Confused about the Gifting Market? Is It Up, Down or Going Sideways?

Unity Marketing plans to launch a new study of the gifting market early in 2012 to give marketers the facts and figures.

 

The Christmas gift shopping season is nearly over, but it seems like the pundits and industry watchers haven't got a clue about what the gift giving consumers are really up to. Take Black Friday sales for example. While some industry experts gleefully put sales on this much-examined retail day several percentage points ahead of last year, others quickly pointed out that any increase in revenues was likely due to the practices of opening store doors as early as Thanksgiving night, effectively tacking another six or eight hours of sales time onto Black Friday.

And just yesterday, the National Retail Federation (NRF) revised its forecast upward from their previously bullish pre-Thanksgiving estimates. But on the same day, the New York Times featured a story that said stores sales are lagging after Thanksgiving. As a result, they are taking drastic steps, including deep discounts, staying open late, and extending specials, to entice shoppers into the stores before Christmas.

Not only that, the New York Times article also reports that troubled retailers plan to manipulate the way they account for holiday gift sales this year to get a more favorable report from the actual year-over-year comparables. In other words, if the real data doesn't tell the story they want to tell their shareholders, they are going to 'cook the books' in order to do so.

Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury, calls for marketers to take reality-based look at the mindset and purchase behavior of gift customers in order to really grow a profitable gift business. "For this holiday shopping season, it ain't over till it's over, but I for one don't believe for a minute that shoppers are going to pull off a big sales gain for retailers -- not when half of all Americans are living at or near poverty, as reported by the Census Department yesterday. Business success is not about juggling numbers to get a favorable balance sheet or to demonstrate non-existent growth over last year," Danziger says.

"Rather, successful gift businesses are the ones that take the time to understand their customer, become responsive to their customer's needs, and develop a relationship that will persist over time. What is more important: figuring out a way to demonstrate Christmas holiday season growth at all costs, or developing a base of customers who will return to buy gifts for Mother's Day, graduation, weddings, and birthdays throughout the year?"

Danziger continues, "For true success next year, marketers need real information about the gifting needs of their customers in order to grow their market share. They need to understand what draws them to a particular item to gift or store to shop for gifts. These insights will help them create more effective and profitable marketing communications for next year, besides putting everything in the store on sale. Unity Marketing plans to launch a new study of the gifting market early in 2012 to give marketers the facts and figures -- the real data -- about the gift market."

Sponsors Needed for a New Study of Gifts and Gift Giving Market

Unity Marketing to launch a new study of the gift-purchasing and gift-giving behavior of middle-and high-income consumers.

Since 2007, before the recesion, Unity Marketing has tracked the behavior of the gift-buying consumer, providing the latest intelligence on who buys gifts; what holidays and occasions spark gift-giving; what makes consumers buy gifts; and the psychographic segmentation of the gifting market.

Today, as the economy teeters uncertainly between recovery and double-dip recession, marketers need the data and analysis that helps them target consumers as they purchase gifts throughout the coming year. By understanding not only the "who" of the gifting market but also the all-important "why they buy," marketers are poised to be competitive regardless of economic climate.

Unity Marketing plans a new study of the gifting market that will answer:

• How the recession and recovery has changed the behavior of the gift-buying shopper?
• What role social media plays in the gifts people select and the way they shop for gifts?
• How shopping for gifts over the internet differs -- or is the same -- as gift shopping in stores?
• How retailers can maximize the gift shopping experience not just during the fourth quarter, but throughout the year?
• How internet retailers can participate more actively in the gift market?

Gifting is not just for the end-of-year holidays -- Prepare to target your prime gifting consumers throughout 2012

Unity Marketing, a consumer insights firm that has been on the forefront of research of the gift market, announces plans for a new study of the gifting consumer. Slated to launch after Christmas 2011, the study of approximately 1,500 consumers will capture their most recent holiday gifting behavior, as well as their expectations about future purchases extending into 2012. This report will compare current buyer behavior to that discovered in 2006 and 2009.

Sponsors Are Needed for the New Gift Consumer Survey

In order to make the research both relevant and actionable for marketers and retailers that compete in the gift giving market, Unity Marketing invites a select group of companies to sponsor the research efforts.

The research sponsors will gain new understanding about the mindset of the gift consumer, including the gifts they buy for both holidays and other gift giving occasions, how they make their gift selections and their gift shopping experiences. The research will focus specifically on the needs, desires and passions of the gift consumers, as well as those customers who enjoy shopping for gifts.

You are invited to join this important research initiative as a sponsor to guide and direct the research. As a sponsor you will have input into the survey questionnaire, receive early survey results, have your company's brand and key competitor brands included in the survey, and receive the final analysis report with all the latest data and consumer insights.

Sponsors will also be afforded the opportunity to add exclusive questions to the survey. They will get the results of the research first in order to implement competitive marketing strategies ahead of the rest. Best of all, the costs of research are shared so sponsors gain many of the benefits of a custom research study at less than one-tenth of the cost.