Spring is such a fantastic time with its warmer weather and lighter evenings. It is also a great opportunity for retail businesses, full of seasonal events and celebrations.
We have Valentine’s Day as the early flyer, followed by Easter, May Day, and the wider heralding in of Spring itself. And you don’t have to look too much further to find all kinds of specific days and events that may be of particular relevance to your business and your customers.
And whilst these events are a welcome stimulus to sales, they are also a valuable opportunity to develop your brand personality, to build customer relationships and that all important brand loyalty.
The brand value of seasonal events is underestimated. For some retailers, the generic daffodils shrouding the generic product displays is where the inspiration stops. The chance to differentiate. The chance to be an emotive brand is lost.
Clients often ask, “What is a brand?” They confuse a static graphic identity with what a true brand should be. Brands must be emotive, they must instil trust, they must represent enjoyment, or wellbeing, or excitement. They must consistently deliver whatever emotions are most relevant and meaningful to your customers. And they must be dynamic.
The best illustration is to liken your brand to a person. We are all living, breathing brands. We have certain physical characteristics, and we have personalities. Some people will like us, some will love us, but others will fail to gel and connect. And this is fine. This is simply human nature, a healthy diversity of preference.
However, the fact is that as people, even if we were once the life and soul of every party, the number one person on everyone’s list, if we always tell the same jokes, recite the same stories, wear the same clothes, then we will become boring. We will become boring even to those who like us the most. Our friends will disappear, the phone will ring less often, our social lives will dry up. We will become anonymous.
And this is also what happens to brands when they tell the same story. When they roll out the same products, repeat the same hollow sentiments, and simply dust-off the same decorations every year.
It is simply not enough for retailers to ‘do’ events, they must ‘be’ events. They must live and breathe every occasion with their individual and unique missions, passion, tone of voice, joie de vie, and unique perspective on life.
It is time to sit down and to strategise your Springtime. Plan your calendar and select the key occasions and opportunities that will be your commercial highlights. Consider you product mix. Are there chances to bring your regular assortment to life and make it relevant? Can you invest in a flavour of seasonal and impulse lines? How will you plan and refresh your shop space, populate your website, energise your marketing, and inspire your colleagues? And how will you ‘own your events,’ by immersing them in your distinct brand personality?
The retail marketplace is highly competitive and unforgiving. There are extraordinary and vibrant brands, but there is also mediocrity and sameness. This is your opportunity to shine.
You are all brands, whether you like it, or realise it, or not. So, use the amazing gifts that Springtime brings to us all, to be the perennial life and soul of our customers’ lives. Constantly surprising and delighting them with every event and occasion, season after season, year after year. But always embracing every celebration with the same familiar, friendly, and uniquely attractive you!