Nordstrom & J.Jill admit a printing blunder that cost them millions.

It's oh-so-tempting to whack your advertising budget on a Facebook, Instagram or Google advert. Whilst sat on the train, a quick glance around shows the majority of the carriage burying their nose into their phone as the new habitual pastime. It makes sense that more and more marketing focus is aimed at mobile, and indeed, digital platforms.

We'd muse that your marketing efforts need to be more like a balanced set of scales. Indeed digital efforts offer up high reach from the ease of your chair, with low to nil labour costs, but is it wise to cut your print?

Nordstrom & J.Jill recently moved their loyalty program off direct mail and set it all up online.
According to Nordstrom: "We elimated paper notes, but later discovered that a segment of our customer base relies on receiving these notes by mail. As a result, we saw a reduction in traffic."

Can we put a value on that reduction caused by no print?

The eye-watering loss by Nordstrom was mirrored, albeit to a lesser extent, by J.Jill. Shifting their budget away from direct mail caused a decrease of roughly $5'000'000. It's odd that $5 million doesn't sound so much at the moment... we're still recovering from the Nordstrom figure!

J.Jill President and CEO Linda Heasley: “We plan some shift from direct mail to alternative media options primarily digital. In hindsight we moved too much too soon. We made adjustments quickly when we saw the results and we were able to add back some direct mail touch point[s] along some changes in digital to better support our promotional activities. That restored traffic to planned levels albeit belatedly.”

Quite simply, traditional marketing methods are so tried and tested that it would be foolish to abandon them.
By all means, expand and embrace the new. Nurture the digital, conquer the mobile but be very careful to test the water before making drastic marketing changes!

It has been found that millennial consumers consistently rank among the highest to engage with direct mail, as well as it being a preferred touching point for older age-groups. Holding an item in your hand allows a moment of pure attention, there's no swiping away or diverting your attention. Even if your mailed communications end up in the bin, there's still the journey from the doormat to the bin. Any chance at direct, undivided attention is golden. Make use of it. Be clever with it.

Much of the battle will still be about producing quality content, whether that's online or off - we've seen some brilliant examples of clever printing and design that steal the show. Inspired by wonderful campaigns, we got quirky and ran a SuperTuffMenus® press release to nearby businesses. We sent out our press release on our waterproof, durable material (to show off how sturdy and reusable it is!) and attached some free ketchup sachets. Any documents with a ketchup sachet is bound to raise an eyebrow, and whilst we hope people enjoyed it with their lunch, the point was to test our claim - mess up our press release, smear sauce all over it, and then see how easily cleaned it is. Back to perfection, good as new.

We had lots of little videos, pictures, testimonials and blogs already existing on SuperTuffMenus® but seeing is believing. Giving the customer a chance to experience the brand, understand the product, test it, be sold by it. Invaluable.

Got a print job to discuss?
Get in touch with us and we'll be glad to contribute ideas and logistics to ensure your requirements are brought to life!