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The Christmas Conundrum

There used to be 12 days of Christmas, these days it can seem more like 12 months of Christmas.  From a business perspective, Christmas basically comes in two varieties.  For some businesses it’s a (welcome) break and for others it’s (by far) their busiest time of the year and is vital that they get as much income as they can.  In terms of consumers Christmas also tends to generate two sorts of reactions.  One sort absolutely loves the run up to Christmas and starts thinking about it and preparing for it pretty much as soon as the summer break finishes and children head back to school.  The other sort thinks that Christmas starts in December and loathes the commercialization of it and the fact that the festive advertising period seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year.  In fact, some companies already have their Christmas campaigns under way, although for most consumer-facing companies, November is the time Christmas advertising gets into full swing.  The situation is different for B2B companies, which is why we’re putting out this blog now.  We thought we’d advise our customers on one approach to dealing with the Christmas conundrum, engaging with the early birds without annoying those who prefer to keep Christmas for December.

September to October

There are two reasons why people start thinking about Christmas early.  One is because they enjoy it and the other is because they want to be prepared for it.  This is the time of year to tap into both of those aspects without explicitly mentioning Christmas.  For example, if you’re selling a home-related service, your advertising could reference the idea of getting your home looking good as this is the time of year when people will be spending the most time indoors and may well be having visitors around.  Likewise, if you’re running any promotions aimed at getting people to commit to purchases now before they get caught up in the festive season, you could mention the arrival of winter or the arrival of the next year rather than explicitly talking about Christmas.

November

This is what you might call changeover month, where a greater number of people become more amenable to Christmas-related advertising, but there are still a fair number of hold-outs, who get very annoyed that this is the time when supermarkets and similar companies tend to start blitzing out adverts.  Before deciding at what point to start pushing the Christmas aspect, it’s worth remembering that Guy Fawkes day and Armistice Day are both significant events in many parts of the UK and particularly in London.  They also tend to be less targeted by advertisers.  This could be a good time to start introducing more seasonal references, particularly if your product or service relates to colder weather.

December

Now is the time you can definitely go full-steam ahead with the Christmas references, although before you do, you may want to ask yourself if there is any advantage to doing so.  Consumers know it’s Christmas, fundamentally what they want to know is what you can do to make their life better and that is basically what they want to know at any other time of year.  It’s absolutely fine to use seasonal decoration on your leaflets, just as long as you always stay on top of the fundamentals.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Yes we do. It’s 5,000 leaflets per postcode. If you have less than 5,000, you will be charged for 5,000 anyway – it’s the minimum job rate. We can print 5,000 leaflets from around £90.