In the beginning...

Exactly a week ago, we all trooped along to Royal Colombo Golf Club as the venue for the launch of a new division of Direct Solutions.


Genesis.


For those who missed the event (and the sight of a delicious Otara decked out in blue silk and diamonds), Genesis produces catalogues. From design to copy, photography, print, distribution and analysis.


We’ve been thinking about this for some time, so 3 weeks ago decided to press ahead and launch the product. I know there’s all these quotes of “the time is right” etc, but it really did feel right on the night. The only slight sadness is that we had some 250 catalogues from around the world on display and hardly anyone looked at them. We get so few here that I thought many would have jumped at the chance to pinch some great design ideas.


I got a surprise when Chandima, the Team Leader of the division announced that we had produced over 1,000,000 catalogues in the last 6 years. I guess it’s like your age. It creeps up on you from a distance and you get a shock when you realise that you’re only a few years from retirement.


What pleased us all though was the very positive reception given to the new division. We’ll be following up the enquiries during the next few days.


I had a quiet laugh later because an old friend of mine, Drayton Bird, tells the story of the opportunity he had to get into the Australian Catalogue and mail order market some 10 years ago. At the time everyone was waxing lyrical about the net and the first retail sites were just starting. He was advised not to invest in the catalogue market and he listened to these doom mongers believing that they knew more about the local market than he did. 18 months later the market exploded and Drayton was left fuming on the sidelines having missed the opportunity to cease being one of the world’s best copywriters and retire with a bevy of beautiful women and a few crates of good plonk.


I am sure we’ll have better luck than Drayton, as the time for catalogue marketing is right, here in Sri Lanka.