What Does White Day Have To Do With Your Business?
by: Karen Scharf, Small Business Marketing
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Here is my daughter at her “20 Party” in Japan. This picture has nothing to do with White Day or your business, but I thought it would be fun to share.
As you may know, my daughter is currently studying in Japan, and March 14 in Japan is White Day. White Day is basically the day on which men reciprocate by giving chocolates and gifts to the women who gave them Valentine’s Day gifts. (Yes, men are the main recipients of Valentine’s Day gifts in Japan!)
What is significant about White Day? Well, just like Father’s Day and Grandparent’s Day and Secretary’s Day and National Spay and Neuter Day and the tons of other “days” we have here in the states, White Day is a made up holiday. Apparently, up until 30 years ago, there was no such thing as White Day. But today, the card and chocolate and gift companies in Japan are capitalizing big-time!
Did you know that here in the U.S. there is a National Mustard Day? A National Cheese Day? National Clear Off Your Desk Day? There’s National Pasta Month, National Pizza Month, National Dessert Month. There’s National Radon Action Month, Save Your Vision Month, Business Image Improvement Month, and the list goes on. And I literally mean, the list goes on. There are over 10,000 declared days, weeks and months all revolving around a theme or cause.
So, what does all of this have to do with your small business? It’s simple… I want you to declare your own holiday!
Declaring your own holiday is actually easier than you probably realize. And the marketing opportunity it provides is phenomenal!
How Does This Work For You?
For example, let’s say you own a small string of beauty salons. You could declare May as National Hair Care Month. After the declaration has been made, it’s entirely up to you to capitalize on it and promote it in anyway you can.
First, you could organize National Hair Care Month special events at all of your beauty salons.
Then, you could send out press releases announcing National Hair Care Month and describing how your salons will be supporting it with special events.
You could send a top-ten hair care tips press release to the local radio stations in honor of National Hair Care Month. Include a list of suggested questions, in case the release turns into an on-air interview.
You could join forces with local bridal shops to give hair care tip presentations. You should be able to pick up a few new clients since most brides have their hair professionally styled for the “big day”.
Why not donate your services to a local senior’s facility in honor of National Hair Care Month? Be sure to send out a press release detailing the events. It is usually rather easy to have a “charitable contribution” story picked up by the press.
You can also tie an event in with another well-known charitable organization in the hopes of getting additional press coverage. How about hosting an event in conjunction with Locks of Love. You can teach women proper nutrition to grow their hair quickly, so they can donate it to the Locks of Love organization. (FYI, Locks of Love provides natural hair wigs to disadvantaged kids with cancer.)
What about having a contest – the most effective home remedy for hair care? Announce the contest to your customers, to your prospects, to your vendors, etc. Send a press release detailing the contest. The prizes could be gift certificates for your services.
I hope you get the jist of this, even if you don’t own a hair salon. The idea is to create a holiday that ties in with your business, get as of-the-wall as you can with your events and activities, find a few partners or other organizations to join in on the fun, and then promote the heck out of it. If you can “piggy-back” on other well-known events or charitable organizations, you’ll have an even better chance of getting your national holiday story picked up by the media.
How do you go about declaring a national holiday? Believe it or not, all you need to do is submit your holiday idea to Chase’s Calendar of Events. The deadline is generally in April for the following year. If you want to declare a national holiday for 2009, you’ll need to submit your suggestion no later than April 15, 2008.
If you don’t want to go through the work of creating your own holiday, don’t worry; there are plenty of ready-made national days, weeks and months to choose from. There’s Financial Wellness Month, Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month, Frozen Food Month, Pet First Aid Awareness month, even Correct Posture Month and Mold Awareness Month. Chances are, you’ll be able to find an existing holiday that correlates with your business by perusing the Chase calendar listing. You can purchase a copy on line from the McGraw Hill Company (just do a search for Chase’s Calendar of Events), you can grab a copy at your local bookstore (it usually runs around $65) or you might even check your local library.
Once you’ve chosen a holiday that relates to your business, simply plan some unique activities around it, invite your customers, prospects and vendors to participate, find a few other organizations to partner with, and send out several press releases to local newspapers and radio stations. You’ll be amazed at the media coverage this technique can bring about!
Action Item
- Declare a holiday or choose an existing holiday from Chase’s Calendar of Events that ties in with your business.
- Brainstorm at least 3 activities, events or partners you can develop around the holiday.
- Prepare at least one press release and one list of suggested questions to solicit media coverage around your holiday events.
Now, go find some more clients!
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Hello I like your post “es White Day Have To Do With Your Business? | Helping YOU Grow Your Business!” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Answer welcome. Greetings Schlauchboot
July 27th, 2011 at 8:06 am
Do you have a source of article ? if have,share please,thank youu =)
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