Relationship Marketing During The Holidays
Its now time to find out how effective everyone’s relationship efforts were throughout the year. Confronted with a blizzard of offers, catalogs, ads, and products, consumer choice will come down to who can cut through the clutter.
The first test is Thanksgiving weekend, where companies are pouring email and direct mail into the hands of key customers (well, lets be serious, everyone is getting something). I count inbounds from 46 different companies on personal accounts on Monday-Tuesday alone, plus direct mail inbounds from another 33 on the same days. While deals still influence visitation if someone offers just the right item, nowadays the choice is heavily influenced by our relationship with the destination. Its nice that some companies are reaching out to me now, but trying to relate to me once a year just has little impact on my decision.
The second, and more interesting, test is the email and direct mail they deliver in the 3rd and 4th weeks of December. Who will try and relate to the gifts I bought last year, and point me towards similar categories? Who see that I respond to coupons? This is the fun part of holiday…I’ll come back to it in January and analyze.
