by Katie Shabi
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. While the lovey-dovey holiday is fun to celebrate, the rewards of remembering the holiday in your business endeavors can also be sweet. Americans spend an estimated $1 billion every year on Valentine’s candy, making the holiday a great opportunity for seasonal marketing. Should you invest in seasonal packaging for your product this Valentine’s Day?
Is it wise for your company to invest in Valentine’s themed packaging in 2016? To help you figure it out, Grimes Packaging has created an infographic using research from Mintel, the National Confectioners Association, and the National Brewer’s Association. The infographic includes information about some of the most memorable seasonal packaging campaigns—in good ways and bad—from some of the biggest consumer companies. See the infographic below for more information.
Discounted Product: Great for Moms, Bad for Business
According to the infographic, successful seasonal packaging is all about economy – something female entrepreneurs can appreciate. Maximizing your product’s shelf life is important to the bottom line of your seasonal packaging campaign. As shown above, Hershey’s took some serious profit losses in 2011 when they rolled out too much Halloween-themed candy and were forced to sharply discount all the leftovers starting November 1. Great for thrifty moms on a budget, not so great for one of the biggest candy companies in the world. The next year Hershey’s avoided (or at least put it off until after Thanksgiving) the candy discounting by ditching the ghosts and goblins and sticking to more general autumn colored packaging with fall leaves and uncarved pumpkins. What’s the takeaway? Seasonal packaging works, holiday packaging doesn’t—that is, if you want to avoid being left with a bunch of unusable leftover stock.
Holiday Packaging for Valentine’s Day?
Using this logic, investing in Valentine’s Day packaging is a risky maneuver, especially for a small business. As we’ve discussed, it’s not that hard to design seasonal packaging that is still generic enough to take your product through the fall season, from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Valentine’s Day, however, with its pink colors and hearts, is a tougher holiday to stretch into an entire season. That’s not to say it can’t be done, though. Hershey’s has offered Valentine’s themed candy for years. While they might be forced to discount leftover product come February 15, they offer the special holiday packaging because they know customers prefer it. As the infographic points out, 65% of consumers feel candy should have holiday packaging.
Seasonal Packaging: The Bottom Line
When it comes down to it, some consumer products will just be more conducive for Valentine’s Day product packaging than others. Entrepreneurs and business owners selling products geared at women will probably have the best chances at hitting the bulls eye with Cupid’s arrow. Sales for chocolate, flowers, jewelry and perfume rise around the holiday, so don’t count holiday packaging out if you think your product could benefit from the extra boost of special packaging. At the end of the day, seasonal marketing is all about persuading new customers to buy from you because of your products clever and appropriate packaging. Weigh the costs, but take advantage of any opportunities to bring in new sales for your company.
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Katie Shabi is a marketing specialist currently employed by 3PL The Grimes Companies in Jacksonville, FL. With nearly 5 years of marketing experience, Katie enjoys analyzing data to help companies grow using affordable and effective techniques.
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