Mick Elliott reports that Digi-Key has announced that they will stop producing a printed catalogue. This is an interesting move – the pile of catalogues that many people received certainly got the company “on the desk” of a huge number of potential customers.
The company cites environmental concerns as the main reason for stopping the catalogue, although presumably they have also decided that the sales generated by a hard-copy catalogue don’t justify the costs of printing and postage. I wonder whether this is because the brand is now well-known, reducing the benefit of having a physical promotion (the catalogue) sitting on customers’ desks. I suspect this might be a significant factor. It will also be interesting to see whether Digi-Key choose to move their advertising online, rather than supporting printed magazines, which presumably have a similar impact on the environment as did the catalogues.
