The History of Brochures in Marketing

Brochures have had a longstanding history in the field of marketing; from the time that the printing press made printing marketing brochures more accessible and (eventually) more cost effective, marketing campaigns have used this relatively inexpensive form of advertising to its fullest advantage. Since the 1800s, businesses have made use of brochure printing to provide advertising to the masses in the form of graphics and text to convey a simple message: you need our products and services, and this is why.

Taking a look back

The history of brochures in marketing is a varied one. With the widespread escalation of advertising in magazines and newspapers, business owners began to see the advantages of using smaller, scaled down versions in the form of single-sheet black and white brochures as a means of simple marketing. Because of this rise in printed advertising, especially that of brochures, commercial printing services became a popular enterprise, making brochure printing even more available though still very expensive. Although the advantages associated with this type of advertising were numerous indeed, the cost associated with printing out brochures for advertising purposes often could not be justified by businesses, and so they were forced to find other means of advertising.

With the advent of the off-set printing press, the 1950s and the 1960s saw a dramatic decrease in the cost of printing brochures, as well as a widening in the available colored inks and papers to be used. Printing in full color, for brochures and other promotional materials, became widely popular, though still much more expensive than its black and white counterparts. Furthermore, the offset printing press provided a much higher quality of printing, so businesses found themselves turning to the offset press for their brochure printing needs more and more, turning brochure marketing into a highly successful enterprise.

With the invention and subsequent huge popularity of the desktop PC in the 1980s, publishing marketing materials like brochures became an at home prospect; graphics software and quickly developed, ever improving printers made printing marketingbrochures at home or in the office more available, though not necessarily easier or more cost effective. Non-professionals now found themselves capable of designing and printing out promotional brochures with the ease and quality of the printing companies they’d previously turned to for their materials. Some software programs even began providing templates and layout schemes for amateurs to create and design their own brochures with ease and skill previously associated with the professionals.

Modern day printing

Today, between the ease and availability of at home or online printing for brochures, the historyof brochures in marketing has skyrocketed to unheard of proportions. Everywhere from doctor’s offices to school libraries to hotel lobbies to rest stops along the highway, we can find examples of advertising brochures intended to spark an interest within the reader to take advantage of the products, services or adventures within the folds of these brightly colored, informative brochures illustrated with gorgeous photos and graphics. Brochures have not lost their ability to draw in the attention and attraction of the consumer, and can still be found in the hands of readers all over looking to get a little insight into whatever the brochure has to offer.