subject: How Soon Is Too Soon? [print this page] How Soon Is Too Soon? How Soon Is Too Soon?
You've probably heard that classic conundrum of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Well this same sort of enigma popped into my head the other night as I was watching TV. Here we are in the middle of November. Thanksgiving is still a week away. And yet, there are Christmas-themed commercials on television advertising holiday sales. Now, I know that businesses are trying to hype up Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but I don't remember this many Christmas-themed commercials appearing on TV this early in years' past.
If you're like me, then you probably get a tad bit annoyed seeing Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman trying to sell you things well before Thanksgiving. And I'm not even going to get started on hearing Christmas music this early in the year (the less we have of it, the better). So I asked myself why businesses are beginning Christmas and holiday themed ads seemingly earlier than ever before. After doing some quick reading about studies done about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I learned that a majority of Americans say they begin their holiday shopping by the first week of November. Now, this could entail anything from comparative research to actual purchases. However, the point remains that people have begun their holiday shopping right after emptying their Halloween candy stash.
So, this brings me to following question: are people doing their holiday shopping earlier because of all the Christmas-themed advertisements, or are businesses running such ads because people are doing their holiday shopping earlier? I have yet to come up with a good answer for this question as both sides have valid points. There are probably many people who decide to take advantage of early November sales and decide to start their holiday shopping because of it.
Likewise, many marketing people are probably deciding it's a good idea to start holiday advertising and sales because so many people are doing their holiday shopping earlier than ever before. Regardless, we're not going to see Christmas ads start later in the year anytime soon. My advice would be to tough it out, try to look forward to Thanksgiving, and wait until the great deals go into effect on Black Friday and Cyber Monday before you start your holiday shopping.
