Dos and Donts of Marketing your Business during the Halloween and Fall season
– By #RSA
We hear it’s screams and shrieks season; and with the season comes the opportunity to lean into all things spooky with your marketing. However, there is a fine line between just enough and overdoing it. The RSA Marketing team has put together a guide on what to do and what not to do when marketing your business during the Halloween and fall season.
We all love the Halloween and fall season as it starts to cool down at night after a scorching summer. What’s not to love during this time of year, there’s Football, color changing leaves, soup and much more. But the best part of the season, Halloween. We are going to share some ideas and insights on how to use the spooky season to help market your business and what you should steer clear of.
DO: Know your target audience
When it comes to helping clients sell their products or sell themselves, you must decide who and what target market you are aiming for. So, to continue the theme of this blog, to have a winning Halloween campaign is knowing your target audience and what side of the holiday they enjoy most. Whether it’s the crazy parties, using gory makeup for their scary costumes, or cute pumpkin carving and old classic Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus. Here is a great example of a marketing campaign from 2021 from Heinz. The ketchup brand we all know and love had the creative idea to add a spooky spin to their ketchup bottle that year just in time for Halloween. This creative branding is a great way to lean into the season without overdoing it.
DON’T: Try to force fall trends into popular everyday items in order to get recognition
Adding a new spin to your products is a great way to interest new customers or retain your current customer base, but remember just because two things are great on their own, doesn’t make them great together. Customers get excited for fall because of certain seasonal items that come with it such as pumpkin spice lattes, Oreos and bread. So Ramen decided to produce a pumpkin flavored Ramen choice that’ll hit stores in October. We personally thinks this flavor combination sounds very spooky (and not in a good way) and others agree. Initial surveys have said it probably won’t be very popular due to the taste these two mixtures will have. This is a prime example of why jumping on the bandwagon isn’t always the best idea.
DO: Put a spooky spin on your product
Whether you are an office supply company, a law or tax firm, or a dentist office there is always a way to add a holiday themed spin to your products and services These examples from Dior and Crest are just prime examples that you can add a fun spin to nearly any product. The Dior ad, added some fun and sexy tips from Bella Hadid on makeup tutorials perfect for Halloween that can apply to girls and women. The Crest brand utilized Halloween candy as a way to promote protecting your kid’s teeth after the holiday.
DON’T: Don’t ignore the public opinion
Make sure to stay in touch with the public opinion and be mindful of what is considered lighthearted fun and what things may offend your customers. . For example, Walmart striked out with this filter on their website for Halloween costumes by naming it “Fat Girl Costumes.” In today’s body positive society this was distasteful and offensive to many people. By tracking the conversations on the internet, you can find out what topics are sensitive and avoid them in your campaigns.
DO: Avoid Clichés
Everyone has seen this marketing trend everywhere. Where the man or the woman is dressed up in fall clothing and throwing leaves up in the air in almost every clothing or retail advertisement. There are many photos of these types everywhere and are often used by businesses that is totally unrelated to their brand. If the standard fall photos don’t match your brand then what’s the point? A company’s marketing strategy should be attempting to share its brand and gain and retain new and old customers.
Fall is a fun season for new innovative ways for companies to market their companies. But make sure your marketing still aligns with your brand values and that you aren’t overdoing it
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