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6 Marketing Secrets from Santa Claus

by Carolyn Higgins on December 12, 2011

Whether he meant to or not jolly old St. Nick created one of the most recognizable and beloved brands in the western world; one that children have adored and parents embraced for centuries.  Santa Claus has endured wars, depressions, scrutiny (is he real or not??), imposters who tried to tarnish his image (ala The Grinch), and even opposition from certain religious groups.

So how the heck did he do it? How did Santa Claus build such a phenomenon, despite the obstacles and challenges the world threw at him? And what lessons can businesses owners learn from him for building our own brands?

I’ve identified some key things that Santa does to solidify his brand, create raving fans, build trust and grow his Christmas Empire! Here they are, along with the lessons we can learn from his success:

Marketing Lessons from Santa

1.  Santa is painstakingly reliable. Most of us awoke every Christmas morning, year after year, to find a plate sprinkled with cookie crumbs, an empty milk glass, and a bounty of presents; all bearing witness to Santa’s  late night visit. Despite snow storms and freezing temperatures, or dad losing his job, moving to a new house, or fighting with our brothers too much, Santa never let us down. Santa is the epitome of reliability.

Business Lesson:  How reliable is your business? Are you letting customers down?  Like expectant children on Christmas mornings, our customers have high expectations and it’s our job to deliver – or risk losing them.  Make it a habit to ask customers if they’ve ever felt let down by your company, what areas you can improve upon, and what products or services they’d like you to offer.  Being painstakingly reliable builds trust and people buy from companies they trust!

2.  Santa surprises and delights us!  Who doesn’t think of Santa and smile? Why is that? It’s because he always surprises and delights us! Whether it’s flashing a jovial smile and belting out a jolly “Ho Ho Ho”, delivering that Barbie doll we’d been obsessing over for months, or making a surprise appearance with a bag full of goodies at a holiday party, happiness and smiles follow Santa wherever he goes.  

Business Lesson:  Can you say the same about your brand? Does your business leave a lasting smile and happy thoughts? Do you surprise and delight? If not, study your competition and your industry, talk to people, and find out where others let customers down. Then do something that no one else in your industry does.  Find that  “something extra”  to add to your product or service mix.  Customers love the unexpected, so what can you do to leave a lasting impression?

3.  Santa encourages us to write.  Everyone knows Santa loves getting our letters – and even reads every single one of them! And what does he ask of us?  Nothing but a list all the presents we want him to deliver on Christmas morning!

Business Lesson:  Imagine if our customers felt comfortable enough to send us a list of their wants, needs,  and desires. Don’t you think that would help us understand  and serve them better? What can you do to encourage your customers to stay in touch with you?  Since we don’t have our own North Pole address, I’d recommend things like suggestion boxes (on, or offline!), surveys, and, service follow up calls.

4.  Santa rewards good behavior.  ”Have you been naughty or nice?”  Your answer could mean the difference between that diamond necklace you’ve been eyeing or a big ole lump of coal!  

Business Lesson: Businesses can build their brands by rewarding “good” behavior too! Did a customer buy more than usual? Reward them with a discount or an extra freebie. Did a customer refer you or leave a raving Yelp review? Send a special present or gift certificate to say “thank you.” Rewarding good behavior not only shows the customer your appreciation, it encourages them to do it again!

5.  Santa has elves and  8 reindeer- Santa wouldn’t be Santa without his team. Do you think he’d be able to read all of our letters, be painstakingly reliable, or jolly and delightful if he didn’t have a team to help him with all his Christmas responsibilities?  Of course not, so then why do you expect to be able to take care of all of your business responsibilities by yourself?

Business Lesson:  If you don’t have the time to provide the level of service you want, surprise and delight customers – or market and build your business then it’s time to get your own team of elves and reindeer! No one ever built an empire alone…not even Santa.  Want to be insanely popular like Santa?  Then it may be time  to hire some help!

6.  Santa is one-of-a-kind!  Santa has an image like no one else:  long gray beard, velvety red suit, and shiny black boots. Santa has a catch phrase, “Ho, Ho, Ho”.  Santa knows his target market are children. Santa also knows these three things set him apart from the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and moms and dad -  and he used that to build the Santa brand to be the unmistakable symbol it is today!

Business Lesson: Take a look at your business, what can you do to make your business stand out from the crowd? Do you have a unique image? A symbolic uniform? A bright red sleigh pulled by 8 tiny reindeer (Ok, a fleet of bright red trucks will do!)?  A quirky catch phrase? Find your uniqueness and do something big to stand apart from the competition!

Summary:

The bottom line is this: Santa “gets” marketing – he built one of the most recognizable brands that ever existed by doing these 6 things.  Sure, we may never be as popular as Santa but by following his example, we can certainly create our own little world of magic!  Happy holidays! Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you. :-)

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Recession Successes

by Steve Lange on October 7, 2009

It’s always difficult to keep an upbeat view during hard times, and to remember that there are always opportunities for those who look close enough. Still, without those doggedly incurable optimists, we would still be plodding along without the benefits of some iconic inventions.

A list of Recession Inventions: Success Stories in Bad Times, was posted last Monday on mainstreet.com.

Chocolate Chip Cookies — 1930
Fortune magazine — 1930
Basketball — 1891
Miracle Whip — premiered nationally 1933
Monopoly board game — the early 1930s
Transparent adhesive tape — 1930
Coors Brewery — opened 1873
iPod — 2001
Ketchup — 1876
Compact fluorescent light bulbs — 1970s
Twinkies — 1930
Photocopiers — 1937
Diet Coke — 1982

The LA Times posted a similarly-themed list in their Some inventions born amid recession recently. So did ABC News Eureka! Recession Sparks Inventive Spirit while this BusinessWeek article, 20 Most Import Inventions of the Next 10 Years looks at Innovation from Recession.

So even in a bear market, grab the bull by the horns and pursue your dreams of innovation.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

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Startups and This Recession

by Tim Berry on March 20, 2009

I’ve seen it in past recessions–more startups. I have only anecdotal evidence, no statistical data, but it still seems like a natural pattern. Some of the people laid off end up starting new businesses instead of finding new jobs.

Over at Small Business Labs, Steve King posts Recession Drives New Businesses. He cites three major-media articles indicating that the startups are coming:

Steve’s in a good place to watch this. His company, Emergent Research, does some of the best research around on small business. It recently released  a study on innovation in small business, and my favorite is its 2008 report on the New Artisan Economy.

From what I see, a couple of startup dampers that could be easing up. Those dampers are confidence and credit crunch.

Confidence, as in “what? Start a business now? Isn’t that crazy?” That seems to ease as the news value dwindles, and people get back to work. And then there’s that other factor, the people who don’t have a choice. They look for work and decide starting a business is better.

The credit crunch has been a real factor from what I’ve seen. And I’m assuming that the recent stimulus package will have some positive effect.

There’s potentially a two-birds-with-one-stone effect through the stimulus package, because freeing up commercial credit and getting the SBA moving again, will also improve the general confidence level.

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30 Big Companies That Started During Hard Times

by Tim Berry on March 4, 2009

I got this list from the Kaufmann Foundation. These are all companies that started up during a recession or down stock market.  They’re in alphabetical order.

3M
Adobe Systems
Amgen
Apple
Bath and Body Works
BET
Broadcom
Buffalo Wild Wings
CNN
Chevron
Dave and Buster’s
Disney
Electronic Arts
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Exxon Mobil
FedEx
Gallup
Genentech
General Electric
Genzyme
Guess
Hyatt
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Kraft
The Learning Company
Lotus Software
Merck
Microsoft
O’Reilly Auto Parts
Pizza Hut
Princeton Review
QuikTrip
Quiznos
Scottrade
Southwest Airlines
United Technologies
Urban Outfitters
Valero
Whole Foods		 If you look closely, you’ll see some that started during the Great Depression, some during different recessions that followed. There are several generations of startups here. What I like about this list is that these are companies that lasted. They didn’t fail to start because times were hard. They may have had a harder time getting financing or slower initial sales than they might have had during a boom. But they still started up, and they made it.

If you’re trying to start a company today, or struggling with a recent startup, companies are still making it. I posted last week about the Trunk Club dealing with rapid growth despite the crash. The blog startupmeme lists several new startups a week; sometimes several new startups a day.

Focus on value: giving people something they want or need and can pay for.

If you can’t get funded, that doesn’t mean you can’t necessarily start that business. Just review your plan, focus it tighter if you have to, and think about bootstrapping.

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Is the tech recession over?

by Tim Berry on February 13, 2009

Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, posted Is the Tech Recession Over? yesterday on his Joel on Software blog. He wrote:

OK, it’s just one data point. All I know is sales of FogBugz and Copilot. But what I’m seeing is this: October-December 2008 were terrible—sales were 20% lower than usual—but starting January 5th, we saw a significant bounce back to the same level of sales as we had before this recession started, and it’s continued to this day.

As my favorite programmer-sage Mike Trigoboff would say: “from your lips to God’s ears.”

In his post Joel links over to comments on his companion site Business of Software, which are also very interesting. And somewhat hopeful too. Several software people added comments on their own sales, and most of those comments are encouraging.

Joel’s blog is always a good read, and good to follow if you’re living and working or even thinking of living and working in the software industry. He’s not just a software entrepreneur, he’s also a blogger, an industry leader, and a good writer.

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More Bad News for Employment

by Tim Berry on January 9, 2009

Honestly, I wasn’t paying much attention to these ADP reports until the downturn really went sour last September. I posted on them a couple of times when small business employment grew, slightly, in the midst of bad news almost everywhere else. And now it seems like cheating if I don’t keep up with it, as the bad news rolls in.

Small businesses lost 281,000 jobs in December. That was 80,000 in manufacturing and 201,000 in services. By the way, ADP defines small business as having fewer than 50 employees. That works for me.

The source document is at www.ADPemploymentreport.com.

I downloaded some statistics as an Excel file available from that site. It turns out that goods-producing small businesses have lost more than half a million jobs since the high point of January of 2007, when they employed 8.1 million people. Service sector small businesses have lost more than half a million jobs since their high point of just last April 2008, when they employed 43 million people.

What’s surprising to me, also, is that this new data isn’t surprising. I’m not sure I’m going to continue to post these monthly results. I don’t want to be predictable.

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And You Thought Business was Bad

by Tim Berry on November 26, 2008

Wow, the ideas just keep rolling in. Look at this opening for a press release. Start with the problem, and tag the problems of the day:

Palo Alto, Ca, November 25, 2008 — With unemployment rising, stress due to job and financial insecurity in the U.S. has skyrocketed in the last eight months. 57 million people in the U.S. today are suffering from emotional pain, stress and depression. Job stress costs the U.S. industry over $300 billion annually in productivity and compensation.

And then show how you’re solving it, plugging your business. In this case, right after the problem posed above, we get the solution:

To help local companies to cope with rising stress, Silicon Valley based Emotional Fitness Clinic, Luminific.com, is hosting on-the-job group relaxation trainings and individual one-on-one relaxation sessions for business executives.

Let me make this clear: I don’t know this company, I don’t recommend it, I’ve never used it; I just received the press release over e-mail. Still, it does get your attention, doesn’t it? I’m posting it because it’s a useful example. I wouldn’t include the link, but that would be mean, since I’m liking the angle.

Turning a bad business climate into a business opportunity. The old lemon and lemonade trick still works. Here’s the next paragraph:

As life become less and less predictable, we experience more emotional stress. “Stress is the result of unexpected crisis,” says Dr. Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University.

Hmmm. Endorsed by Dr. Sapolsky sounds really good, because he’s a real expert. My daughter took his class and loved it, and she really liked him, and I posted his Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers lecture on my other blog. And while I’m sure he said what the release says he said, I really doubt that he intended to endorse this business. Look at the way the company uses him in context, making his statement seem like an endorsement. Good stuff, no?

Yesterday I posted about how the maker of the prosperity candle has a booming business. Now today it’s one-on-one relaxation sessions for business executives. See? New business opportunities are all over this dark and depressed economy. You just have to look in the right places.

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If the Sky is Falling, Say So

by Tim Berry on November 25, 2008

(Note: I posted this earlier on Small Business Trends. I’m reposting here for the convenience of my readers at Entrepreneur.com. Tim)

A couple of weeks ago a well-known local restaurant with 40-some employees closed its doors on a Monday morning without telling anybody in advance. Employees arrived Monday to a sign saying the business had closed.

Last week a printing company with 85 employees did the same thing. The people arrived Monday morning to read signs that the company had closed.

That’s what everybody fears these days. Is it going to happen to me?

Nobody wants to be told not to worry when things are bad. If you are in charge, they want you to share your worry with them, treating them like adults.  If you do, they’re likely to feel part of the team, and pitch in and help.

And if you don’t, you have anger and resentment to deal with, as well as disappointment and worry. People who lose their job from one day to the next, without any advance notice, are very angry.

I learned this the only way there is to learn this, running a company during a recession. I laid off five of 33 people in one day in 2001. Our sales fell hard when the dotcom bubble burst. We were slow to react. When we finally did react, our people were relieved to see us taking steps. Everybody pitched in.

And it also seemed easier to lay off five people the same day than that hardest of all things an owner does, fire somebody who’s been trying but failing. At least when it’s five at once, which was about 15 percent of our work force back then, people understand that it’s a larger cause, not a personal failure.

This whatever-it-is (recession, depression or whatever) is a lot worse than 2001, but the principle still applies. If you’re running a company right now, your people want to know how you’re doing. Don’t tell them not to worry their pretty heads. They want to be part of the solution. It’s normal human nature: People naturally want to be included in things. When times are tough, they want to know.

I’ll bet every one of the 40-some employees in that closed-down restaurant situation wishes the eatery had seen the problem coming, cut costs, maybe laid off some employees but stayed in business. And I’ll bet every one of the 85 employees in the printing business wishes it had cut it to 60 or 50 or 40 employees but stayed in business.

And I’ll bet they are all angry at the surprise. Several were quoted in the newspaper. “Why weren’t we told?” they asked.

If you’re an owner, don’t think you’re doing anybody a favor by not sharing your worries.

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For Real Prosperity, Sell Prosperity Candles

by Tim Berry on November 24, 2008

Who says it’s not a good time to start a company?

“My phone is ringing off the hook,” said Roxanne Usleman, a psychic in Manhattan.

Ms. Usleman, who says she channels angels to advise her clients on interpersonal and financial matters, reported both a spike in traffic on her website and a significant surge in private consultations. She used to see comfortably 15 to 20 clients a week, she said. Now she meets with more than twice that number. “I’m having trouble squeezing in appointments,” she said.

That’s from Sunday’s New York Times, in a Style story called “Love, Jobs and 401(k)s.” See, it’s a blanket bad time for business; and it’s a matter of what business you have. The Times story also notes this about a Los Angeles psychic named Tori Hartman:

“In what is perhaps a sign of the times, the $70 moss-scented prosperity candle offered on her website has become her best seller, she said.”

She can’t make them fast enough.

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Business Survival is the Hot New Business

by Tim Berry on November 12, 2008

Here’s a wonderful new business idea for today’s hard times: Become an expert on how to survive in business during today’s hard times.

Seriously, isn’t it amazing how many people are suddenly experts on surviving a recession? What percent of your e-mail offers from vendors involves helping you get through hard times?

Hmmm . . . let’s see . . . mind your costs. Watch your sales. Keep your cash in the bank. Avoid debts. Stay close to your customers . . . what else?

Yes, I admit it, I’m guilty, too.

But here’s an idea: Let’s all watch for something new, different and particularly relevant on this topic. Where are the surprises?

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