Have Retailers Killed St. Patrick's Day & Other Secondary Holiday Promotions?

Have Retailers Killed St. Patrick’s Day & Other Secondary Holiday Promotions?

This time of year I used to have to do St. Patrick's Day sales for all our retail clients. We'd have rainbows and leprechauns and Irish jig music and all kinds of shenanigans. All the competitors and other retailers would have their versions out there too. It's been years since I've done one, though. And I don't remember seeing any on TV this year.

Does this mean secondary holidays don't pull any more? Or just that marketers have grown beyond this kind of silliness? Used to be any goofy holiday was a good excuse for a sale. And if it wasn't one of the big ones, then cliches and silliness were all the order of business. Seems all those promotions have been killed off over the years.

Fact is, if it's not a major natural holiday, it doesn't really pull any more. We've trained consumer to wait for those big holidays to wait for Memorial Day or 4th of July or Labor Day. They come around often enough that customers will just wait, if it's a bigger purchase. The other alternative is to give them a good and believable reason that they need to come in today. Squeaky Irish brogue voice over and dancing pots of gold don't cut it any more. And to give marketers credit, they've realized this and move towards more sophisticated approaches.

Then there's digital. People can shop, compare and research online. Silly holiday shenanigans aren't going to drive them past that. Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

Mike McClure, full of Irish shenanigans