After a seven-year hiatus, Abercrombie & Fitch brought back its racy A&F Quarterly Saturday, but the controversial publication is making a comeback as many retailers are heading in the other direction.
With retailers forced to take a hard look at their bottom lines during the recession, catalogs are adjusting, but not disappearing, says Leslie Linevsky, founder of Catalogs.com. As postage rates climb and customers become concerned about the environmental impact, retailers are scaling back on the number of catalogs they mail out and are using them to drive traffic to their websites.
Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York, says retailers are becoming more creative when it comes to catalogs.
“I think because the Internet is so exciting and so immediate, we have to up the ante with direct mail and really make direct-mail pieces memorable, make them into keepers,” he says.
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Many of the revamped catalogs aim to help younger shoppers imagine themselves wearing the brand and to get them interacting with the stores’ websites.
•Barneys Co-Op, geared toward a younger audience, is launching a 3D catalog for denim fashions in August, complete with 3D glasses.
•A&F Quarterly is part of a larger campaign featuring stores, the website and Facebook.
The return of the quarterly comes amid a tough sales year for the chain. Before the publication was pulled in 2003, it was the subject of boycotts and buzz for its spreads, which included nearly nude models and frequent discussions of sex.
See full article at: Catalogs by Barneys, Sears, J.C. Penney get creative – USATODAY.com.
