May
16
Yesterday, I went to my friend Alejandro Reyes’ blog at SuccessFool.com
I posted a comment to one of his articles, and I received a pleasant surprise. A few moments later there was an email in my box… thanking me for commenting.
So simple, and automated! Yet it stood out. It’s a perfect example of how easy it is to be extraordinary… you just need to do the little "extra".
More importantly for your purposes, dear reader, was that the simple act of a thank you begun the relationship building. In the big expansive space of the world wide web, my contribution was noticed, by someone who genuinely cared.
Way to go Alejandro! Keep up the excellent value you’re providing. And thanks for letting me know the plugin you’re using.
Wanna test it out? Comment to this article and see it in action.
May
11
History of Mother’s Day
Filed Under General Marketing | Leave a Comment
Today is Mother’s Day in the US, A celebration of women everywhere who are changing the world by molding it’s future. Countries celebrate mother’s day on different days, from February 2nd (Norway) all the way to December 22nd (Indonesia). No matter what day it falls on, all countries seem to take a day each year to celebrate their mothers.
Wikipedia reports this about the history of motherhood:
The United States celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother’s Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace.
Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
When Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. In 1907, she passed out 500 white carnations at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia—one for each mother in the congregation. The first Mother’s Day service was celebrated on 10 May 1908, in the same church, where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Anna chose Sunday to be Mother’s Day to be a Sunday because she intended the day to be commemorated and treated as a Holy Day. Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mothers Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time.
Originally the Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of the original Mother’s Day commemoration, where Anna handed out carnations, this building is now the International Mother’s Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on—spreading eventually to 46 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912, beginning with West Virginia. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother’s Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
For example, according to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts — like spa treatments — and another $68 million on greeting cards.
Mother’s Day will generate about 7.8% of the US jewelry industry’s annual revenue in 2008. Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother’s Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular dining out options.
What’s the marketing lesson here? Hook your business to a national celebration to get temporary spikes in income. Now, you can try a mother’s day celebration, but you’ll be competing with every other company hitching their bandwagon to the holiday. Instead, go for something unusual…
To get some ideas consult Chase’s Calendar of Events. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
12 Jan Birthday of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. What a great day to promote a book!
9 Feb The Day the Beatles Appeared on Ed Sullivan. This would be a great day to promote a music related product or service. Or even a Volkswagon Beetle.
16 March is Companies That Care Day. Just about any business can use this as a reason to appreciate their customers.
April 26 Richter Scale Day. Yep, it’s a great time for an earth-shaking deal!
In fact, every month has a day or someone’s birthday that can be used to create a reason to celebrate.. and who doesn’t need more celebration in their life?
