When we think of a seasonal business that gets a kick from the Easter season, we automatically think of chocolate. But as well as the sweet treat that whets our appetite, there are plenty of other types of businesses readying themselves for the Easter rush. No matter what your business is, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t cash in on that boom, too.
Being a successful entrepreneur means creatively reacting to industry trends and consumer needs. These business’ successes hinges on clever leveraging of the two, and from the marketing angles they draw, you can get absolutely get enough ideas to come up with a killer Easter campaign of your own.
Here are 5 Businesses that Boom in Easter:
Tourism
During Easter holiday, around 3.4 million British people go on holiday, which is around 7% of the adult population. These people plan to take at least one overnight trip within the UK, with most of them (3 million) intending to take that trip in England. All of this is predicted to generate around £800 million for the UK economy, of which the vast majority (£700 million) is likely to be spent in England.
Whilst your product or service might have nothing to do with a weekend away in Cornwall, you can capitalise on the consumer attitude and new set of needs that face them taking said trip: what sorts of things do they need, and what would make their lives easier? Perhaps they’d be keen on a novel way to record and share their memories, or an app that will help them find the nicest walking trails?
Entertaining children
Easter also means that the kids will have a break from school. This means that, if you have kids, you will need to entertain them for the duration of the holiday. British parents who don’t choose to go on holiday during said break were found to spend a huge £478.25 trying to keep their children entertained. And of families that do choose to go away, parents are opting to pay more for children’s facilities such as kids clubs and crèche. It comes as no surprise then that more than one in four parents are worried about costs over Easter, and 1 in 10 admit to finding the period stressful. But here’s the hook for all you marketers out there: of these parents, over half admit they are worried about how to keep their kids entertained during Easter.
There’s a key need from a giant audience: parents. Anything that can, or might help make their lives easier during this stressful time will get them to double take. Even if your business is anything but child-friendly, there’s a huge potential for you to come up with creative new campaigns that tap into this anxiety and helps parents feel they’ve got more control over the perils of Easter holiday.
Flowers
Along with chocolate, people practically trip over themselves to give flowers as gifts on Easter. Not only are they popular and lovely gift to give in general, Easter marks the beginning of spring, the season where plenty of beautiful flowers are in bloom: think lilies and tulips. Behind only Valentine’s Day, Easter is a tied second with Mother’s Day as the second biggest occasion for gift-giving in the UK. And it’s cut flowers we’ve got our eye on: for every £1 we spend on indoor plants, we spend £9 on cut flowers.
What does this mean for entrepreneurs looking for a creative lead to draw people in over the break? It means that for consumers, seasons carry connotations and tangible sets of meaning. Spring brings on warm weather: colourful, blooming flowers, and a sense of carefree ‘freshness’. Research also shows that people who send flowers instead of other gifts are viewed as more successful, caring, and emotionally intelligent. That means that there are two sides to giving flowers: the ‘reward’ feelings when giving the gift, and enjoying linked connotations of nature, freshness and ‘new life’ that spring brings when choosing, or receiving them.
Online fashion
With attention drawn to warmer weather, so comes attention to the right clothes for the occasion. April is when good weather typically (hopefully) starts, and the first thing people want to do is shed their thick winter coats and buy fresh, bring new threads and accessories to match their new, lighter mood.
Last year, online clothing sales leapt by 12.8% during the Easter period, with over one-third of non-food online purchases being fashion and footwear. And retailers, in turn, have been working hard to create new collections to match pace. What angle can we take from this? The desire for transformation: to find an outward expression to match this change in attitude.
Chocolate
You can hardly talk about seasonal business in Easter without mentioning chocolate. The British love their chocolate, and come in at a jammy 4th in the world league tables of per capita consumption of the stuff. In Easter 2014, the value of Easter egg sales increased by £44 million. On average, around 80 million chocolate eggs are sold per year in the UK, which makes up around 10% of the nation’s annual spend on chocolate. That’s a lot of chocolate.
But you don’t need to explicitly sell or produce chocolate to cash in on this. Think of the things chocolate represents to a consumer: that is, why they want it so much, and how they feel once they’ve got it. Chocolate is a treat: something luxurious to put your feet up and tuck into. When dark, it’s also been proven in some forms to increase serotonin levels in the brain. Being able to tap into that luxury market and convince people your product or service is able to ‘treat’ them in some way (or at least mimic the feeling) — and there is always a creative way to get around this— will always work to hook those keen for it, so long as you don’t wildly bump up your prices to match.