Marketing Vinyl

I was listening to this podcast...it's called Sound Opinions from Chicago Public Radio and it airs on NPR. It's sort of like "At The Movies" but with the rock music critics from the Sun-Times and the Tribune, and is a really great podcast if you are interested in that sort of thing. This particular episode highlights the reunion tour of The Feelies which is, honestly, one of those bands that as a music geek I feel like I am really supposed to like but just have never been able to enjoy. But wait, I digress...

The reason I am bringing it up on this forum is an interview with Tom "Grover" Biery, VP of Marketing for Warner Brothers Records. He is also in charge of their vinyl album initiatives. Get this...vinyl album sales are up 77% over last year, while CD sales are down 16%. No doubt it still makes up only a small portion of their total revenue...but 77%? Holy cow! It got me thinking...

I love mp3s. But I also miss having that big, square piece of artwork. I miss the inside album sleeve with the liner notes and the lyrics printed on it. Some bands now release "digital booklets" that feature the same stuff...but sitting and listening to one of my favorite bands while flipping through their latest PDF? Ugh. Digital vs. paper. There are pros and cons to both, but honestly, in my world they co-exist. So what does this have to do with B2B marketing? Well...when is the last time you went old school and did a direct mail campaign?

Just thinking out loud here, but it seems to me that one of the biggest challenges for marketing campaigns in the electronic age, especially with email campaigns, is getting them to render the way that you want them to look. I can look at one email on my Outlook 2007 at work, via webmail through my browser, or on my BlackBerry. I can even look at it through a WiFi connection on my iPod. It looks different in every single medium. And here's the kicker...it may not even look the way the sender intended it to!

Think about how many emails you receive that get thrown out without even allowing your email client to render the images properly, and then think about your daily postal mail. Your creative may be incredible, a work of art! But if I am not seeing the images, then what does it matter? I may not read everything I get in the mail, but I at least look at it as a whole and decide whether it is worth reading.

A nice postcard or direct mail piece will look exactly the way you want it to look, with properly rendered images and the fonts you selected. And one of the biggest drawbacks to direct mail, that inability to track ROI as effectively as with digital marketing, is now much easier to overcome through best practices like customized landing pages.

Another good thing? Direct mail has a pretty low bounce rate...if your target is no longer at the company then your piece stands a pretty good shot of landing on the desk of the replacement. Throw in that "retro" appeal of getting a really clever piece of marketing in the mail and you could have a winner of a campaign. Maybe it's time to consider giving direct mail another shot. Now excuse me, I think I might stroll over to Amoeba and check out the latest vinyl.