[lead] Everyone’s favourite spring holiday is just around the corner![/lead]
January was the slowest month of our entire lives, and now as we are already approaching the end, February has seemed to be the fastest! But with March just around the corner, we have already started to see the familiar pastel colours and the abundance of bunnies, baby chicks and not forgetting eggs, popping up across our local grocers. Not only is it a time of celebration, but for many, it’s also a time for gift-giving and impulse purchasing.
Although officially taking place at the beginning of April, thanks to the scale of this public holiday and the year on year increased spending, we begin to see appropriate marketing as soon as January. We’ll be seeing all of our favourite retailers and grocers getting in on all the fun and trying their hardest to benefit from this public holiday. But what can we expect to see?
First, a little history
Stepping away from all the bunnies, baby animals and chocolate egg, Easter is actually a religious celebration in which puts focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The religious celebration originally consisted of 40 days of fasting, otherwise known as Lent, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and of course Easter Sunday. Easter takes many forms across different religions, but in the modern western world, it has mainly become commercialised and drenched in numerous traditions.
Despite its religious connotations, the main traditions that surround Eggs that many of us relate to stems from non-religious practices. There have been suggestions that it comes from early Pagan traditions that involve birth and fertility, but that doesn’t explain their eventual chocolate form or our love to hunt them. The Easter Bunny’s involvement and true origin are still relatively unknown, but that hasn’t stopped it from being the staple symbol of Easter year after year.
Playing on traditions
Just as we explored in our Valentine’s blog, Easter marketing does well to focus on the years of traditions that it comes ready stocked with. Easter is widely known as one of the year’s most popular events, with increased customer spending and targeted marketing just a given. 2019 saw 70% of us taking part in the celebrations, with an average spend of around ÂŁ24.41 per person. But what is that being spent on?
There are a few reoccurring products that, thanks to tradition, fall into the limelight every year and they consist of lamb, flowers and baked goods – but none of those holds a light to the involvement that chocolate has within this particular holiday. It was found that 65% of us first think about chocolate when asked about Easter and according to Tactical’s lastest infographic, the public spent a whopping ÂŁ213million on Easter Eggs. With these big numbers reflecting these Easter staples, it’s no surprise that the majority of retail marketing remains its focus on chocolate and Easter Eggs to ensure their sale statistics reflect this time of increased customer spending. Take a look at Asda’s marketing for this year!
Taking place during a school holiday, Easter is also a time for the family, a lot of grocer’s marketing is adapted so it can utilise other products they have on offer during this holiday, to fully assure customers that their store is the one to be getting all their easter essentials. We’ll be seeing Easter recipe’s, How-to’s and DIYs to fully get customers engaged and look at all the options on offer instore.
Easter Alternatives…
Similarly to what was said within our Valentine’s article, many grocer’s pull in those extra spends and play on impulse purchasing by introducing lots of alternative Easter-related products which cause a stir and draw in the crowds. These usually consist of luxury Easter Eggs, infused chocolate and nods to the latest trends. Stemming from the recent gin trend, Aldi has released gin-infused Easter Eggs, where Morrisons has taken the retro sweet hype and applied it to their easter products. They’ve also been seen to take the luxury approach; releasing eggs that wouldn’t look out of place in an art gallery.
Aldi’s Boozy Eggs
Morrisons’ Eggs’trordinary Eggs
How Can Tactical Help?
Here at Tactical Solutions, we are able to ensure that your brand or store is getting the most out of their new product launches and marketing this Easter, enabling you to gain all the benefits of the increased spending during this holiday. With our in-store teams and our use of analytical data, they are able to prevent and resolve issues that could put a damper on sales by quickly and efficiently implementing effective actions; assuring a successful Easter.
