Dear Reader,
The fall chill has arrived. It forced the remaining leaves to change to paintbox yellows and reds.
When I was old enough to go Trick or Treating on my own, my siblings and I raced to see who could get the most candy. We used old pillow cases to carry our haul from house to house.
We lived in a New York City suburb where the houses were far apart. So we had to walk a long way to each doorbell. The distance between houses cut down the amount of goodies we got.
I remember one family. They set up their front lawn with tombstones and used light blue lightbulbs to make it look like a real graveyard.
When you rang their doorbell, it made weird, scary sounds. The owners waited until you rang the bell again before they opened the door. Dressed in black like witches, they gave out the fanciest candy in the neighborhood.
New York City gets dressed up and parties for Halloween. This year the Village Halloween Parade is returning to the streets. The parade route goes straight up Sixth Avenue from King Street in Soho to 15th Street, just beyond the West Village. It’s shorter than usual this year.
Anyone wearing a mask or costume can participate. With lots of artists who live in the city, the creations people make rival costumes in Broadway plays.
Halloween spending will reach an all time high of $10.7 billion. Roughly 7 out of 10 Americans plan to celebrate this year. On average, they will spend $100.45 on Halloween.
Actionable Marketing Tips
- Put Halloween goods on sale. Got leftover stock? Price it to recoup your investment.
- Donate Halloween goods. If you can’t break even on unsold Halloween products, donate them to appropriate organizations.
Table of Contents | Volume 10, Issue 44
- Marketing Lesson of The Week – Harry Potter Starts Christmas Early
- Brand Beats – CitizenM Hotel Knows Its Visitors
- Social Scene – Meta Loses Value And Users
- Voice Notes – B2B Customers Use Voice
- Marketing Reads
- Mark Your Calendar
Marketing Lesson of The Week
► Harry Potter Starts Christmas Early
Earlier last week, I was surprised to see Christmas decorations in the window of the Harry Potter store on Fifth Avenue. Since Hogwarts is filled with witches and their craft, I thought it would be a must-shop store for Halloween activities.
But the management thought they needed to compete with Amazon.
While I don’t have access to insider knowledge about the Harry Potter store, There is always a constant stream of people going in and many leave with branded shopping bags, a symbol of honor among fans.
Since Harry Potter is copyrighted, you can’t sell Harry Potter merchandise without paying a license fee. So the Harry Potter store should have gotten the maximum value out of their Halloween promotion since it appeals to a broad base rather than rush into the Christmas selling period.
Why?
Because they have a unique product so they just time shifted Holiday buying earlier. The store won’t have a special offer for Christmas.
Actionable Marketing Tips
- Always plan one holiday special relevant to your business. If you have a month with no holiday, make it your company’s anniversary
- Create special offers to attract in-store shoppers. Since the Harry Potter store sells ice cream drinks, they could make a special holiday food to eat in-store and for purchase.For example, I would create a holiday tea service, a British tradition. I’d require reservations and have the staff dress up as characters from the books. This would only be available during the last 2 weeks of December when children are off from school.
Brand Beats
► citizenM Hotel Knows Its Visitors
Want to visit Washington, DC?
Better be prepared to spend a bundle for a place to lay your head.
Unless you’re a hip Millennial.
Then citizenM has you covered for under $300/night. While this doesn’t seem like a bargain, Washington, DC. is an expensive place to visit every day of the week.
While my husband and I are not hip Millennials, we decided to stay at citizenM DC due to the combination of its location and price tag.
The location is walking distance to the Capital Mall and its iconic buildings as well as the Wharf district with its hip eateries and bookstores. Translation: no extra Uber charges.
At the citizenM check in, you get a sense of the hotel as soon as you walk in. The main floors are fun-themed and filled with quirky items to explore and purchase.
There are do-it-yourself kiosks for checking in. (Although a real person will whisk your bags to a storage closet since you can’t get into your room until 4pm.) They put tags on your bags that look like an airline’s. We were told that we might get into our room at 2pm so we went out for lunch.
We collected our bags after lunch. You need to use your room’s keycard to make the elevator stop at your floor. You tap a black panel and press a button. You tap your keycard again to enter the room.
Entering the room, we knew why it was a low-cost Millennial hotel. The room is very skinny. It is built with a place for everything in bright red and white decor. It is very space efficient. Room signs have pithy sayings tailored to Millennials.
To get anything to work, you need to sign into a tablet in your room.
The bed for 2 people was fitted into the space next to the large window. So one person had to roll to get in. There’s a drawer and room safe built into the bed platform. This saved space and cost.
The funny part was a pillow with clothes. It had a tag that read, “I’m ready for daily cuddles.”
There was only one bag rack and a chair which we used for our second bag. There was also a functional black desk with all the outlets you needed.
Obviously, we weren’t the target market but it fit our budget and the location was ideal. And, anyway, the rooms were not made to spend much time in except to sleep.
In the morning, the bar served amazing cappuccino at a separate but worth it charge. Check out time is early due to the limited staff. But they happily held our bags until we were ready to leave Washington later that day.
Actionable Marketing Tips:
- Know your audience. citizenM (which has hotels around the world) understands its market. Low price for a place to sleep, up-to-date technology and a sense of fun.
- Make maximum use of street level space. citizenM has a comfortable bar / cappuccino area to attract patrons and locals.
- Sell related merchandise. The hotel sold copies of its security doll and small custom printed books.
RECOMMENDED READING
Social Scene
► Meta Loses Value And Users
Social media was at the heart of the financial news this week because:
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, lost 25% of its stock value in one day. YIKES! Mark Zuckerberg was the biggest loser since he owns the biggest portion of Meta’s stock.
Why did Facebook’s stock crash?
Because the stock market doesn’t believe Facebook’s investment in the metaverse will translate to revenues and profits any time soon.
Deeper examination of Facebook’s user base shows people continue to leave the site for better social media experiences.
Actionable Social Media Tip
- Make Facebook followers an offer to join you on your owned media. As Joe Pulizzi says, “Never build on rented land.”
► Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter
Elon Musk took over Twitter last week, as did rumors about the changes he will make to the social media platform.
What should marketers do?
Continue to engage and post on the site to keep your presence going. But wait before investing in new projects on Twitter.
Voice Notes
► B2B Customers Use Voice
Did you know that one out of three B2B customers choose to engage with businesses using a form of voice?
Don’t take my word for it!
Look at the McKinsey data from December 2021. At each major purchase step of the purchase process:
- Identify and research new suppliers
- Evaluate suppliers
- Purchase
- Re-purchase
They consider phone calls, video conference, IVR, Webchat
They spend $50,000 to $500,000.
Actionable Voice Marketing Tip
- Include onboarding as part of the purchase process. Use voice to onboard new customers. Re-imagine sales videos to add continuity.
RECOMMENDED READING
Marketing Reads
Since conference season is in full swing, whether you attend in-person or virtually, here are some recommended readings.
If you’re scheduled to give a presentation at a conference or event, we’ve got you covered with this extensively updated article. It includes examples to help you shine.
Presentation Success: How To Create A Killer Preso Every Time
Here’s help to make your conference experience fun and useful at the same time.
Conference Attendance: Ultimate Marketing Guide To Generating Business
After the conference or event share your new knowledge with your peers and audience. This article gives you 20 options to shine.
Conference Blog Posts: 20+ Ideas To Steal That Will Make You Shine
► The Essentials of Marketing – 2022
The Essentials of Marketing – 2022 Kit brings together the latest in information, coverage of important developments, and expert commentary to help with your Marketing related decisions.
Get this important FREE Kit from TradePub today!
Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar
► NFT.London – Live Conference
November 3-4 , 2022 — London, UK
Related to NFT.NYC, NFT.London extends the work of this conference to the European community. (Hat tip to Ian Utile)
► SparkTogether 2022
November 10, 2022 – Paid tickets for virtual event.
Organized by Rand Fishkin and his team, this event won’t be recorded.
Recommended Reading
If you don’t have the budget to attend a conference IRL, check these tips:
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Happy Marketing,
Heidi
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P.P.S: Did you miss last week’s AMG Newsletter? Previous newsletters can be found in the AMG Newsletter Archive.
