As a manufacturer/marketer of outdoor gear and apparel, Patagonia doesn’t vary its product offerings hugely from one year to the next. And because roughly half of all its catalogs are sent to house file names, “we tend to go to the same customers with the same catalog,” says Morlee Griswold, director of direct marketing for the Ventura, CA-based company.
So to nab the attention of its longtime buyers, Patagonia will be varying the trim sizes of its catalogs this year. For instance, each of its four fall editions will appear in a different format. One will be square, one a standard 8.5″ × 11″, another a 6″ × 10.5″ slim-jim, and the fourth a 7″ × 10.5″ format.
“We’re trying to shake up what customers expect from us,” Griswold says. “Creative is all we can change.”