Christmas is in the air, and retailers are all out to garner those precious year-end gifting dollars. With bonuses likely to be bountiful this year, any business worth its salt would be finding ways and means to target the consumer wallet.
Young children probably form one of the most important markets in the season of giving and receiving. Nothing beats the story of how Santa Claus will shimmy down your chimney – or rubbish chute in Singapore’s highrise context – and bear tidings of fun-tabulous toys. On a more pragmatic level though, how can companies cream this festive occasion for their own profits (and bonuses of course)?
Here are some marketing tricks that you may wish to consider, based on a casual survey of the Christmas shopping scene in Singapore.
1) Dress up your premises with festive decorations that sparkle and sizzle. Nothing attracts the young ones like a humungous Christmas tree like this iconic one at Ngee Ann City shopping centre.
2) Lights, cameras and action! Mobilise the masses with a roadshow followed by a meet-and-greet session with the most popular cartoon characters. Nothing grabs a toddler’s attention more than a ‘live’ performance by Dora the Explorer.
3) Contests are cool, especially when there are oodles of fun toys to be won! Evergreen brands like Lego and Playmobil have also learnt this trick, using their beloved characters to charm those children. Remember that kids love gaming!
4) Engage as many of their senses as possible – light, sound, touch, taste and scent. Children love to experience the world using all their God-given faculties. There is nothing like a fully branded, colourfully designed demo station with a kick-ass commercial video to tease those tots.
5) Let them try first. Children love to play (even while lugging a violin along, like Ethan here), and nothing grabs their attention and interest like a demo toy set that they can fiddle with. Check out the look on his face!
6) Finally, every child below a certain age loves a furry and cuddly companion. Entice them – and their penny watching parents – by offering a promotion that allows you to collect a set of thematic toys. Just make sure that they spend above a certain threshold amount (*kaching!!*) and that only the early bird catches the worm (otherwise you may go bankrupt).
These cuddlies can either be cute and colourful, like these bears above…
…or they can be themed to what’s hot and happening – like these soft toys from the blockbuster movie Megamind that is showing now. Just see how effective they are in enchanting Ethan!
