The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

Not too long ago I was having a conversation with the parent of one of my Judo students. He explained how things were tough for his family and they would not be able to pay December’s tuition. Later on I overheard him talking to another parent about searching for the perfect gift that the child wanted for Christmas. I knew this gift had a $400 price tag associated with it. Which goes to show that people even in horrible times still buy what they want and not what they need.

Okay, so we all know the routine. The Bahamas is about to enter the twilight zone. Real life will essentially be put on hold for the Christmas season. Many people will spend way more than they should to spruce up the house and buy new furniture. Essential bills will go unpaid while useless gifts will be bought. In fact, some businesses will sell more on Christmas Eve than they do during most months of the year.

If you are selling advertising, this is a really good time of the year, as businesses advertise Christmas sale after Christmas sale. However, January roles around and persons selling advertising are really hurting. Yet I maintain that the New Year is one of the best times for a business to advertise. Why? Precisely because of the fact that everyone has spent all their marketing dollars on Christmas.

This means you are in a better position to negotiate advertising rates and contracts with advertisers. This also means you will not have the cluttered advertising space, and your ads are likely to be more effective during these periods. However, the problem remains that most people are dead broke during this period. So the type of advertising that I would recommend for the New Year is Lead Generation advertising.

There is an old formula used in advertising called AIDA. It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, then Action. Rather than getting an ad to try to do all these things at once, and make an immediate sale, January is a great time to have your ads focus purely on getting the attention and interest of persons. This is the core of Lead Generation advertising. It will allow you to get their contact information, so later you will be able to create a desire for your product that will lead to the action of them spending some money with you.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com