Always looking ahead to how the calendar lays out for traditional Year End Sale events, here’s a look back at how Labor Day falling on the 7th affected August.
For the first time since 2012, Labor Day sales did not count in August. This caused the SAAR projections to take a hit mathematically. According to Edmunds, it was a 2.8% drop year-over-year in what was called a “calendar discrepancy”.
There are two more instances coming up that are unique — Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Year’s final week. Turkey Day is the 26th with only 4 sale days remaining. If you want to make an impact, place your media early and get your e-blasts/social media launched on-time to compete with the retail push from all sides.
The last time Christmas fell on a Friday was 2009, so review how you did back then. But keep in mind that marketing has changed since then and plan carefully how you can impact the final week of ’15. The challenge for stores closed on Sunday is that you have Saturday the 26th, and then only 4 more days before the New Year mentality kicks in.
There is another first that could have an impact – the College Football Playoff semi-finals are scheduled to be played December 31st.
Bottom line — it is what it is. Make it work for you.
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John Paul Strong
John Paul Strong combines his two decades of automotive marketing experience with a team of more than 150 professionals as owner and CEO of Strong Automotive.
