Prepare for Christmas now or pay later
It seems that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. I remember going into a local supermarket a few years ago when the mince pies had hit the shelves (yeah, I know a Northerner mentioning pies – quelle surprise!). The sell by date on them was mid November. I remember thinking how strange it was selling Christmas food that would have gone off long before Christmas.
I’m sure you’ve all groaned when the supermarket shelves start filling up with festive produce with seemingly ages to go, but spare a thought for the buyers and people looking after the promotional side of what is undoubtedly the most important retail period of the year. For these folks, Christmas is something that is well planned months ahead of time. Sure, some adjustments may be made ‘on the fly’ to react to current events, but most retailers will have a detailed plan of action in place by now.
If you haven’t started thinking about Christmas yet, I would advise you to do it as soon as possible. The weeks will soon fly by and you’ll be left to scrabble around putting something in place at the last minute, and if this happens then inevitably, you will lose out. In these days of austerity, it is criminal to miss out due to a lack of planning.
Here are a just a few of things to think about:
Christmas Cards – do not leave this to the last minute, unless you are going to buy some off the shelf. If you want your own custom cards, get those quotes in now. You will impress clients and potential clients a lot more if you put some effort in. Even if you decide to go down the environmentally friendlier e-card route, make sure the planning for this is in place now so that it ties in with the rest of your brand messages.
Point of Sale – if you are in retail, point of sale is vital. You are unlikely to see as many people through your doors (whether real or virtual) as you will over the few weeks running up to Christmas. Plan for this extra traffic. If you are running special offers and discounts, make sure these are obvious, with strong calls to action, tie them in with any offline print work you do and have an email created to spread the message as widely as possible.
Printed Matter – leaving your printing until the last minute will bite you on the ass. Remember everyone else wants stuff printed at the is time of year as well, so normally short print deadlines will be much longer than normal. Think about everything you might need, flyers, stationery, vouchers, gift wrap. If you’re an e-tailer, make sure you have enough packaging material – don’t miss out because you didn’t buy enough envelopes!
Remember the old addage, ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’.
If you need some help planning for Christmas, why not get in touch to see how we can help, from a shiny new website to a fully integrated marketing campaign, from Point of sale to Christmas cards, we can help.
