If you’ve shopped online somewhere, do you expect to find paper marketing from the business in your mailbox? I don’t, as to me it’s a bit like receiving a phone call out of the blue from the friend who always texts (something I actually love).

Today’s retailers have many forms of communication to choose from. While our world has gone digital, marketers know that many would-be shoppers, perhaps particularly in the pandemic, are experiencing online overload. Today in The Conversation Canada Joanne McNeish of Ryerson University writes about how both bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses have been relying on paper catalogues to market toys during the holidays.

McNeish, whose research has studied consumers’ refusal to give up on analog technologies, writes: “Home-delivered paper catalogues can be part of leisure reading and are artifacts with esthetic, symbolic and instrumental value … Paper catalogues create a richer sensory experience compared to a digital or catalogue or an online store.”

Also today:

• Shocking but not surprising: Auditor General of Canada criticizes enforcement of COVID-19 regulations for migrant workers
• A new approach finds materials that can turn waste heat into electricity
• Organizational support: The key to employee commitment and well-being during the pandemic
• Face masks, digital screens and winter weather are a triple threat for dry eyes

All the best.