Christmas marketing strategies are based on touching people’s sensitive fibers. And they have transformed a religious holiday, based on the birth of Jesus, and a celebration of coexistence and family unity, into an event of consumerism and materialism.
As this season approaches, brands launch their holiday advertising to take advantage of the shopping frenzy by sending emails, posting on social networks and creating TV ads, this is how we remember the classic Coca Cola ads and have on the mind the famous song by Aurrera.
This is how Alfredo Brunell, professor and founder of the Marketing course, and Marcela Rodríguez, a counseling psychologist at Tec de Monterrey, explain it, who assure that this is a time when people are happy, and added to the fact that they have a greater amount of money they want buy, they say, “to fill gaps” because “you buy if you are good”, “you buy others if you want”.
“The reciprocity that is experienced at the time, coupled with the festivities and the feeling of sharing and remembering the good times, is what causes happiness in people,” say the specialists.
This is not new, we all know that brands encourage their sales in this time when we all have to “give”. However, technology has further motivated this trend in contemporary society, now to buy it is no longer necessary to go to the stores and suffer the tortuous lines, you simply direct a card to one of the platforms and click.
As shown by the Oracle Retail study, which states that 68 percent of Mexican consumers would be willing to pay more for expedited delivery of their Christmas purchases.
Far from the supposed happiness that gifts bring, the same survey revealed that at least 29 percent of people say they are worried about not having the amount of money they would like to allocate to their Christmas purchases due to inflation; while 34 percent are concerned that gifts will be more expensive in 2022.
Due to these economic problems, 83 percent say they are willing to have a financing plan to pay for their gifts progressively. That is, momentary happiness will bring several headaches when looking at the card bills for each month.
In Mexico, family reunions, gift exchanges, posadas and the Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year and Three Kings parties will leave 600 billion pesos, according to the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Concanaco-Servytur).
Regarding the purchases made by Mexicans, 87 percent plan to spend on clothes and accessories, while 61 percent will spend on technology, especially cell phones and computer equipment. Meanwhile, 45 percent of the population will invest in travel, another 44 percent in restaurant dinners and 27 percent in gourmet food to give away (sweets, fruit baskets).
Within these purchasing preferences, it is estimated that the sale of toys in Mexico will continue with its 12 percent annual growth, expecting that this December season it will reach two thousand 900 million pesos in profits, according to the Mexican Industry Association. of the Toy.
In the era of “I want it and I want it now”, it is essential to analyze: do I really want it? Do I really need it? And assess that next year an economic recession is expected.
It is not only about spending money excessively, consumerism also brings environmental problems, although in various industries such as plastics there is beginning to be talk of a circular economy that should promote reuse and recycling, among other things, we are still anchored in a linear economy in which we produce, consume and throw away in large quantities at an ever-increasing rate.