Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year--all year long!

Left..Visit to the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
I was just listening to some old Christmas carols when I heard a song by Bing Crosby (that shows how long ago I recorded these songs!) called "It's not the things you do at Christmas time, it's the Christmas things you do all year long!" I had just seen a business news report that retailers were again struggling with their holiday (politically correct of course) sales this year. How appropriate are old Bing's lyrics for those retailers who hold up doing any signficant marketing and branding all year and then shoot their marketing wad in December expecting the customer to select their store over the others with the same items and much the same prices. I always used to tell our fragrance buyers that they should build a preference all year as the right store for that purchase and then they wouldn't have to scramble and overspend from Thanksgiving on tryingto get that last minute gift sale. Branding is not just a blitz campaign. It takes time and it take meaningful messages (no, a preprint a day does not keep the sales slump away). The customers are all as busy as I am at this time of year and they are going to go to the stores that they prefer in March and July first to get their Christmas shopping done because they don't have time to stroll the mall anymore. I just heard that Macy's was going to be open 24 hours this weekend. Hooray. I always wanted to go to Herald Square at 3am to get my wife's gift!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all through 2008.

Ken

BLACK FRIDAY. CYBER MONDAY. BRANDING TUESDAY…?

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So, another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone (quickly I might add). I remember my department store days when working the day after was as challenging as my first day of Army basic training…only a lot more exciting. Now that Black Friday has become such a media event, it’s hard t believe that anyone wants to shop that day—especially at 4am or 5am. I was surprised to see that there were people camped out in front of my local Best Buy on WEDNESDAY afternoon just to be first in line for the bargains two days later. So much for a nice family holiday on Thanksgiving Day! The advertising in general over the weekend was non-descript. The two department store competitors (successful ones, that is) Kohl’s and JCPenney literally bombarded the media with more preprint pages and spots than I can remember. More surprising was how identical their print ads were. Almost like they knew what the other was going to do not only the vehicles and style, but also the merchandise and prices. It reminded me of Doner CEO Alan Kalter’s description of the disease plaguing today’s retailers—“emulitis”. Of course, he said this over a decade ago but the copycat strategy is alive and well. Overall, there were more bargain shoppers this past weekend, but they spent less thanks to the continuing decline in prices on flat screen TV’s, mp3 players, and laptops. It will be difficult indeed to achieve even the predicted 2% growth for the holiday selling season.

Now, we are infatuated by Cyber Monday. So all of us who have something better to do than stand in line on Friday (or Wednesday night) can wait and get bargains online by just loggin in on Monday morning. And it seems to work there as well, with significant increases even with retailers who are in a slump (like Circuit City and Sears). The growth on line continues to amaze analysts. Yet, it should be no surprise given the over 80% of consumers who go online prior to visiting a store to make a purchase these days. The integration of the store and online marketing efforts is more critical today than ever. By the way, I “elfed” myself on Office Max’s site (http://elfyourself.com/) and it was as much fun as watching Bob Thacker’s examples of last year’s big success stories. The whole extended family is now dancing in their green costumes this year online.

Now it’s back to reality. With all the effort and spending toward getting the bargain hunters this weekend so we can clear inventory and reduce our margins, isn’t it time for stores to devote a day to making sure that there brand is alive and well…or at least existing? With the exception of Zale’s and Kay Jewelers, I have not seen much effort to do great advertising and give customers a reason to choose your store for any reason other than super values and 75% discounts. What happened to giving the customer a reason to be loyal and have a preference for your store so that you don’t have to wait for the next big sale to give a reason to shop. The print ads that I received from Sam’s Club were the closest thing to holiday advertising that makes you want to visit the store for the merchandise and not just the discount. Great photography, great design and great prices make the store look better than any conventional department store advertising that I reviewed.

In broadcast, it’s pretty much the same. Seldom is there a brand message that positions the retailers as a preferred choice for the holidays. Sure, with the economy, price is as important as ever. But with the amount of competition and the growing lack of shopping time or interest, wouldn’t one want to be the preferred store going in to the weekend and make holiday shopping a special occasion like it once was. I was in Saks a couple days after the Thanksgiving holiday and it seemed like it was no more exciting than a random weekend in July. We blame it on the Internet, or the economy, but we ought to look into the mirror and pick a day to promote our brand to our customers and to our employees so that there is a reason beyond price to come to our stores all year round.

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