As an industry, we spend a lot of time worrying about paper’s decline as a channel — and rightly so. But lately I’ve been hearing more and more about companies that once decided to move away from paper and have now come back to it.
And I’m not just talking about utilities, banks and service providers who’ve found that, despite their best efforts, customers still want paper billing options.
No — companies of every kind are experiencing what one writer colourfully called “The Revenge of Analog”: a growing appreciation for, and pull toward, the physical, the tangible, the real.
Take Thos. Moser, which makes handcrafted American furniture with a focus on sustainability. A few years ago they dropped their print catalogue, cutting print costs while growing their subscriber list. But in truth, a big part of the appeal of Moser’s beautifully crafted catalogues is that they’re works of art in their own right, just like the handmade furniture they advertise — which is why “old” Moser catalogues sell for $35 on Etsy.
This follows a handful of other companies, from J.C. Penney to Neiman Marcus, that stopped mailing catalogues before bringing them back. Crate & Barrel, for instance, offers printed catalogues sourced from responsibly managed, independently certified forests, supported by our member companies.
Not every mail-order catalogue needs to be a work of art, but according to a retail branding expert, they all help “cut through email clutter and social media saturation.”
Perhaps even more notable is that companies whose lives began purely digital (like Wayfair.com) are now starting to mail their own print catalogues. And Amazon, the ancestor of all e-retailers, scored a major marketing win with its holiday catalogue, giving kids and adults alike the chance to dog-ear pages of everything on their wish list. Amazon’s decision to mail millions of catalogues took a page from the old Sears, Roebuck and Co. playbook — with a twist. Themed pages for the “foodie,” the “little one,” and the “fashionista” gave everyone something to get excited about.
And it’s not just about selling things. It’s about building brands. That’s why a growing number of digital disruptors are venturing into the analogue world. Airbnb launched a print travel magazine with Hearst in 2017. It’s not listing rentals — it’s cultivating a lifestyle. Net-a-Porter, a major game-changer in online luxury fashion, launched a print magazine not just to promote its products, but to compete directly with brands like Vogue. Similarly, magazines like HGTV Magazine and Magnolia Journal aren’t just retail arms of their parent brands — they’re extensions of them. Or as Net-a-Porter’s founder put it: “We’re building a physical temple to our brand — just like Apple does with its stores.”
This is the appeal of the “physical,” the revenge of print. It’s walking into a car showroom or a home design store and walking out with a brochure. It’s browsing university course offerings from a booklet you can open and close — not just from a website. It’s reading paper companies’ annual sustainability gains on paper, not on a website.
The idea that print is more deliberate and digital more fleeting sits at the heart of a decade of P+PB consumer research and communications. It’s one of those things that’s basic and obvious to most of us at some level, but something most of us rarely stop to think about or put into words in everyday life.
Print draws our focus, frames our attention, limits the unnecessary, and delivers tangible feedback in a way a screen can’t.
That’s exactly why it came as such a surprise to so many when modular furniture giant IKEA discontinued its iconic catalogue in 2021. By the company’s own account, IKEA “didn’t discontinue the print catalogue because its content wasn’t relevant — it was just as engaging, and had long been shared in every kind of way.” Nor was the main reason environmental concerns — they had achieved 100% independently certified sustainable paper sourcing and had cut the catalogue’s carbon footprint by 50% in just five years. Instead, IKEA cited both the changing media landscape and pandemic-driven distribution challenges as the reasons behind the decision to discontinue its printed products.
But given everything we’ve seen and heard, I wouldn’t be surprised if IKEA’s analogue catalogue made its own comeback.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/company/paper-and-packaging-board/posts/?feedView=all