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Tis the season! And marketers have more reasons to be merry this holiday season.
Mass vaccination drives this year and slightly restricted gatherings have pushed people to explore creative ways to celebrate the holiday season. As the world embraces and adapts well in the post-pandemic environment, marketers are back with a perfect rebound strategy this year. Newer and unexpected trends have surfaced, consumer behavior has gone through a complete metamorphosis and the consistent upheaval in digitization and big data analysis has opened myriad opportunities to build effective brand marketing campaigns. In fact, the online shopping sales figure this year alone was recorded higher on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday leading to a total revenue generation of $10.7 billion. Trade analysts have estimated Amazon’s holiday sales to grow to $141.6 billion this year. Having said that, online is not the only escapade shoppers are vying for, in-store shopping is back with a bang too running personalized and timed promotional offers targeted for exclusive member groups.
In this blog, we will list out some unique marketing strategies that would work best for brands during this holiday season, let’s pause and review some of the industries who have literally pulled up their socks and are all set to ride the holiday season marketing sleigh.
CPG marketers have a lot to look forward to this year compare to the low-key 2020 season. Research says that while 70% of consumers will be more price-conscious, 52% will chose quality while selecting a brand in this season. Putting forth educational content while advertising a brand might reap benefits to CPG marketers. CPG brands also need to seep in nostalgia in their respective consumer groups to strategically build marketing campaigns, For instance, focusing more on families cooking together at home much like the global phenomenon of eating and cooking meals during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve dinner is a great tip CPG brands can get benefitted from. This is where data-driven marketing would help and enabling customer loyalty programs through the right data set will create personalized experiences for consumers. These experiences can be built not only during in-store shopping but even when a consumer is shopping online – either at a common marketplace or with a brand’s exclusive ecommerce store.
Noteworthy sales by retail brands on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday definitely set the stage for 2021 holiday season. A big reason could be the pent-up demand from consumers that is triggering this surge in the retail sector. However, what is most critical at this point for retail brands is to connect with consumer across store, digital and even social channels. While digitization has clearly lifted a bigger piece from the pie, consumers are hunting for shopping options through social apps like Facebook or other informational social channel that curates personalized recommendations. But this doesn’t deter consumers to walk into the stores and experience the holiday season. The excitement around this yearly tradition will still have 46% consumers visiting retail stores for shopping.
An industry largely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, travel industry is welcoming consumers with arms wide open this holiday season. While business travel is yet to gain momentum, leisure travel has definitely seen the light of the day. 37% of people are planning to travel this holiday season. And if there is one strategy that helped travel industry to bounce back – it is re-strategizing their loyalty programs to stay connected with the consumers. The frequent-flyer loyalty programs offered by many airlines need to be restructured in the new setup we now live in until business travel picks up. By creating a loyalty ecosystem comprising airline and hotel brands, the partner loyalty program is one of the most touted loyalty strategies opted by the travel industry. Extending points expiration to enabling easier ways to earn points are few of the tactics adopted by the brands. Tips and tricks like offering VIP treatment, opening exclusive access to an event for loyalty members could be few of the drivers from an emotional loyalty program that might just do the trick during this time.
With social distancing becoming the norm, living in a slightly restricted world today comes with its own challenges. It is at this time that offering convenience to customers is of paramount importance. By facilitating quick checkouts, preferential shopping time slots, adopting digital payment modes and offering a buy online and pickup later option – as a brand you are not only transacting with the customer but thinking about some of the apprehensions shoppers would have in today’s contactless world.
There is and can never be complete domination of online shopping. The partly forgotten in-store experience over the last 1.5 years is all set to lure consumers with stores revamping their look as per the holiday season themes. In-store gift ideas like Christmas Raffle prize, free refreshments and a special corner for your kids to splurge in while you shop stress-free. All these could increase your overall store footfall and might as well ensure repeat purchase if you tie it up with the timely customer loyalty program.
Emotional quotient of people is quite high during the holiday season. A reason why, building emotional loyalty programs would give your brand the edge in comparison to your competitors. Loyalty programs has been the biggest indicator for brands to personalize messages and direct to consumers at different touch points in their shopping journey to stay connected with the brand. And discounts is not the only tool we are talking about here! Building unique experiences like offering gift cards during the holiday season or creating a full-fledged holiday loyalty campaign could woo customers to not only redeem points but also earn more points that could be utilized even after the holiday season. Gamification elements like creating a holiday season wish list leaderboard in your brand’s loyalty app could also result in higher customer engagement.
We cannot leave this blog and not talk about the ecommerce evolution that has taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Uploading high quality pictures from different angles, informative and DIY videos would not only attract more views but help consumers understand the product better. This could be achieved by introducing chatbots that could serve as the store shopping assistant, an option to pick up the delivery from the store or offering educational content that could help consumer to make the right choice and reduce the final decision-making timeline.
As a brand, marketers can start the New Year on a high note by creating a customer-centric marketing campaign right at the beginning of the year. People who spend more during the holiday season often hunt for economically-priced yet value-driven goods during the first quarter of the year. Introduce new products and services, communicate with the right messaging on the right channel and stick to personalization while marketing your brand.
Tis the season of giveaways, gifting and rewards. Let your brand make the most of this holiday season with a thought through marketing campaign planning and an agile loyalty marketing strategy. For more details on how to get started, connect with our expert team and set this rolling. Happy holidays everyone!
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