The New Celebrations
How to create holiday excitement and strengthen sales year-round
By Merav Hoffman -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 12/1/2000
Once the funny hats and the party horns are on the clearance racks, and the seasonal decorations are back in the box, it's time to dust off the shelves for new product and a new year. But the party doesn't have to end just because New Year's has passed. You can create holiday excitement, bring in customers, and strengthen sales year-round by making lesser-known celebrations the heart of imaginative promotions, events, and displays. This year, we've suggested a focus for the four quarters of the retailing year that will boost the bottom line on your most popular merchandise, bringing customers in to see what's new on your social calendar. Activities tied into national celebrations can be a big draw, especially if you emphasize that the best celebration in town is going on at your store.
First Quarter
Theme: Health and Wellness
Dates: January 1-March 31
Help your customers fulfill their resolutions in the first three months of the year with a strong focus on personal care and rebuilding. Kick things off at your store with the Celebration of Life (January 1-7), emphasizing all the things that make life worth living. Hang flyers in local health centers and fitness clubs, and utilize the resources of your community to turn your store into a one-stop personal care center. Bring in a local yoga instructor to give a class, or partner with a local gym to offer membership discounts to customers who make purchases at your store. Tie in events like National Bubble Bath Day (January 8) and National Fresh-Squeezed Juice Week (January 15-19) to place an overall emphasis on health and wellness, and watch your personal care products fly off the shelves.
In addition to being International Life Balance Month, January is also International "Get Over It" month and National Hot Tea Month. Help customers "get over it" with a stock of healthy and Zen-influenced product. Assist them with the elements of their lives that need work. Stationery is a sure bet: Journals are handy for recording dreams, feelings, travel, or even weight loss; calendars and planners help customers get organized; and writing papers and cards are useful for contacting long-lost friends or mending broken relationships. This is also an ideal time of year to do tie-ins with Chicken Soup For the Soul and other self-help titles.
And don't stop with January! February is International Boost Self-Esteem Month, and March is Optimism Month. Help your customers beat the winter blahs by keeping the emphasis squarely where it belongs: on their happiness.
Second Quarter
Theme: The Written Word
Dates: April 2-May 31
International Children's Book Day is April 2, and Reading Is Fun Week is April 15-21. Young People's Poetry Week is April 16-22, and William Shakespeare's birthday falls on April 23. Celebrate the written word with a gift book, pen, and stationery sale; bring in a calligrapher to give a demonstration; and inspire customers to start their own memory books with scrapbooking materials and photo journals. Encourage repeat visits by giving a small prize or discount to customers who identify a Quote of the Day (drawn from poems or quote books). April is National Poetry month, and thus it's a great time to sell Magnetic Poetry-either the original kit or the supplemental ones. Organize a poetry reading at your store, or create giant poems by having each customer add a line on a sheet of butcher paper.
Get Caught Reading month kicks off on May 1 with Mother Goose Day, a celebration of the nursery rhymes and stories of Mother Goose. May 12 has been christened Limerick Day in honor of the birthday of Edward Lear. To celebrate the occasion, host a limerick writing contest, offering small literary prizes, like journals or nice pens.
Have a special sale on Wizard of Oz merchandise on May 15 to celebrate the birthday of L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. On June 5, break out the Busy Town books for the birthday of Richard Scarry, whose books are still beloved by children 50 years after their initial publication. Don't forget the 25th anniversary of Arthur; the popular children's television character started out in the written medium 25 years ago, on May 25, 1975. These events will boost sales not only for directly related merchandise but for other literary licensed products, including perennial favorites like Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter, Alice in Wonderland, and Charles Dickens, as well as newcomer Harry Potter.
Publicize these events with flyers in chain bookstores, or coordinate your events with local bookshops. And remember to use bag stuffers, put posters by the door and on the counter, and talk up the events to customers. If they hear your enthusiasm, they'll be more likely to attend.
Third Quarter
Theme: Beat the Summertime Blues
Dates: July 1-September 9
Summer is traditionally a time for fun and new experiences. Many of your regular customers may be out of town, but you can create plenty of excitement for those who stay behind and for visitors to your community. Festivals of every sort are happening all summer long; create one in your store by celebrating Anti-Boredom Month in July. Spice up the calendar with events related to the lunar eclipse on July 5: Stay open late, host a rooftop gathering to watch the moon, and highlight star-studded souvenirs like star charts and telescopes, as well as merchandise bearing popular celestial motifs. Or on August 8, The Date To Create, showcase glitter, stickers, rubber stamps, and other products that will stimulate individual creativity and earn you repeat customers.
Summer events like Be an Angel Day on August 22 emphasize human interaction and allow you to use your store as a platform to give back to your community. Try partnering with a charity to raise funds for a local cause. Also, sell stationery sets for kids going to camp, and prominently display ready-made care packages for their parents to send once they've gone. Encourage your traveling customers to enter a contest by sending you a postcard; during the contest, use the cards to give your travel gift displays that personal touch.
Another great third quarter event is Grandparents' Day (September 9). Grandparents are some of your best customers. They buy cards, keepsakes, gifts, and plush animals for their grandchildren. Give something back to them by celebrating this holiday. Offer discounts on favorite collectibles: A lot of grandparents collect a single line so that their grandchildren will have a complete set when they grow up. Offer a coupon good for a discount on any item in the store to any shopper accompanied by a grandchild. Encourage people to bring in pictures of their grandchildren during the month prior to the event. You can create a bulletin board with photographs and a note under each one detailing when the photo was taken and who is pictured; then, on Grandparent's Day, award gift certificates to grandparents who bring in the grandchildren in the photographs.
There are also quite a few companies that feature grandmother- and grandfather-themed products. This is an ideal time to put them on sale, so that children can buy presents for their favorite grandparent. (If you are in Florida, you should also note that October 14 is Grandmother's Day in your state. So if you don't get a chance to celebrate in September, you'll have lots of time to plan for October.)
Fourth Quarter
Event: Preserving Memories
Dates: November 1-30
November is Family Stories month. It's time to dig out the pens and tape recorders and get working on those family trees. As it gets snowy outside and family gathering season draws near, it is a perfect time to merchandise scrapbooks, photo albums, picture frames, and Bibles with family tree charts, as well as plenty of pens and paper for jotting down the stories told by a beloved great aunt over eggnog at Thanksgiving. Call in a genealogy expert and help your customers discover their roots, or stock books on the origins of family names.
If your customers already have heirloom scrapbooks, you might want to have them bring their treasures to the store and show others how to create memories of their own. Put up a sign asking your customers to bring in their photos and swap family stories. It's an excellent way to get people interested in the art of preserving memories.
November is also National Life Writing month, so sell those journals! There are customers just itching to write their autobiographies, and this is the time to start. Has one of your customers written an autobiography or a biography? Get them to come in and give people tips on the writing process.
Or try promoting personalized greeting cards. Have people bring in family photos, decorate them with ribbon, and insert them into photo frame cards, creating a special personalized greeting for a family birthday or a holiday.
