Why special days are a trap for brands

Do you have Mother’s Day content on your May calendar? Are you planning to spend money on it? Why?

Imagine a huge avenue that is closed for 364 days, and open for the remaining day every year. We’ll call it the Magic Avenue.

Magic Avenue can grow to infinity. The more people visit, the larger it gets and lets more shops to appear.

Since the Magic Avenue grows to infinity and has a crowd, everyone opens a shop there that day. They all try to show themselves to that crowd. Huge brands come up with great window designs and attractive deals, making celebrities wear their hats and sing for them. People all talk about the Avenue that day. It’s like a festival. You cannot imagine not being a part of this.

Now, imagine a small, niche backstreet your audience frequents.

Let’s call it the Niche Street.

Niche Street is also closed for 364 days a year, and open for the remaining day — but not the same day as the Magic Avenue.

This street is smaller than the Avenue, more cozy, and does not appeal to everyone. It’s not a festival: it’s a simple street with character. But it’s valued by your audience for some reason.

Your audience is on the Magic Avenue once a year just like everyone else. But they visit the humble Niche Street once, too.

Let’s build a shop for you

Let’s say you have a limited budget to build a shop this year. All the construction costs are equal for the Magic Avenue and the Niche Street.

But on both, once the construction is over, you need flyers, signs, etc to bring shoppers inside your shop.

What would you do?

(a) Would you divide your budget to build one shop on the Magic Ave. and another on the Niche St.?

(b) Would you focus your effort on the Magic Ave. and be a part of that festival?

© Would you spend your budget on being “the” shop on the Niche St.?

Then:

For (a): If you divide your budget, does your shop on the Magic Ave. have any chance against shops with huge budgets?

For (b): After you spend all your budget for your Magic Avenue shop which appeals to anyone, will your audience care about your shop that much on that day?

For ©: If your audience knows that you have a shop on their lesser known street, how would they feel about your brand?

All the visible ad spaces on the Magic Avenue of global and national special days will always belong to big brands.

Every cent a small or mid size business spends on those days is wasted on being a very small fish in the ocean, that probably looks ordinary to their main audience.

Of course your audience cares about Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Black Friday, Valentines, Women’s Day, Mothers’ Day, Independence Day, Republic Day, etc. It takes no effort or marketing know-how to know that.

But will they notice and care about your message that day?

Is your brand so ordinary that the most important day for your marketing plan is a day that is relevant to all others, too?

Isn’t there a Niche Street where no big players care about and open for you to own?

Wouldn’t you want to show your audience that you know them, you care about their special place more than others, and use your resources to be there with them?

A big, well-known special day might look like the go-to date for a promoted content or sales campaign. It might look like a natural choice. But it’s not, unless you want to spend your budget against Coke or Apple.

If you don’t have a big budget, you must care less about when big brands talk, and more about when your audience listens.

They probably have a Niche Street: a special issue they care about, and a special day they want brands to care about.

Big brands will never focus on that street. Their plans are too big for that.

Find your Niche Street, own it once a year. Do it every year.

Make your brand a part of the neighborhood, not just another advertiser on an annoying timeline full of promoted posts.

And even if you have a big brand: stop wasting your budget on trying to be equally relevant for lovers, mothers, fathers, children, working women, your country’s independence, and environment.

People respect those who are genuinely and passionately interested in something, not half-heartedly interested in everything.