The holiday shopping period is about to start (actually it started before Halloween). If you carefully study what retailers are doing for this period, you will see what the mindset of the consumer is.
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story in the Marketplace section on “Catering to the Recession Mentality”. The bottom line in the article is that the consumer is going to be frugal this season. Because of this, here are some interesting observations:
- Retailers are promoting “Black Friday” sales now
- Retailers are spending larger chunks of ad dollars in October & November
- Walmart is offering 100 toys at $10
What does this mean to all of us in the event & entertainment business? I believe we should take a page from retail and follow their lead.
We should:
- Put our 2010 events on sale now with a “buy early” offer
- Don’t just put the event on sale and not market it. Budget some money toward the early sale
- We should absolutely use the holiday season in our marketing. Example: “tickets make great stocking stuffers”
Think about the fact that while the economy may be starting to rebound, its not back yet. With over 10% of the working population out of work and the other 90% scared about their jobs, consumers are very tight with the money. Especially with the discretionary dollars.
We are not a necessity of life. However, it is this time of year when consumers are looking for nice things to spend on each other. This is gift season, recession or no recession. Let’s take advantage of the holiday shopping season. Put your 2010 events on sale now and give them a reason to spend money with you.
Tags: Black Friday, buy early offers, discretionary dollars, events on sale early, gift season, holiday marketing, holiday shopping season, marketing in recession, Walmart
