Can Halloween improve your marketing?

Have you noticed that Halloween seems to have become as big as Easter? Or at least as big as Mothers day.

You can buy hugely complex costumes (for both kids and adults) like these. The house & garden decorations seem to be getting more and more elaborate and the confectionery companies are, quite rightly, cashing in with pre-packed boxes of premium brand chocolates and sweets.

Should we blame the chocolate companies for pushing Halloween on us, just like we blame the card companies for building entire annual festivals out of thin air?

We think not.

You see, good marketeers take advantage of consumer desire, not create it. We can’t sell healthy pizzas because nobody wants them. However, we can sell frozen cheese on toast (yes, this exists for the busy executive who just doesn’t have time for grating) because we, as consumers, have a need for it (well, a small percentage of the population clearly does).

The famous copywriter, Eugene Schwartz, once said, “You don’t create demand, you simply channel it.

So very true.

Is there an emerging trend in your market that you can align your offering with? Are you trying to create demand or channel it?

If selling your product or service is hard, then maybe people don’t desire it in its current form. Can you tweak it so that it supports, or improves access to a current trend?

No point trying to get people to do something they don’t want to. That’s like pushing water uphill. Or, as my old grandad would say, “There’s no point trying to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and it just p*sses off the pig.”