What Happened to Summer? Back-to-School Marketing Starts Earlier Than Ever

The temperature is soaring, steaks sizzle on the grill, and kids play in the pool, but not everyone is thinking summer. Back to school season is starting earlier than ever for big retailers and the impact trickles over into all aspects of marketing. Both Office Depot and Land's End launch back to school campaigns at the start of summer - in some cases before school even ended in some parts of the country.



This is a change even from last year; according to AdAge, 2016 saw back to school marketing head into full swing around the middle of July. Time magazine cites the need for retailers to make as many revenues as possible during the highest spending periods as the reason Black Friday, Halloween, and Back to School promotions are being scheduled earlier than ever before.



When does Back to School Begin?



Big retailers working on the premise that earlier is better have begun pushing back-to-school marketing back each year. Back to school is big business for retailers, since it is worth about 78 billion; it is second only to the major holidays for revenues, according to AdAge.



How Early is Too Early?



Office Depot's back-to-school advertising rolled out June 25 of this year, a full three weeks earlier than 2016's July launch. Other retailers are following suit, but there is some consumer backlash against the early push. Lands' End received public criticism on social media when their back-to-school catalog dropped while kids in many parts of the country were still in school.




"We got your #backtoschool catalog in the mail. Our kids still have two weeks of school left this year! #fail #marketing," tweeted Greg Magin.




@GregMagin helpfully tagged his rant with #fail, #backtoschool and #Marketing, so it was seen by far more than just his followers. This backlash from consumers shows that a too-early launch can backfire. Right now, the sweet spot for back-to-school marketing seems to be right after the 4th of July through the end of the month.



Back-to-school marketing is all about timing. Being aware of this pitfall, and of the enormous potential of this busy season, can help you make the most of Back to School season for your brand and ensure your organization has a visible presence during this often overlooked marketing opportunity.



Make Back to School Time Count for your Brand



Positioning your Back to School promotions in July and working to build not only sales but also awareness can help place you in front of consumers when they're ready to outfit the kids for the next school year. Since most consumers begin searching online well before they part with actual money, building awareness ahead of this busy season can help you get the results you want without irritating consumers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Powerful Tricks to Learn New Skills Faster

Image
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy Though few people like it, change never stops. Success in life requires the ability to adapt. As one Chinese proverb quips, “the wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.” Whether you enjoy change or not, the pace of change marches ahead at an ever-increasing pace. Here is a statistical snapshot of what that looks like: 94% of the internet workload will be processed on the cloud by the end of 2021 It is estimated that 70% of all automobiles will be connected to the internet through the Internet of Things by 2023 By 2030, the fully and semi-automatic car market will be worth $26 billion Artificial Intelligence is slated to replace around 85 million US jobs by 2025 The world has produced 90% of its Big Data (or extensive data sets) in the past two years Does that feel overwhelm...
Read more

6 Winning Direct Mail Campaigns

Image
Direct mail offers results that other channels just can't match. According to a recent study, direct mail has a response rate as high as 9% . However, there are always ways to engage your audience better and improve your mailers' effectiveness. These methods below catch your recipents' attention and increase the chances that they'll read and respond to your direct mail piece.  6 Winning Direct Mail Campaigns 1. Instill Curiosity with a Quiz Do you worry your direct mail envelopes are going in the trash unread? Take a page from Harvard Medical School's playbook. In a recent mailing to woo subscribers for their Harvard Heart Letter newsletter, they put a heart health quiz on the front. The answers to the three-question quiz were inside the mailer, giving recipients a reason to open. 2. Benefits, Not Features As marketers, it's so easy to get caught up in promoting all the neat features of your product. Your readers, however, don't care about th...
Read more

The Ideal Length for Tweets, Facebook Posts, and More

Image
You've taken the time to collect your thoughts. You've carefully outlined your ideas, your theme, and the overall tone you'd like to communicate. Wouldn't it be nice if people actually read it? Better make it quick! Generation Z, born after 1996, is already emerging from the shadow of millennials. Making up a quarter of the U.S. population, they will account for 40 percent of all consumers by 2020. Gen Z processes content faster than other generation, especially considering most can sort through piles of information using four screens simultaneously. Although their options seem limitless, their time is finite. Gen Z consumers have an average browsing attention span of eight seconds (as compared to twelve seconds for millennials). Make Every Word Count As lead time decreases, efficiency must increase. How do you evaluate the "right" speed for sharing? Research has answers! Here are some research-based guidelines on the ideal length...
Read more