Catalog Browsing on a Tablet: Article from WSJ Reporter Katherine Boehret

Well known Wall St. Journal reporter Katherine Boehret discusses three catalog apps for tablet devices in this article (please click here for the article from AllThingsD).


Maybe more important than the review of catalog apps is the tone of the discourse in the first paragraph.

• "Unsolicited catalogs take up a frustratingly large amount of space in my snail mail, and I can't remember the last time I ordered from one".

Ms. Boehret is most likely Jasmine.


We talked at NEMOA (email me for slides) that there are three customer personas, each relate to catalogs in a different way.

• Judy (59 years old) "is" catalog marketing, her behavior is not likely to change, and our behavior in marketing to her doesn't have to change, either.
• Jennifer (43 years old) is in search of a deal, if a catalog helps facilitate that search, fine, otherwise, 45% of the demand attributed to catalogs is incorrectly attributed, causing us to dramatically over-circulate to Jennifer.  There's a ton of profit to be had, here, folks (contact me for your customized project).
• Jasmine (27 years old) is not likely to be a catalog shopper ... that being said, there is no reason she can't be a loyal fan of your brand ... just don't expect her to shop via physical catalogs.

Now, I keep getting feedback ... folks who find instances where a person in her 20s purchases via the telephone after receiving a catalog.  I don't for a minute doubt this happens.  But it is a 10 in 100 event, not a 90 in 100 event like it is with Judy.  


We need to start thinking about the future, thinking about the different ways we will have a future relationship with Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine.