Two Cass Talks for the price of one this week – which means we can stay at home for the Christmas holiday. In my case, home doing two big finance assignments and lots of reading for Mergers and Acquisitions. Think of me…
Anyway, the first confirms an uncomfortable truth.
Christmas is not so much about giving as going to the pub. Or at the very least, the beer and wine section of the supermarket.
This is the conclusion of Professor Cathy Pharoah, who has been comparing the seasonal rise in spending on booze to the increase in donations to charities at Christmas time.
Donations to charity spending rises barely perceptibly, despite the best efforts of good causes to enrol brass bands dressed up in festive gear to play Christmas carols. The average Brit will give just £2.41 to a good cause in December – 38p more than in the average month. Our spending on alcohol at Christmas rises by seventeen times as much as our extra spending on donations to charity. So much for it better to give than to receive.
However, Cathy’s point is that charities can’t just sit about and bemoan people’s lack of generosity. Christmas is for most people simply a time to relax with the family. This year in particular, money is tight. If charities want to get a share of the holiday cash, they need to be proactive – and think like businesses. To put it bluntly, people are probably more likely to make a larger donation when they’ve had a bit to drink. That means good causes need (at the very least) to get their collecting tins out in pubs. And while it’s too late for this year, thinking now about strategic partnerships with alcohol companies for Christmas 2010.
To cheer you up after Cathy’s rather sobering findings, step forward Professor Vince Mitchell. Vince has useful thoughts if (like me) you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping (or in my case, even started). He was also the man who in his role as one of my MBA lecturers, made me respects the marketing industry.
Let me put that remark into context. In my work as a journalist, the word “marketing” was the Siamese twin of the initials “PR”. And for many journalists, people who work in PR are people who have taken the devil’s shilling. They have turned to the dark side and are ready to tell lies for money.
And my other experience of marketing is the “marketing department” of various organisations that I have worked for in the past. In each case, a group of people who had their own rather luxurious floor of the building where we weren’t really welcome. All we knew was that they did Important Things. Things which were so important that we had absolutely no contact with them.
Then Vince explained what they should have been doing – using the words of Peter Drucker. “…the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.” If only the marketing departments of the companies I worked for had realised this.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone applied that sort of principle to Christmas shopping – an annual chore that I can never get right. Well, this week, Vince has done just that. And if you are quick, he’s even suggested a brilliant idea for a website that could make someone who is quick off the mark a fortune.
If you want to try it out, keep me posted as to how you get on.
And best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
