I’m conflicted about the holiday season – I admit it. On the one hand, I embrace all of the wonderfully syrupy traditions of song & merriment, exchanging cards and baked goods, sharing stories of family embarrassments’ past, drinking hot chocolate with my husband and kids, giggling over their many holiday craft endeavors.
What I dread is the consumer purchasing frenzy that begins with ‘Black Friday’ retail madness (which actually turned deadly this year), and carries all the way through the post-Christmas sales bin rush. I just don’t need another plastic kitchen gadget made in China. Of course, taking the ‘economic recovery’ mantra seriously, I feel a certain obligation to embrace consumption – do my part in support economic health. Is that a contradiction?
Perhaps, but I’ve found some ways to reconcile my holiday schizophrenia:
- Gift of time: time together with family and friends, in support of local attractions: A Christmas Carol outing to The Armory, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in Oregon, A sing-a-long with the Portland Revels, High Tea at the Heathman Hotel; a brisk Winter’s Solstice hike at Hoyt Arboretum
- Gift of giving: whatever your charitable inclinations – giving support, time or resources to others this time of year just feels good. So many programs need help. A few we’re supporting include the Oregon Food Bank; decorating Christmas Trees at Markham House; assisting at The Providence Center for Medically Fragile Children
- Green Gifts: as a compromise with two young daughters who aren’t at all reluctanct to embrace their consumer-driven lives – recycled/green living products choices – an Eco lunchbox; a shopping spree to recycled fashion outlet Buffalo Exchange; groovy iTunes. (hopefully, they’re not reading this now). Or, for business partners, think about a gift of carbon offsets from a Portland-based organization like Bonneville Environmental Foundation or Climate Trust – reducing the footprint left by the last lump of coal in their stocking.
Of course, when in doubt – cash always makes a nice gesture.
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Have you been wondering how the field of marketing is changing in a down economy? Here are some thoughts:
1. Marketing firms are trading in some of their longer-term client relationships for more project-based contracting.
Atlanta Business Chronicle article PR, marketing firms offering low-cost services discusses how firms are adapting by "offering new abbreviated and lower-cost services to help keep themselves and their clients afloat" in a time of tightened budgets.
2. People are turning to online & social media marketing as they realize it's measurable, targetable, and can deliver serious ROI when executed well.
Watch Gary Vaynerchuk's 5 minute video You Down with ROI?...to hear about how "traditional media advertising is incredibly expensive and doesn’t provide nearly the rate of return you can derive from intelligent web-based marketing campaigns in 2008 and beyond." (I don't think Gary curses in this one, but be forewarned).
3. Organizations are learning to do it themselves.
Check out the GreenBiz.com article The Four Simple Steps for Pitch-Perfect Green Marketing by Joel Makower for thoughts on creating credible, relevant, effective messaging to support your long-term green strategy.
Local Portland social media consultant Dawn Foster just created a 2 minute tutorial on Yahoo Pipes, a customizeable application for companies to "understand what people are saying about you, your industry, your competitors and more through smart filtering of blogs, news sources, Twitter, and other online sites" - without spending on expensive software packages. See the article here: Yahoo Pipes for Social Media Marketing and Business Benefit.
What do you think? How are YOU re-thinking your marketing strategies?
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