Marketing - Written by Elizabeth Smythe on Friday, February 4, 2011 14:51 - 1 Comment
Argos celebrates 75 brochures
When Richard Tompkins had an idea for a new kind of shopping experience whilst on holiday in 1973, little did he imagine the giant impact on the high street or the huge marketing phenomenon his concept would turn into. Where was he when he thought up this gem? The Greek town of Argos. In marketing news today, with the release of their 75th brochure, The Daily Mail examines Argos’s success.
In a time when there was only one commercial television station broadcasting, catalogues were an extremely simple and effective way of advertising products direct to the consumer. The first, launched in July 1973, contained 4,500 products over 250 pages, according to The Daily Mail, complete with slogan: “Buy it at Argos and pocket the difference.” Sales on day one totalled £43,000. By August they had made their first million.
The first TV advert was filmed in 1975, followed a year later by the biggest retail direct mail campaign the UK had seen, reaching 200,000 consumers. Other highlights in Argos’s history, as charted by the store’s in-house publication The Argos Post, include the launch of home delivery in 1978, and the first appearance of Elizabeth Duke coinciding with the opening of the 100th store in 1980. Turnover by the end of the eighties was £818 million.
The nineties saw Argos venture on to the stock exchange, set up their online service and introduce the helpful in-store stock checker system. By the end of the decade, turnover had reached £2 billion. By the end of 2010, shoppers could pay for goods via PayPal.
The Argos story is one of innovation and great marketing strategies; ”vintage” brochures are now highly sought after as consumer history records. With news that turnover last year reached £6 billion and a massive £70 million re-brand in the pipelines, it looks like Argos’s success is set to continue for quite some time yet.
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Argos is truly a great British institution, and it is quite right to recognise and celebrate the achievement of the release of its 75th catalogue. Let’s now look forward to issue 100, some time in the summer of 2023!