We are familiar with festive sales, double-digit sales and all kinds of sales year-round where discounts are abundant and sales are high. We are aware of how effective festive seasons and occasions are in boosting business, but has your brand leveraged on such events effectively to increase brand exposure and sales? Here’s our take on how you can harness the power of seasonal and occasion marketing to help your brand grab a bigger piece of the pie during periods of quick sales.
Make use of key cultural moments to create emotional engagement with your audience
For brands, you can build your marketing strategies upon key cultural moments such as Chinese New Year (CNY) where festive sentiments are high. By incorporating nuances of key cultural elements relevant to CNY into your marketing assets, you create an emotional connection to your audience, piquing their interest to engage with your brand. When such cultural notes are used effectively, the audience can relate to the message and will have a lasting impression of your brand. Discover how Mashwire worked with local beverage brand, Yeo’s, to leverage the festivity of Chinese New Year to connect with their audience through the Yeo’s CNY 2021 campaign. This campaign served to remind the audience of unconditional love which is often taken for granted in daily life but felt the strongest during reunion events like Chinese New Year. At the end of this campaign, Yeo’s managed to extend their reach to audiences of varying demographics and heightened purchase intent of their products.
Weave your brand’s identity into your promotional messages
According to Kantar, a UK-based brand consulting company, a successful advertising campaign during festive seasons such as Christmas reflects a brand’s identity and promotes meaningful brand-consumer relationship in the long run. As brands race to promote their products during festive periods, it is essential that your brand stand out from the crowd and cut through the noise to reach your audience. Use consistent, unique and memorable elements representative of your brand to create an iconic campaign which captures the eyes and hearts of your consumers.
Acknowledge your customers’ needs and wants during religious occasions
Be culturally sensitive and display your cultural intelligence through appropriate use of visuals and wordings in your marketing collaterals. This signals to your customers that your brand is not only concerned with making big bucks, but genuinely cares for them. This can earn brownie points and a good reputation for your brand in the long run. Additionally, you can consider pivoting your marketing strategies to address common pain-points your customers face during religious occasions. This shows that your brand is consumer-centric and truly understands what they require.
Festive periods are not the only time you should promote your brand extensively
What brands should note is festive periods are not the only opportunities to promote themselves. Even trivial occasions like daily snack breaks are great opportunities for your brand to tap on as it can generate higher brand recall where customers will think of your brand first during such occasions. This also helps to maintain brand exposure throughout the year. See how local bread manufacturer, Sunshine Bakeries, increased brand awareness and built trials for their new product, the D24 Durian Cream Bun, by utilising snacking occasions as a key touchpoint.
Brands can also tap on occasions relevant to their products to build brand identity. Local isotonic drink brand, H-TWO-O, leveraged sporting occasions such as e-sports and gymming to spread awareness of their refreshed packaging design. Similarly, throat lozenges brand, Strepsils, lent on occasions of throat discomfort to dispel the general misconception that their lozenges are only needed when individuals experience severe throat discomfort such as a bad sore throat. By promoting through this occasion, Strepsils managed to correct the general misconception surrounding their products and increase brand awareness.
