This weekend, I went into Pier One in Branford looking for a particular piece of furniture for our studio.
When I walked through the doors, I was immediately struck with their holiday display.
At first, I forgot it was still October (it is, isn’t it?).
Secondly, we’re not just talking about a few ornaments and a wreath here. This was rows upon rows of shiny, glittery, colorful swag taking up the entire front half of the store.
Sorry, loyal blog readers. In my stunned state, I completely forgot to break out my camera and snap an image for this post. But if you take a look at Pier One’s website, click on the “Holiday” tab, you will see a boastful headline reading “Christmas 2011. Preview arriving in stores mid-October”.
Mid-October? Really? I’m still scrambling to make my kids Halloween costumes this week. What’s going on here? And can someone please tell me what happened to Thanksgiving? Is there no month of November this year? The holiday marketing selling cycle seems to get longer in longer every year. Soon, it will be Christmas in July. Does anyone else feel this way?
Marketers keep pushing the holidays to “sell” more, but do you think it tricks you into buying more when Christmas is on display in October? Personally, I feel it does the opposite. I know what their marketing rationale is and I feel opposed to being “tricked” by the early push. It also causes me added stress thinking that I should already be shopping for the holidays – and who needs extra anxiety? This just makes me want to avoid again walking into Pier One until, um, say, mid-December. What are your thoughts about pushing the holiday marketing in October? When do you think retail stores should start marketing for the holiday?
On the flip side, it is never too early to start planning your holiday marketing effort. For example, you should start thinking about any holiday updates to your website, your holiday sales promotions, advertising and e-commerce plans. We’ll be writing posts this week geared towards getting your holiday marketing ramped up for the next couple of weeks.
What do you do for marketing your business or products during the holidays?
~Amy
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Nordstrom doesn’t deck their halls until the day after Thanksgiving. It’s kind of their “thing” and they spread the word in-store. Pushing holiday too early actually does damage in my opinion, because there is no sense of urgency and I’m still thinking about the holiday at hand. Give people less time to shop and I think they might actually buy more.
Thanks, Chelsea. I love Nordstrom’s. They get it. I thought I loved them before, but knowing that it’s a policy to wait until after Turkey days solidifies it for me!
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