The Art of of Holiday Marketing Holiday Marketing Presented by: Joel D. Schaffer, MAS

Consumer Reports, "When a gift card is no gift." * 27% of gift recipients hadn't used all their cards * Many cards carry fees and / or expiration dates * Bankruptcy filings (as in the case with Sharper Image) have left gift card holders with no value at all (estimated 'worthless' gift cards and credit for this company alone is $40 MILLION) Let’s Destroy Gift Cards

BRANDING TRADE SHOW TRAFFIC WELLNESSFUND RAISINGDONNORMEMBERSHIP SALES MOTIVATION ZERO DEFECTS SAFETY MOTIVATION EMPLOYEE SERVICES CUSTOMER RETENTION GIFTCONSUMEREDUCATIONAWARENESS FUND RAISING

A Business Within Your Business The average distributor does 35% or more of their business in the fourth quarter of the year. Best practice is to tool for this season in the second quarter of the year. Roll out marketing in the third quarter of the year. Sell like crazy after Labor Day

Prepare - Product Selection 1.Set your goals to assemble a “collection” of business and executive gifts. 2.Cull through catalogs within our industry and outside to find “unique” ideas. 3.Show your selections to a variety of focus group members representing different age groups, gender, income etc. 4.Be sure to have a wide price range starting at $500 or more, depending on your clientele. 5.Branded product is not important, personalization is. 6.Reliable, known vendors are critical as time often becomes a factor.

Product Presentation My 2013 Executive Gift Collection

Product Presentation Create an image binder –use it every year Use individual photographs – not catalog sheets Use clear page holders Arrange the book by price Place prices on a separate sheet or on back Add selected full line catalogs in back Calendar Diary Greeting cards An awards catalog too Make your own Flip album

Early Marketing Prepare all marketing materials ASAP Promote “Christmas in the Summer” (or Fall) Arrange for early bird pricing. Use you own early order incentives. Create an invitation- announcement. Target current prospects, dormant accounts, existing accounts, network and groups. Telephone…ask who buys the holiday gifts? Try not to give away EQP.

Prospecting Tips Have every customer, friend and relative save their B2B greeting cards. These are prospects for next year. Donate the cards to a children’s hospital, school, or senior citizen center. Always ask.. who selects you holiday gifts?..log it for follow up.

Smartketing –Prospect Development

Buyer Tips Subordinate or eliminate logos. Take care of the packaging and delivery. Box it, delivered by hand. Be first, noticed, and remembered. Do your gifting on Thanksgiving. Be unique, alone and remembered. Do your gifting on New Year. Gift cards solve a giver’s problem. Think twice before shifting the burden. Gift cards are impersonal. “I haven’t taken the time to pick a gift just for you”. If you go this route the least you can do is package it in a personal way. Holiday gifts should never arrive later than Parties, vacation and other travel often takes people out of their offices at holiday time. Food gifts in particular should arrive early. Test- taste everything before you buy.

Smartketing Tips On Shipping Federal Express ships at least two hundred packages a second, about 19 million shipments on the second Monday of December. The third Monday of December is the busiest day for mailing holiday cards let­ter and packages and a behind-the-scenes look at how mail is processed and sorted for delivery.

Smartketing Gets Personal Hand-deliver your gift to your customer's home or office instead of sending it in the mail, your gesture will give that present much more meaning. A card with a personal message and hand-written signature is more meaningful than a pre-printed card with a generic 'Thanks for being our customer' message. As you get to know customers, keep notes about their preferences and use that information to choose just the right gift. Sending a basket of nuts to someone who is allergic to them, or a pack of gourmet sausages to a vegetarian, can have unfortunate effects on your customer relationships. Gift cards say..”I don’t have time to shop for you, so here’s some cash in the form of a gift card.”

Smartketing Tips On Shipping Check Corporate Policies : Many companies and government offices will have a gift policy limiting the dollar value of a gift or prohibiting gifts Determine Wants: Knowing what to buy a corporate client is the biggest challenge of business gift buying Consider Cultural Differences: Each country and culture will have their own rules for corporate gift buying. For instance, in China, a gift should never be wrapped in white since it symbolizes death. Go for Quality: Any business gift you send reflects on the image of your company. Avoid lower quality gifts that can impair your image. Spend on Packaging: As important as choosing the right corporate gift for your client is the packaging of the gift itself. Spend the time and money on the wrapping to reflect your value on client relationships.. Know IRS Deductions: Business gifts in the U.S.A. are tax deductible up to $25 per person for the tax year. This doesn't include incidentals such as packaging or mailing the gift. Be sure to review the IRS Publication 463.

According to OPEN from American Express(SM) Semi-Annual Small Business Monitor, the top corporate gifts are: Cards or calendars (49%) Gift certificates for retail or restaurants (26%) Company branded items (23%) Fruit/food basket or charity donation (both 18%) Flowers/plants and wine/liquor (tied at 10%) Inside or Outside The Box

“Mackay’s employees have never been allowed to send Christmas cards to customers. They get ahead of their competitors by sending Thanksgiving cards. The advantage seems obvious. The genius was in taking the most worn out sales routine and turning it into a stunt worthy of the most cutting-edge marketing or PR campaign. The problem is that no one sells Thanksgiving cards. So, every year I want follow Mackay’s advice but fail to put in the required effort. Probably, I am like millions of other Swim with the Sharks fans.” Smartketing –Thanksgiving Genius

When giving a gift of a wallet, purse, piggy bank or anything that is meant to hold money, you should put money in it so the person will have good luck. Never give a pair of shoes as a gift as this will make the recipient walk away from you. Giving scissors or knife is considered bad luck as it said it would cut the friendship in half. Giving long stemmed red roses with thorns is not a good idea, because they are believed to cause the relationship to suffer. It is bad luck to give an umbrella as a gift. Gifts with a frog, ladybug, pig, horseshoe with ends pointed upwards, or four-leaf clover theme are considered to provide good luck. In Chinese culture, giving a clock as a present is taboo due to the Chinese word for 'clock' sounding like the word for 'death'. Giver Beware

Americans purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year. Annual retail sales of greeting cards are estimated between $7 and $8 billion. The most popular Seasonal cards are Christmas cards, with some 1.6 billion units purchased (including boxed cards). Greeting card prices can vary from 50 cents to $10 The vast majority are between $2 and $4.. Seven out of 10 card buyers surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost” essential to them. Younger card buyers and those who are more technology savvy are currently the ones most engaged in buying paper greeting cards online. Most people now acknowledge many more birthdays than ever before because of Facebook, but they aren’t necessarily sending fewer cards as a result.. The Basics – Changing Times

Happy Holidays