Humans are wired to react to changing seasons. Paying attention to these cyclical changes can have a variety of benefits for marketing companies in Orange County. Keeping your brand fresh doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch—for brand management, find ways to think cyclically, and you’ll find that it’s easier to keep your brand fresh.
Do you ever wonder why people talk about the weather when there’s nothing else to talk about? “Can you believe all this rain?” they say, as if something rare and unexpected were falling from the sky. When we meet someone from a part of the world we’ve never been to, we ask, “What’s the weather like?” as a way of helping us visualize the unseen place. There may be a variety of reasons we talk about the weather, a topic that even meteorologists have to admit is boring. My guess is change. People change very slowly, which makes the change hard to notice; the weather changes fast.
With seasons, we add an amount of predictability to the change. When we see green buds begin to sprout from the trees, we can recognize that spring is beginning, and that winter is ending. When we feel the weather cool down and we see the leaves start to turn, we recognize that summer is at its end, fall and winter will be here soon. Recognizing these things is very easy for us. It’s one of the first things we teach our children in picture books. Not too long ago, when most people grew their own food, it was absolutely essential to recognize these changes. You needed to know when to plant, and when to harvest. Even though most of us don’t farm in that way, the knowledge of the seasons still strikes us with the same essential power.
Selling the Season
Now think of brand management. Some brands rely heavily on the seasons for their brand communication. Take the example of Coca-Cola. When the polar bear and Santa Claus commercials start up, you know Christmas is just around the corner. Many clothing companies have spring, summer, fall, and winter lines, and branding accordingly is essential to their business model. Most medium to large companies take advantage of seasonal marketing in some way, and generally, those campaigns are more successful than non-seasonal campaigns. Now you may say, “But wait! My company makes gaskets for various industrial machinery. There’s nothing Christmasy or spring-like about gaskets.” And to that I would say, There’s nothing Christmasy about Coca Cola, either (although they did basically invent Santa…). I mean, who cracks open an ice-cold can of Coca Cola on Christmas morning, while the kids are opening presents? The very thought of it is revolting. Still, it’s one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, and it’s because of this: when the Coke marketing department decided to include Santa in their Christmas marketing campaigns, they weren’t selling coke—they were selling Santa and Christmas. They were selling the season, and all the feelings that come with it. Businesses and marketing companies in Orange County can benefit from thinking in this way.
‘Tis the Season…for Sincerity
Marketing—especially digital marketing—has become filled with insincere sentiments: “[Company XYZ] wants to wish you a happy [Holiday XYZ], from our family to yours.” It’s lazy communication and it isn’t useful. Rather, find ways to get to the heart of the season, or the holiday. Summer makes people happy. It’s fun. What does summer mean to your product and the people that buy it? It’s a clear, simple way to effectively keep your message fresh while staying “You.” Everyone, even a gasket company, can find a way to relate their message to the seasons, because essentially, relating to the seasons is a human experience.