One thing that I find more annoying each year is the number of catalogs I get from various stores, especially around this time of year. This is multiplied by two factors: first, each year I buy less and less from traditional companies and more and more from on-line firms (two words: Hello, AMAZON!), and second, the surge in identity theft tracks pretty closely to the surge in catalog companies to prove they are technologically hip by using mail merge to splash my name on every other freaking page of their catalogs! “So what?” the companies say, “if you don’t want the catalogs, just recycle them.” Oh, yes, I want my name and address going by the Department of Correction “volunteers” that my city uses to staff their recycling program. So I need to go through each catalog and try to catch every instance of my name. May seem pretty paranoid, but my state is a leader in identity theft, and I’ve seen my share of incidents.
Last year was the worst; at this time my mailbox was literally packed full with catalogs every day. I even finally sent a buck to the Direct Marketing Association to get my name taken off as many mailing lists as possible. It did seem to hold back the deluge a bit, but I’m still seeing quite a few catalogs again. To be fair, most of these are from companies that we have done business with in the past, but most of that business was five+ years ago, and if we still do business with them, we go on-line if at all possible (again, hello, AMAZON! I’m convinced my picture is in the hallway of Amazon headquarters, right next to Jeff Bezos.) I get a little tired of catalog after catalog, year after year, warning me “THIS COULD BE YOUR LAST CATALOG IF YOU DON’T PLACE AN ORDER!!!” I wish.
So how long will it take before merchandising companies figure out that catalogs are very likely dropping in appeal as an advertising avenue for a variety of reasons, and newer methods (on-line) are likely to be much more effective?
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