11/18/2005
The 6 weeks leading up to Christmas
It is Ohio State v. Michigan weekend, which means that in addition to seeing A.J. Hawk blitzing the Wolverine QB, you can expect to see a rush of holiday retail advertisements on your television. John Moore has a great post on Brand Autopsy regarding one retail organization's strategy for holiday advertising - RadioShack. It seems that RadioShack has publicly expressed a desire to make their organization more relevant to the American consumer. Their strategy; increase relevance by entertaining consumers with heavy doses of advertising during the 6 weeks leading up to Christmas. John's take on this strategy is as follows: "it's not what you do during the 6-weeks leading up to Christmas that makes a business relevant. It's what you do during the 46-weeks leading up to the Holidays that makes a business relevant." I completely agree with Mr. Moore's assessment.
While John's post focuses on RadioShack, it is clear that this is applicable to other companies as well. In the coming weeks there will be hundreds of thousands of advertisements for stores and brands that have long since lost their way. Does that mean that companies should not advertise heavily during the holidays? Absolutely not. Take the case of Target. Target will run countless ads over the next 6 weeks trying to reach consumers who are ready to spend money. The difference is that Target works on it year round. They strive to be relevant. They are passionate about it, and the result is they are relevant in February, April, June, September...and December. Perhaps RadioShack will combine their advertising blitz with some wonderful initiatives for improving the experience of their customers. Maybe, their ad blitz alone will be wildly successful, making them relevant for years to come. I tend, however, to believe as John Moore does - "If you are expecting a multi-million/multi-dimensional Holiday advertising blitz to make a brand relevant, then you should expect to fail."
Brand Autopsy: RadioShackÂs Holiday Irrelevance
While John's post focuses on RadioShack, it is clear that this is applicable to other companies as well. In the coming weeks there will be hundreds of thousands of advertisements for stores and brands that have long since lost their way. Does that mean that companies should not advertise heavily during the holidays? Absolutely not. Take the case of Target. Target will run countless ads over the next 6 weeks trying to reach consumers who are ready to spend money. The difference is that Target works on it year round. They strive to be relevant. They are passionate about it, and the result is they are relevant in February, April, June, September...and December. Perhaps RadioShack will combine their advertising blitz with some wonderful initiatives for improving the experience of their customers. Maybe, their ad blitz alone will be wildly successful, making them relevant for years to come. I tend, however, to believe as John Moore does - "If you are expecting a multi-million/multi-dimensional Holiday advertising blitz to make a brand relevant, then you should expect to fail."
Brand Autopsy: RadioShackÂs Holiday Irrelevance
