OPINION: Early Seasonal Marketing: STOP IT!
Image by Kraken Images on Unsplash.
November 26, 2023
Zach Myers, Journalism Club Member
When you’re walking around a grocery store around the end of August, usually the last thing on your mind is picking up a bag of candy for trick-or-treaters. This is mainly because you’re thinking, “Oh, Halloween is over a month away, obviously no one is thinking about candy or costumes.” Well, your logic is wrong. Often between one to two, and, in some cases, up to three whole months in advance of whatever holiday is coming, large retail or grocery stores, such as Walmart, Hannaford, or Target will start putting up sales of things related to these holidays. We are currently in the thick of the holiday season, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas taking place in consecutive months. This is where the early marketing comes in from these big retailers, who often put out their themed products months in advance. To me, this is ridiculous. Why is there a need to promote these holidays so early in advance when we know people will continue to buy whatever products are available during that season?
However, there are various reasons for these early sales. An article by Parja Kavilanz of CNN explains why companies feel the need to release their holiday sales earlier and earlier. During the pandemic crunch, retailers were worried about customer demand for winter holiday products and companies like Amazon and Walmart pushed out sales as early as October. Now there are predictions that winter holiday sales may intertwine with labor day, back to school sales, and possibly may clash with summer season sales. While it is a stretch to say this will end up being the norm, there is evidence as to why it may be a possibility.
Nikki Baird, who is the vice president of strategy at Aptos said that the reason Christmas stuff may show up in August is, “They have sold through all their summer inventory, and they need to put something out on the floor.” She also points out that companies have left over inventory from previous years and that to be able to sell them, they must be put out early.
There also has been promotions, namely from Amazon, that have been used to push early holiday sales. Amazon Prime’s “Early Access Sale” allows shoppers to buy deals in the middle of the fall season to take advantage of early deals. Due to this, more and more larger retailers are doing similar things so that they can beat Amazon and not lose sales due to Amazon’s promotion.
While the information above may indicate that there is a good point in early holiday deals, I stand by the point of: Who is thinking about holidays nearly half a year in advance?! Christmas sales have been seen as early as August in some locations. Is this really the biggest deal at this time? This is when kids are going back to school or college. We are celebrating labor day. There are end of summer sales that could be happening! Why are companies focusing on a holiday or a sale that is nowhere close to important at the time they are advertising it?
There is also the claim given that there is a lack of inventory at the time of these sales, so companies are forced to push the early holiday narrative. I wonder why this is? It seems there are limitless sales during each season, summer included, so why does it all of a sudden seem to stop as we reach September? Does seasonal product just drop off the shelves as we reach the back to school month?
Seeing as how a freshman college student isn’t the best person to give major retailers advice on how to do their sales, take what I say next with a grain of salt. But I believe there is a better way to keep up with this marketing tactic. Even as I have clowned Amazon and other retailers for their marketing style, it is effective in making money, but there is a way to do this at scale while keeping pace with holidays. Take the months of October through February for example, which is the most jam-packed stretch of holiday marketing of the year. On the first of each month, companies should start rolling out that month's holiday themed products, which for October would be Halloween. The major retailers should start with average product prices for these items at the start of each month. As the weeks progress, the deals should become better as more of the product dissipates. That way, as the month wraps up, the company will have plenty of the next month's products in line. After the October example, the start of November would either have Thanksgiving or more fall themed sales in stores. Companies could then coincide the winter holiday sales with the remaining fall themed sales at better prices, considering the lack of supplies left to produce them.
Point being, I believe we should wait until the start of December to start the marketing craze known as Christmas (aka Mariah Carey’s time of the year.)
