More than 28 billion advertising brochures end up in the mailboxes of German households every year: a gigantic flood of paper that often ends up in the trash can unread. But there are increasing signs that the era of the leaflet is drawing to a close.
After Germany’s largest hardware store chain Obi, the supermarket chain Rewe also announced on Wednesday that it would soon be doing without brochures. “On July 1, 2023, the printing and distribution of the brochures will be stopped.” Obi has been without brochures since June.
Brochures and flyers are still among the most common advertising media in Germany. Millions upon millions of them land in mailboxes every week. They are a particularly attractive advertising medium for retailers. “Many families read them on Saturdays at the breakfast table. They are actively consumed – and that is what makes them so valuable for retailers. That is something completely different than being showered with TV advertising, radio spots or online banners and more or less unwillingly about endure,” reports Jens-Peter Gödde from the Cologne Institute for Retail Research (IFH). According to a representative survey by IFH Media Analytics, 90 percent of people in Germany read printed brochures at least occasionally – a good three quarters of all respondents even every week.
For retail chains, doing without brochures and flyers is not without risk. On the other hand, the downsides of this method are also obvious. “The billions of printed advertisements produced lead to vast amounts of unnecessary waste, wasted resources and massively fuel climate change,” complains the German Environmental Aid. At the same time, the dramatic increase in paper costs is increasing the pressure on retailers to find other ways of getting into the minds of customers.
According to Rewe alone, around 25 million flyers have been distributed every week. Rewe boss Lionel Souque emphasized that by doing without brochures, the CO2 footprint is massively reduced. The switch saves more than 73,000 tons of paper, 70,000 tons of CO2, 1.1 million tons of water and 380 million kilowatt hours of energy per year. Instead of brochures, the group wants to focus more on digital channels and advertisements in traditional media. As a first step, Rewe wants to reduce the circulation of brochures by four million from the beginning of August.
The Federal Managing Director of the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU), Leif Miller, praised Rewe’s step as an “important decision for the benefit of nature, which hopefully many competitors in the food retail sector will follow.”
However, other sectors are a little further along. The DIY chain Obi has been without brochures since June. “The production and printing of paper and the distribution of brochures cost a lot of energy, chemicals, water and of course trees. That no longer fits in today’s world,” emphasized the company, referring instead to its own app, which is now used by three million customers and customers had been downloaded.
Reactions to the move on the Obi Facebook page have been mixed, however. There was praise: “That’s good…!! Nobody needs it….” and “That’s great! I hope many others will also get rid of the brochures!”. But there was also criticism: “If I can no longer compare the offers in brochures so nicely, that’s a pity” or even “OBI is showing that customers are not wanted”.
However, according to industry expert Gödde, doing without advertising brochures is an even greater challenge for food retailers and especially discounters than for DIY stores. “There are many people who plan their weekly shopping with his help and decide where to shop this time,” he says. In view of the rising prices for groceries and the efforts of many consumers to keep their money together and take advantage of special offers, the brochures should currently become even more important, he believes.
So it is probably not surprising if other retailers act more cautiously than Rewe. “Especially at the moment, many customers expect the brochures to be delivered in order to find out where they can buy the cheapest food in the best quality,” Aldi Süd, for example, defended the brochures at the request of dpa. Lidl also emphasized: “The household handout is a central medium of our marketing activities, with which we inform customers in defined areas about upcoming offers and new products.” It is mostly preferred by customers.
But Aldi and Lidl are now also expanding their range of digital leaflets. “Even if the printed edition is very popular, our experience shows that more and more customers are using the digital offers,” says Aldi Nord.
However, big names in the retail trade have already proven that it is quite possible to do without printed brochures. The Swedish furniture giant Ikea announced the end of the printed Ikea catalog at the end of 2020. The mail-order company Otto already stopped producing the 656-page Otto catalog in 2018. “We didn’t suffer from it at all. There were no slumps in sales,” said a company spokesman this week. (dpa)