Marketing and Christmas time

Christmas time is such an emotional and overwhelming time for everyone, it is interesting as to how these festive feelings translate to consumer buying decisions. There’s no doubt this time of the year is competitive, customers are in a buying mood and every brand is fighting to cut through the noise and be the hottest product this Christmas. But what’s interesting is how businesses are using this highly emotional and sometimes stressful time to appeal to customers. 

Emotional Marketing.

I think the main takeaway from Marketing at this time of year is that businesses shouldn't be intimidated by the emotional behavior of consumers. Instead, they should seek to understand it and then create campaigns that appeal to the cognitive tendencies of their consumers, to stay top mind. 

Pester power

Two-thirds of parents ask friends and family their advice or recommendations on what to buy their children for Christmas. Businesses need to remember that positive "word of mouth" around their products are invaluable around this time of year, with parents and grandparents everywhere asking their peers and influencers what presents they should purchase or what festive foods should be whipped up in the kitchen. It’s important to make your product memorable and create marketing campaigns that differentiate your product from competitors. A campaign that sparks conversation and communication among consumers, now that is the key to a memorable everlasting campaign. 

The scarcity effect

One of the tactics that businesses use to entice consumers to purchase more is by tapping into a consumer's fear of missing out by playing on the effects of the scarcity theory. This theory tells us that as consumers if we think something is scare or only available for a short time, our mind will place more importance on buying that item. With Christmas right around the corner, many families have a deadline for buying such products which limit families in delaying the purchase decision as everyone rushes to buy last-minute gifts. Fear of missing out and creating a sense of urgency and thus promoting impulse purchases is something that businesses use as an effective selling tool. 

Christmas is a magical time for sure but I think it’s important for consumers and business alike to note that in marketing, we need to consider that people generally think emotionally and intuitively first, which influences decisions to purchase. Generating advertising and Marketing campaigns that generate an emotional response whether it’s happiness, fear, joy, fun or love will be the key to success this time of year.