How to Profit from Holidays without Risking Your Company’s Reputation

I received an email this Mother’s Day from a company whose products I admire and enjoy. But it was so downright blasphemously “selly” and “me me me,” that it immediately caused their reputation to drop a few notches in my eyes, and caused me to lose “just that much more” respect for them. (I have copied and pasted their ad at the bottom of this post to hammer the message home so that you dear reader can truly benefit from the lesson learned by their unfortunate mistake.) In this day and age when anyone and everyone can do, make, and sell exactly what you or your company does, your reputation and the respect and admiration you have from your select customer base is by far your most valuable asset. That is why it is imperative that when considering how or when you might take advantage of a holiday as a potential advertising opportunity, you put good thought into it.

Obviously the first consideration is going to be “Can this holiday afford our company any additional sales compared to any other normal day.” Many companies choose to take advantage of holidays by holding one-day “holiday sales.” Often times it works. Consumers like holiday sales. But it depends on what sort of business you are in and what kind of holiday it is. Remember that “holidays” in and of themselves are an odd paradigm. Some are related to specific religions. Some are related to country and patriotism. Some started out as just covert advertisements themselves and took on a life of their own — Mothers Day is an example of one of those. But who isn’t going to support a special day to celebrate their mother? Originally created as a way to sell more greeting cards as the story goes, it turned out to be not such a bad idea afterall. But a company needs to be very careful in how they use Mother’s Day, or any holiday for that matter, as an advertisement opportunity.

A florist could have a field day with Mother’s Day. And they should. A simple “Show your mom how much you care this year by sending her a lovely bouquet from some of the most beautiful new bouquets in our collection, and save 20% if you order before Wednesday” is guaranteed to boost sales and not offend anyone. One can safely assume that a real estate company or a hardware store wouldn’t necessarily benefit from such an ad campaign. And they’d be smart to realize that and not do anything at all.

Sending out an email to advertise your company or your products on a holiday, any holiday, is tricky business. Many companies choose to take the conservative approach and not do anything. This is a safe approach. Not always the best, because you may be missing out on a big opportunity. But at least you aren’t risking offending anyone nor risking your most valuable commodity — your reputation.

What kind of business you are and what sort of product you sell is what determines how you take advantage of potential profit opportunities in holidays. A law firm is not going to offer its clientèle a holiday sale. Neither would your local doctor. But they can still profit from holidays by simply sending a greeting card to wish you and yours a happy holiday. This is good business. If you are in business, almost any business, no matter the size, it would be a good idea to initiate and set up a holiday greeting strategy starting right now and put it into action from this point forward. It is an easy way to do two very important things: Number one, it shows your customer that you care and that you appreciate their business. Number two, it is an easy way to put your brand in their attention field if even for a few brief seconds. They are reminded that you do indeed exist. And when needed, you are there for them.

Choose the holidays that your company feels aligned with and more importantly the ones that you believe your customer base feels aligned with. Then decide on how you are going to communicate with them. Could be a card. Could be an email. Might even be a sale, depending on your product and business. But make it short and simple, knowing that your customers, for we are ALL customers, are receiving a lot of these.

Last Christmas I received hundreds of Christmas cards - from friends, family, and businesses alike. I received greeting cards in the form of “We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued patronage” from my chiropractor, from my doctor, my accountant, from several law firms, and from many businesses that we work with in a variety of different arenas. All were appreciated. Smart business people.

But i also received an email from a non-profit that i work with that I found particularly disturbing simply because it said something to the effect of “As the year ends, now is the perfect time to support our most important cause etc etc…” I must say, i don’t know if the head of this normally decent and respectable charity had just been celebrating too much or what, but that was absolutely just about the dumbest thing I’d ever seen a company do on a holiday. The last thing people are thinking about during those six weeks leading up to Christmas is supporting our charity.

If you step back for even a moment and look at your own life, you’d realize that as everyone else in the free world, during that frantic period people are primarily concerned with buying presents for everyone on their list and making sure they get all those holiday cards filled out, signed, addressed, stamped, and to the post office in time. Nope. Not a good time to send out a solicitation for your non-profit. (Though it would have been PERFECT opportunity to simply say “We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support this year and wish you a happy holiday.”) Too bad they didn’t get this.

As you might guess, it lost them a bit of respect and reputation in the eyes of many of their supporters. And often times this isn’t even conscious. Remember that consumerism in general is not a conscious affair. It is often impulsive and works at a very subconscious level.

If a company is smart they can use this to their advantage. When in doubt, do nothing. If anything at all, use the above strategy of simply sending a note of appreciation. Another method that can work for some but not all is to have someone from the company recall a memory or an anecdote of some kind that relates to the holiday. “Memories of Mom” by the vice president with nothing more than a “Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there” wouldn’t be a bad idea. It would be difficult to offend many and it would still do the trick of putting your brand in the eyes of the customer one more time.

DO NOT offer a sale with the above strategy. You don’t need to. And in fact, it would reverse any potential benefit your little heart-warming gesture might create. (I have copied and pasted just such an example of this idea at the very bottom of this post from Ms. Jacqueline Whitmore of The Protocol Post. It was a smart move. Accomplished the goal. Read it and learn what you can from it.)

With that said, I will leave you with an email I received on Mother’s Day this year as a perfect illustration of just that. Here is a company that is in the “self-empowerment” business. They sell a very “hot product” in today’s world: self-help, self-improvement, and self-discovery products are all the rage these days. But they wrote one of the most smarmy emails I ever read and created a “special mother’s day sale” because “isn’t your mom worth it?” This is what we would call “an ad campaign from hell.” Whose ever idea it was should be shot on sight. Or at least never allowed near the advertising and marketing department again of this fine company. That’s for sure.

Read on and learn. The feeling that you will be left with is exactly what you do NOT want to leave your own customer’s with. Ever.

Ed Hale :: Optum Consulting

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Dear Customer,
I just got back from the florist and was thinking…
Have you realized that we spend most of the week time with people we hardly know? And what little time we have left is usually spent worrying about this or that.

It’s so easy too forget to show our family that we love them. The reason is simple - it gets so natural having them around and feeling their support that we “forget” about it…. and then only see how good we have it when it’s *gone*

It does not have to be that way. Let’s take a moment to show a loved one how much they mean to us.

Remember that this Sunday is Mother’s Day!

To help you show your love, we created the single best offer we’ve ever run on our site. For that special lady: Your Mother.
Learn about it here: http://www.silvalifesystem.com/products/promo/mothers-day-special

Jill Magso
SilvaLifeSystem.com

PS - A mother deserves it, doesn’t she? Let a special “mother” in your life (is your wife a mother?) know how much she’s loved. Visit the link below

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A note from Optum Consulting:

Now we may appear to be damn close to being psychic here simply because we are so good at what we do, but in fact we are not. So I cannot speak for you, but as an “already established customer” of the above company and their products - their second most valuable asset - an already established customer - I found their “Mother’s Day Special Sale” nauseating, truly offensive - almost to the point that I committed the most unholy of all acts that every company in the world should dread beyond all other’s besides “charge-backs, returns, and refunds” - I almost unsubscribed. In the end, I didn’t. I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume that someone in marketing got carried away with a bad idea and no one else was smart enough to stop them.

The point: DO NOT sugar coat your company, your product, or a sale you decide to have with some sappy bullshit pseudo holiday greeting such as “Isn’t your mother worth it?” when trying to sell your own product. We the consumer know what our mothers want, need, desire, and deserve. And we are smart enough - or at least think we are - to make that decision on our own. Consumers have grown up a lot in the last five years. Grow with them.

And now here below is an excellent example of how to use a holiday to your company’s benefit as explained above in a positive way. Notice that she uses the strategy exactly as descirbed above - not actually “selling anything” but simply using the holiday as an opportunity to put the company name out there one more time and help brand the company “that much more.” She also creates more customer loyalty by adding a personal touch to her company - a proven method to increase sales to an already established customer base.

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Greetings!
As we all know, a person is not born with manners. Manners are either learned through careful observation of others’ behavior or they are instilled in us by friends or family members. Manners aren’t about being stuffy or artificial. Good manners are nothing more than a series of small, inconsequential sacrifices.

It seems fitting since Mother’s Day is right around the corner that I recognize someone who made an extraordinary amount sacrifices for me throughout my life. My 82-year old mother, Elsie Whitmore, not only showed me the importance of being polite but she also taught me how to make other people feel very special. When I was growing up, I spent many hours after school playing at my mother’s beauty salon. She always insisted that I meet and greet every customer who sat in her chair. Little did I realize that I was learning social skills while talking and listening to others as they got their hair cut, curled or colored!

I am thankful that my mom cared enough to teach me the importance of developing personal relationships, socially and professionally. I hope that you take the time this month to thank that special someone who cared enough to give you the gift of good manners.

Dedicated to YOUR success,
Jacqueline Whitmore