It is easy to get caught up in the major seasons and appreciate the break between them to recharge. I think there is value for our independent retail businesses to play away from the main game, to create our own seasonal opportunities.
Done well and with a small investment in marketing you can achieve more notice than focussing only on the big seasons.
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne talk about this in their book, Blue Ocean Strategy – a terrific business book I first read eight years ago. Their thesis is that companies can succeed not by battling competitors but rather by creating ″blue oceans″ of uncontested market space.
newsXpress, the newsagency marketing group with which I am involved does this regularly. For example, it has declared January jigsaw month. Backed by a supplier deal providing a considerable discount off the already discounted newsXpress price and supported with professional marketing collateral, we are running a January is Jigsaw Month promotion. It has been timed to tap into the challenge of what to do during the school holidays. Early indications are of an excellent sales boost.
Sure we are still running a post Christmas sale – we’re in a shopping centre and we’d be crazy not to. However, our Jigsaw promotion is a point of difference, shoppers notice and comment. It shows us as playing outside the very full red ocean filled with other retailers.
This is exactly the type of activity W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call for businesses owners to undertake in their book.