3 Marketing Lessons from A Christmas Story
My family takes Christmas movie consumption very seriously. In fact, we have a three tier strategy.
Tier one:
What: Regular movies set during the Christmas timeframe.
When: To be consumed immediately following Thanksgiving
Examples: Die Hard, Love Actually, The Holiday, Family Stone
Tier two:
What: Fun-loving Christmas movies.
When: To be consumed when all Tier one movies have been viewed
Examples: Elf, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone
Tier three:
What: Serious classic Christmas movies.
When: To be consumed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Examples: Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas
This year I watched a few of my favorites through the lens of a marketing professional. You know, sometimes it’s just hard to completely detach from work. ;) Here are a few lessons I picked up from the tier two favorite, A Christmas Story.
- Leverage the nag effect
It’s practically the entire plot of the movie — Ralphie must have asked 50 times for a Red Ryder BB gun. His mom, dad, teacher, santa — no one was safe from his “pester power”. Hell, he even strategically placed his mother’s favorite magazine opened up to the Red Ryder ad on her pillow. Kids are crafty. redpepper learned quite a bit about pester power when working with Claire’s. Our research found that 62.9% of parents said persistence is the top tactic their kids use to influence a purchase. On average kids will ask 9 times before giving up (or more likely, winning).
2. Dad has purse strings too
Who ended up getting Ralphie his Red Ryder BB gun? Good ole dad. Sure this was a bit unusual in the 1940’s but today it is more and more the norm. 88% of millennial dads feel pressure to be the perfect dad. 80% of millennial dads do their share of the shopping. So don’t forget dear ole dad in your strategy and messaging.
3. Kids are smarter than us
Kids these days can spot an unauthentic advertising message a mile away. Remember Ralphie’s disappointment when his top secret message was decoded only to reveal a cheap advertising message, “Drink More Ovaltine”? What a waste of an opportunity to gain loyalty. In today’s environment when kids have instant access to price matching on their phones (78% of Gen Z’ers own smart phones) we have to think more in terms of building a relationship than making the sale. Be a friend and a trusted advisor to kids and they’ll thank you for it by putting your products at the top of their “nag list”.
