The magic of the festive season is here – shops are filled with Christmas decorations and we have started to feel the holiday cheer. It’s shopping extravaganza time – with purchases in full swing for gifts, stock-ups for holiday-goers and food treats for the feasts with family and friends.
Forming part of this consumer buzz and shopping excitement is the attractive retail inserts and annual Christmas catalogues available to browse – may it be to spot and compare ‘best deals’ or to simply help with gift ideas, those captivating print materials are much-welcomed and well-used by shoppers from all over.
Toy shopping fun with Christmas catalogues
Most parents probably have a love-hate relationship with the various toy catalogues that become available during this time of the year. Worries about budgets start to set in as our children start circling all the items they want “Santa to bring”. At the same time though, parents do appreciate these guides as it helps them to avoid last-minute gift-shopping runs which are only made worse when one has no idea what to get for the kids.
One way or another, these annual toy catalogues have become part of the holiday tradition we all enjoy. An aesthetically-pleasing catalogue gives people a sense of nostalgia – they were a popular way people shopped during the holidays before the internet, and they bring people back to simpler times.
For retailers, these visually-appealing catalogues still to this day serve as a highly effective tool for them to showcase their products. They are still relevant in today’s marketplace as they offer customers the ability to read on their timeframe, and to easily find ‘favourite’ items without searching their browser history.
So many promotion emails get dumped in your inbox or lost in your ‘spam/junk’ folder, whereas printed catalogues will always be available. No need to scour the internet and sift through massive amounts of information, draining your electronic device’s battery. The reality is that well printed publications such as catalogues offer highly engaging experiences that can help drive conversions.
Harder to ignore physical objects than banner adds
“For retailers, the accessibility and visibility of printed catalogues, brochures and inserts in customers’ homes is an added boost for their respective brands’ impressions, which an email sitting in an inbox just cannot compete with. In many cases, printed materials are not at odds with online efforts. To the contrary, they can be a critical and complementary component of the relationships brands establish with and experience they deliver to their customers,” says Peter Metcalfe Group Executive of Sales at Novus Holdings.
We cannot imagine a world without print
As the leading print manufacturing group in South Africa, Novus Print reminds of the importance and power of print in society. For thousands of years, it has spread literacy, knowledge and ideas. Currently in the country, print contributes approximately R55 billion to our GDP.
Print is present and forms a big part our holiday celebrations including:
- Signage – Even though websites are now the most important way to attract customers, physical creative displays still warm people’s hearts as they walk around in shopping centres. Especially with the rolling pandemic lockdowns, people are more responsive to brick and mortar displays and signage. Attractive and pleasant signage is a great way to contribute to the holiday ambiance at any venue.
- Greeting cards – With the present digital age where technology is becoming more and more integrated in our lives, the importance of a ‘personal touch’ is slowly but increasingly returning to us. The feeling of having a sturdy card in your hands is simply a different experience compared to a text message or an elaborate email sending you best wishes. Greeting cards stand out for being a tactile experience, where you can actually hold the sender’s sentiment in your hands and keep it somewhere safe forever. In addition, a 2021 Hallmark survey revealed that paper cards continue to break through with more than half of respondents believe cards are more meaningful than other forms of communication
- Packaging – We all share in the responsibility to look after our planet, and during the holiday time this is even more important for us all to reuse and recycle all forms of packaging as best we can.
- Books – A book is a gift for life. Books encourage a life-long love of reading and helps one to relax. A study by Sussex University showed that reading reduces children’s stress by 68%. Numerous studies show that children who read from a young age develop higher intelligence later in life, as well as increasing their knowledge of the world. They also help children chart their own moral course and reflect on what’s right and wrong.