It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

This morning on my way to work Michael Buble was being interviewed by Chris Evans on Radio 2 promoting his re-released Christmas album from last year, they even played ‘It’s beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’ now it might be starting to look like Christmas up and down the High Street but is it sounding like it?

It seems to happen every year, possibly this more than most with distractions like the Olympics and Euro 2012, but Christmas has crept up on us all this year.

I remember just after Halloween I was going to a fancy dress party on the Saturday following the 31st and thought I’ll be savvy and wait till the day after Halloween to pick up a cheap Pumpkin to take with me, so off I went on November 1st and literally overnight we’d gone from Ghouls and Goblins to Santa and Sleighs, in hindsight I should have really known better.

Seasonal events are so important to retailers they can literally make or break them, and when things are as tough as they are right now it’s imperative that they make hay whilst the seasonal sun shines.

 

One thing to help build that sense of seasonality is you’re in store music, there’s often a great debate as to when your Christmas music should start? How much there should be? Do you go all out 100% or do you break it up with tracks within your profiled playlist? Do we play classics or remixes? etc... The list of questions is endless.

The truth is each brand on the High Street is very different from Jewellers to Grocers, Toy Shops to Department Stores, unfortunately there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution. It’s important to have a strategy to avoid situations like the Canadian Drugstore ‘Drug Mart’ had in early November, after numerous complaints they suspended their Christmas music until further notice informing customers via facebook, which staggeringly drew more than 7,300 likes and 6,000 (the majority positive) comments.

Keeping colleagues happy throughout the holiday season is just as important as customers so here are a few pointers to help you out with your Christmas music this year:

 

·         Think about the Christmas music suitable to your environment, just because its Christmas  music doesn’t mean it’s right for you

·         Have a strategy; will you be building Christmas music into your playlist slowly to ease the   festive period in? When does it start/stop? All these things are important to avoid unhappy colleagues and customers

·         Try something different, there’s some great new Christmas music out there so don’t feel like you have to stick to the classics

·         If you’re using the same CD you’ve used for the past 5 years DON’T, invest in some new music for the sanity of your staff.

I hope these short pointers help you get your Christmas Music just right, and if you’re still struggling why not get in touch?

 

      Happy Christmas (Too soon?)

                 Dave