Playboy Enterprises Inc. will increase its catalog circulation this year from 4 million to a possible high of 5.6 million.
The move coincides with a catalog redesign, and a greater emphasis on direct response on the Playboy TV channel and in-house print ads.
The company’s marketing group will shift mailing patterns as well. Rather than sending out equal amounts in each of its three annual catalog drops, Playboy is expected to mail 800,000 this month, another 800,000 in the summer and between 3 million and 4 million in the fall.
Most of the additional recipients will come from Playboy’s mail order buyer and subscriber files.
Playboy feels these changes will contribute to the marketing unit’s revenue and margin. Catalog revenue was $2.7 million during the third quarter of 2001.
Designed to mirror the magazine, the overhauled catalog will feature eight pages of intimate apparel. And the number of pages devoted to more sedate men’s and women’s clothing will be cut from 10 to three.
The catalog will remain at 32 pages.
Combination sales will play a larger role than ever before. For example, related videos will be offered at discounts. And other merchandise will be paired and sold at premium prices.
The design change is a return to a format abandoned in 1999, when Playboy decided to tone down the offerings in the catalog to make it more compatible with those on the Web site (www.playboystore.com). At the time, Playboy didn’t know that its online buyers and catalog shoppers were two different audiences.
Last year, Playboy profiled its customer database and realized that Playboystore.com shoppers are younger than its catalog buyers, and that 40% are female. They tend to buy more traditional clothing.
But the catalog draws 75% of its orders from men, many of whom are longtime Playboy magazine readers. They tend to purchase collectibles and back issues. And the catalog’s intimate apparel pages pulled twice as well before the 1999 redesign as they did after.
Playboy’s new direction goes beyond the catalog changes. Randy Nicolau, senior vice president for marketing and e-commerce, is reorienting the unit’s print advertising to contain stronger direct response elements. The new ads, which began running in the magazine’s March issue, replace softer-sell image ads with promotions that emphasize product, price and response vehicle.
Likewise, Playboy’s new television ads push the price and response mechanism much more heavily than previous efforts, which merely urged viewers to go to Playboystore.com.
While racy versions of the ads began running on the Playboy Channel in late January, the magazine will produce toned-down commercials for cable venues such as Comedy Central and MTV, although at deadline Playboy did not have a space purchase schedule.
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