Today’s world of communications is one where zeroes and ones rule. For the most part, Digital has replaced what once happened only in print, and that fact is increasingly evident in how brands are choosing to connect with customers.
Few firms of any kind bother designing and developing great print collaterals and in my view, that’s a huge missed opportunity – especially now, when electronic communications are so ubiquitous.
Even business cards are dispensed as more of an afterthought than an obligation.
Holding a big event? Mailing an invitation via conventional post seems almost quaint. Why bother when digital communications accomplishes the same thing, right?
Wrong.
Quite simply, digital – no matter how “responsive” and clever – is cold and flat. In contrast, print offer an even richer brand experience because it not only showcases a company’s aesthetic in three-dimension, it more insistently invites the customer to pause and engage with the brand, thanks to the hand-crafted quality of textured papers, bold layout, and unique type design.
Nevertheless, when marketing budgets are downsized, print tends to be the first on the chopping block. Even luxury fashion brands have resorted to emailing look books and invitations rather than printed ones.
It’s not the Internet’s fault. It was in the early part of the 21st century that concerns over the environment quite justifiably created a revolution in communications. Customers demanded that brands stop wasting paper with so many catalogues, brochures, and receipts.
For marketers, the tidal effect became: why only “cut back”? Let’s get rid of all of it. Do you want me to email you your receipt?
We were even forced to say goodbye to the shopping bag.
Like many luxury brands, Louis Vuitton started cutting back on print collaterals about ten years ago, but I still leaf through a book they produced in 2002 that stands out for its use of gorgeous saturated imagery. It’s the story of a tortured and clandestine relationship, one where an array of products play an important supporting role.
I am not arguing to replace digital with print, but that print still offers a unique format for sophisticated and creative communications and and that depending on the specific marketing program, can connect far better than digital.
By virtue of its rarity, print collateral can command attention more deftly than an email attachment. It tends to linger longer, be it on a coffee table or desk.
Case in point, some pieces I keep simply because they continue to impress: an invitation to a long-ago Maison Margiela fashion show disguised as a credit card. A Givenchy invitation printed on aluminum. Or virtually anything from Hermès, who year after year prints a beautiful magazine and a host of other collaterals.
A recent hardbound book from Bally is bursting with colorful images printed on heavy stock, a candy-colored journey through the brand’s accessories collection. A cold piece of black Plexiglas announces an Yves Saint Laurent store opening, perfectly capturing the essence of then-designer Tom Ford’s aesthetic decadence.
Beautiful collaterals allow one page or several to bring context to a brand’s raison d’être and reinforce other kinds of messaging happening online or in-store.
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The behemoth of all flash sale companies known as Gilt Groupe has shown no signs of holding back as they expand into virtually every lifestyle category. Men (under their Gilt Man moniker) has been one the company’s fastest growing categories, but now competition from Mr. Porter (www.mrporter.com), a new, non-discounted site from Net-a-Porter, has forced them to up the ante with the newly launched Park & Bond.
Park & Bond (www.parkandbond.com), which describes itself as “merging a curated selection of the world’s best brands,” has yet to really do that, with a brand list that conforms to what one might typically find at a local Nordstrom. Grooming and Fragrance featured a measly two brands, C.O. Bigelow and Cedes.
Park & Bond’s editorial content is decidedly GQ-esque, with features on “How to pack a suit in a carry on” to “How to deliver an unforgettable two minute toast.” One can only assume that Net-a-Porter used Gilt Man as their case study.
The Mr. Porter site is more Rockefeller Mansion to Park & Bond’s suburban ranch house, with a who’s who list of brands that would make any clotheshorse swoon. If you shop here, chances are you don’t need a lesson in tying a Windsor knot or packing a suit. Instead, Mr. Porter is brimming with minimalist dialogues on the perfect wool tie, or the subtleties of color in one’s fall wardrobe (there is a piece on how to cook a steak. It seems editors still consider most men to be forever cavemen.)
Both Mr. Porter and Park & Bond provide pages of style advice, but only P&B has an actual concierge. No doubt Mr. Porter will follow suit — and not a moment too soon.
The Trunk Club (www.trunkclub.com), which launched in 2009, is all about the personal stylist and that’s essentially the first point of entry. One doesn’t actually shop from the site, rather, one let’s the stylist do the shopping for you.
Trunk Club’s emphasis on personal styling associates, along with an actual bricks-and-mortar environment (albeit only one, in Chicago) makes it one of the more interesting concepts on the scene. Once an associate has interviewed the client about their lifestyle and wardrobe needs, do they then assemble a “trunk” (a box really) of clothes delivered on a predetermined basis (monthly, or by arrangement).
Meanwhile Clad, a new men’s e-commerce site from J.C. Penney Co.’s Growth Brands Division, is set to launch later this month and will work in close partnership with Esquire magazine to essentially market the site and in turn, all of Esquire’s “editorial” recommendations. One can only imagine that the advertising sales department at Esquire is very happy to have an e-commerce channel to wave at their accounts.
Clad is going so far as to offer a proprietary fit technology which they’ve branded as the “Tapeless Tailor.” Like its parent company, J.C. Penney, Clad is decidedly middle class, gearing itself towards “men aged 24 – 54 who did not follow runway trends but still cared about how they looked.” Oh I get it: you mean none of those Big City pansies, right?
The point being that it is perhaps thanks to Gilt’s first foray into a sophisticated online men’s retail concept that a broader and more complex marketplace has emerged, one that raises the bar on traditional men’s retail while allowing men of all persuasions and style sensibilities to find a place to call their own.