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Preparing Your Business For January
Why Worry About January During the Holiday Season?
Over the first couple of weeks of December, I have been in
meetings and had telephone discussions with clients who have no
interest in targeting their promotional efforts for the holiday
season. They have, instead, chosen to focus their efforts on
promoting websites during the month of January.
At first, I found the logic very confusing based on a common
misconception. Why market during the month of January? Most
people tend to have a "post-holiday hangover". They've spent
hundreds, and in many cases thousands, of dollars on presents.
They've spent time with their loved ones. The parties have come
and gone.
Upon thinking about the logic from a different angle, a unique
opportunity for the savvy North American marketer revealed
itself.
The month of January presents a unique opportunity for
intelligent entrepreneurs. Because of the increase in business
that the holiday season provides, most businesses tend to
neglect or reduce their marketing efforts throughout the winter
months, electing to focus their energy on the spring and summer
months instead.
Many companies will launch new campaigns during the Super Bowl
in order to take advantage of the international mass exposure
created by the annual NFL football climax. However, this is a
highly expensive proposition and as a result of the budgetary
constraints and risk such advertising presents, these companies
will often elect to minimize or halt all other advertising
efforts until the Super Bowl itself.
Since the Super Bowl occurs on either the final Sunday in
January or the first Sunday in February, a huge 4-week marketing
gap occurs for a company that chooses to take advantage of it.
Companies with business-to-business products and services can
take advantage of the month of January to release these products
and services as well. Many companies and organizations, such as
school boards and some manufacturing plants, give their
employees a paid 2-week Christmas vacation. As a result, these
employees return to work rested, alert, and more receptive to
new ideas and ways to better improve efficiency. In fact, many
companies use the winter months for the purposes of making their
operations more efficient and profitable.
This article will focus on two companies as case studies. The
first company, Hibiscus Florals, is an online silk wedding
florist targeting North American brides-to-be. The second,
Innovolve, is a Canadian conference, event, and association
management company specializing in sustainable business growth.
Hibiscus Florals
Hibiscus Florals (http://www.hibiscusflorals.com) co-owner Mark
Morkowski has been an extremely busy man during the last few
weeks. "Many of our brides begin preparations for their weddings
just after the holiday season," says Mark. "This means that the
first three months of a new year are a peak season for our silk
wedding flowers, and it is crucial that we are prepared to both
attract and accept the potential business that can be generated
in this period."
"The month of December is being used exclusively to prepare for
the New Year."
Some of the things Hibiscus Florals are doing to prepare include:
1. Online marketing and promotion. "We're doing everything in
our power to make sure our website is visible in as many ways as
possible," says Mark. "Our market has such a large
geographic
base that we cannot possibly reach all of them via conventional
offline means."
"We have customers from all over Canada and the United States,
from Hawaii to Newfoundland, and our website and email marketing
efforts are crucial to our overall business plan."
2. New products. "We're in the final stages of preparing some
unique new collections for our brides. We've decided to create
more silk flower wedding packages, based on the feedback we have
received and some commonalities among customer requests."
3. Visiting suppliers. "Many of our suppliers have beautiful new
products that are now available to us, and we need to stock up
as much as possible to ensure that we have enough supply to
service our customer needs over the next few months."
4. Updating prices. "Fluctuations in the base cost of our
products, such as the rising costs of natural resources and
transportation, have led to the need to adjust our prices for
the 2006 year."
5. A Christmas vacation. "We want to be well-rested and alert
for the New Year, so we're going to take some time off ourselves
to recuperate our minds and bodies and be better able to serve
our customers."
"A rest at Christmas time isn't always for businesses to recover
from their holiday rush. It's for businesses to prepare for a
rush as well."
It looks like Hibiscus Florals will be very well-prepared for
January.
Innovolve
Dr. Anthony Watanabe is the president of Innovolve
(http://www.innovolve.com), a progressive young conference
management agency. The month of December is being used as a
reorganization and preparation month for Innovolve, in order for
the company to be prepared for their upcoming conferences and
other projects.
What types of things are Anthony and Innovolve doing to prepare
for January?
1. Rebranding. "We're redoing all of our marketing materials,
such as our logo and website, to ensure that our image and core
beliefs as a company are accurately reflected. We look forward
to the launch of our new-look corporate image in 2006, and we
believe our target market will be very receptive to our
message."
2. Finishing of existing projects. "We're in the final stages of
completion on our Sustainable Business Resource Centre
(http://www.sustainabilityincubator.com) website, and we'll be
launching it in late 2005 to early 2006."
3. New and existing client preparation. "We're going to be
working on some exciting new projects involving graphic and web
design for forward-thinking companies, as well as organizing
unique and informative conferences in such fields as
sustainability, green building, and business networking."
4. Marketing preparation. "When we're done with our rebranding
efforts, we look forward to promoting them both online and
offline. We're in the process of developing a campaign to that
end, as well as for those clients whose sites will be completed
in the New Year." Hibiscus Florals and Innovolve are two
companies that are prepared to take advantage of the unique
opportunities that preparing for January provides. Shouldn't you
be taking advantage of these opportunities as well?
About the author:
Adam Senour is the owner of ADAM Web Design, a leading web
design and development company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Visit http://www.adamwebdesign.ca for more information on ADAM
Web Design products and services.
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