《女性时装日报》相似的杂志。
据鲁宾逊称，Anthropologie百货连锁店今秋的目录将不再展示太多产品；今年的目录就像杂志：一页一件产品，有6个小故事，没有太多文字。
更为纯粹的“电子零售商”也在转向传统的线下领域。Ravinstyle的比芭?米廖托(Biba Milioto)表示：“从网络转向目录，使我们成为了我们这个领域的创新者。”不过，事实上，目录也在驱动人们回归互联网。惠勒表示：“目录正是在线销售最大的驱动力之一。现在，准备进行在线购物和远程购物的人更多了。他们会去看目录，但不会拿起电话订购，而会去上网。”
“有一些人，自从目录销售变得低端之后，他们就不再通过目录来购物，”惠勒说，“不过，其中有很多人会通过互联网购物，而这实际上就是目录购物。这是一种不同的心理。关键在于，要把每种渠道都发挥到极至。”
零售渠道信息：
www.anthropologie.comwww.ctshirts.co.uk www.echodesign.comwww.eluxury.comwww.ravinstyle.com
