Thanksgiving dinner is not the product of traditions stretching back to the Mayflower. It’s the result of some very good marketing strategies.
For instance, there likely wasn’t any pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were surviving on a lean diet that didn’t include the butter, sugar or wheat flour that pie-baking would have required.
Turkey may not have been there, either. Before the 1920s, when Swift’s Premium turkey ads cemented in American minds that a fat, oven-roasted turkey was the Thanksgiving centerpiece, people celebrated the holiday with duck, chicken, and fish. The Pilgrims likely dined on venison.
And cranberries? Yep, you guessed it: the earliest celebrations would not have had access to them. Today’s cranberry holds a prominent place at the table because Eatmor Cranberry Company and Ocean Spray, two competitors vying for market share and consumers’ Thanksgiving shopping lists, shaped its place there.
So, when you’re listing what you’re grateful for this Thanksgiving, you might want to include your marketing strategy. It’s marketing that gave us turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce as part of our beloved, traditional celebration.
Before you cast a cynical eye on your holiday traditions, remember that the heart of Thanksgiving, like the heart of your brand, is rooted in something really great.
Simple at Heart, Complex in Execution: Americans love Thanksgiving. It’s not just because we love to eat; Thanksgiving has no religious basis or set rules. There’s also little thought of gifts unless you remember to bring the host a bottle of wine or a few flowers.
But ask anyone who’s ever hosted more than a few people for the big meal and you’ll find out that, unless they picked up a ready-made meal, they likely spent several days prepping for the feast. From cleaning to the menu, a large family dinner takes planning.
A marketing strategy is also simple; connect with the people most likely to buy your product and guide them to a purchase. Like your massive dinner, it’s easy to conceptualize but maybe a bit harder to execute.
Start at the Beginning: There’s a coziness to Thanksgiving. It’s family, gathered around the table or watching the football game. There may be generous pours of wine or champagne and “one more” piece of pie. It might be a bit chilly outside, but inside, it’s all warmth.
Nobody begins planning Thanksgiving by thinking about the big pile of dishes at the end. They don’t envision the challenge of redirecting the conversation when Uncle Bob brings up politics. And nobody thinks about how sick of turkey they will be by the third time you pull the leftovers out of the fridge.
No, they’re thinking about the other end of Thanksgiving: the family gathering, the great conversation, the toasts and board games.
Your marketing strategy needs to begin at the same place. Start by thinking about your brand. Why do you do what you do?
That’s the first question. The second should be: What do you do that’s different or better than your competitors?
By answering those two questions, you’ve come up with your value proposition, which is the heart of your brand message.
Focus on Your Target Market. Grandma just announced she’s now gluten-free. Your nephew can’t have nuts, and you’re off sugar. Again.
Making sure Thanksgiving dinner is a rewarding experience for everyone is an important part of hosting the big meal. To prepare a meal that works for everyone’s needs, you need to know what those needs are.
Failing to understand your target market is like ignoring all the allergies, preferences and health concerns of your guests. It happens all the time in marketing: a company believes it has the right product and markets it indiscriminately to everyone.
Instead, you need to make the equivalent of those gluten-free, sugar-free, non-pecan pies.
Knowing your target market demands that you dig a bit deeper. You need to know why Lisa, a mid-50s empty nester, uses your services versus why Mark, a 35-year-old professional, does. Pain points can be different among different segments of your target market.
A little side quest… A few companies have nailed Thanksgiving marketing campaigns by knowing the pain points of their audience:
- In 2015, REI abandoned traditional marketing wisdom (and a lot of data) that defined Black Friday as the biggest shopping day of the year. Knowing their loyal customers didn’t overlap much with the shoppers who line up at Wal-Mart at dawn, REI did something groundbreaking: they gave employees the day after Thanksgiving off and encouraged customers to get outside for a hike.
- KFC knows their core customers aren’t likely the bake-from-scratch types. So, in a flash of brilliant marketing, they launched “Thankfully, there’s KFC,” a campaign that featured a reel of Thanksgiving fails. Not surprisingly, when dinner plans went wrong, people swung by KFC, and KFC enjoyed a 12% increase in holiday sales.
- In 2020, realizing their customers had had about enough of that year, Denny’s offered “No Prep Required” holiday meals. In a season when consumers valued convenience and simplicity, Denny’s was in tune with their needs.
These are examples of big wins by big brands, but the same awareness applies to every company. If you know your target market, you will connect with them in ways that drive growth.
Set Some Goals. Next time you host Thanksgiving, try something new. Don’t tell anyone a time to arrive. When they ask you what they should bring, tell them to bring whatever sounds good that day. Do your shopping whenever you feel like it (even Wednesday night is cool) and start cooking whatever you want, in whatever order seems fun.
Now, imagine that dinner: potatoes were done cooking at 11 am, while the turkey isn’t roasted until around 6 that night. Guests show up at all hours with Fritos and pancakes because that’s what they happened to have at their fingertips. Family members mill in and out of your house, some leaving hungry, because they had no idea what the plan was.
It sounds ridiculous for a Thanksgiving dinner, but do you see any resemblance to your marketing strategy?
Maybe you post a bit on social media, run an email when a holiday is coming up or wonder every couple of months if your logo or color scheme might be out of date. It’s a bit chaotic, and it’s getting harder every year to figure out how much budget should go to marketing.
That’s why you need measurable, specific goals. When you know what you’re trying to achieve, you organize consistent marketing practices around those objectives.
For instance, if you want to increase traffic to your website, you might invest in keyword research, search engine optimization and AI visibility with a goal of increasing web traffic by 15% over the next 18 months.
In another example, a company that wants to drive engagement on social media might create a content calendar and schedule regular posts in an effort to increase comments, shares and other engagement metrics by a certain percentage.
Seek Out Expertise. Martha Stewart. Pinterest. Your favorite cooking blog. There are a lot of cookbooks, magazines and online resources ready to help you make an unforgettable Thanksgiving dinner.
At SJC, we like to think of ourselves as the best resource for an unforgettable marketing strategy. We’ve got all the ideas of Pinterest, all the expertise of a cookbook and like Martha, we make the latest trends and techniques look easy. When it comes to your marketing strategy, we can help you create something you’ll be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving from the team at SJC!