Shop Around The Thanksgiving Table

It’s Thanksgiving. There are Americans who are going to shop today, and there are those who are not. Everyone’s already decided, right?

If a person of any age has chosen to spend the day with family and/or friends, gather for a hearty meal, conduct warm conversations catching up and, of course, engage in incredibly uncomfortable and ill-informed political arguments, that’s what the day is going to be for them. There’s certainly no chance that a retailer is going to have any luck getting a person who is properly celebrating the holiday to do any shopping.

…Or is there?

Of course, there is; this is America. You are reading this very article on Thanksgiving (unless you’re checking it out in the archives at some point in the future, in which case you probably work for PYMNTS, so — hello, coworker), very possibly surrounded by your own family members and friends. Even if you’re reading this on your phone in the bathroom right now, you’re still in the midst of traditional Thanksgiving activities. The point: Media is reaching you today; therefore, retail can reach you today.

Granted, retailers have a little more competition getting the attention of potential shoppers today than they would on most other days, but it can be done. The key for any brand to gain consumers’ eyes and ears — and, potentially, dollars — in the limited time windows available during an average Thanksgiving celebration is to know the specific types of people — in particular, their age groups — that are usually gathered at such a festivity and when — and in what format — they can best be reached.

The Baby Boomers: Pre-Meal And Post-Meal, Watching TV

Your Thanksgiving stalwarts. They’re in the door early, out the door late (unless they live in the house where everyone’s gathered, in which case they’re in until tomorrow).

Being among the older generations in attendance, Mom, Dad, Uncle Dave, Aunt Kathy and the rest are more than the likely the most traditional of Thanksgiving celebrators. They’re gonna watch the parade; they’re gonna watch football; they’re gonna eat and drink; they’re gonna watch football.

It’s very likely that, like most Americans, the Baby Boomers at a Thanksgiving gathering will have their mobile devices on hand. But that’s not the best option for retailers to reach them; their attention is not going to be on their email or on social media — these are traditionalists, remember. They watch TV.

And that is the channel through which brands are most likely to reach Baby Boomers — not just on any day, as a DMN3 study proved earlier this year, but especially on Thanksgiving, when their television watching is so persistent.

The brands that are putting their marketing efforts into advertising during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the three consecutive football games and maybe even a late-night movie for the die-hard Thanksgiving TV watchers are the brands with the best shot to get Baby Boomers to maybe reach for their mobile devices or stop by a computer as they’re passing between the living room and the kitchen and, perhaps, ask a younger member of the family to help them navigate to purchase an item that caught their eye during a commercials.

Gen Xers: Email (And Video) In The Midst of Their Social Obligations

As Marketing Zen points out, the members of Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980) are a valuable consumer target for retailers but, at the same time, a difficult one to nail down. Similarly, many Gen Xers will be found playing the “utility” role during Thanksgiving gatherings, bouncing around as they help out with food preparation, parenting and putting in social time with members of both the older generation, as well as those of the younger one.

All the while, they will be staying connected with their mobile devices. To that end, email marketing will prove a tried-and-true method for brands seeking to reach them during the holiday. It’s got to be targeted emailing, regarding the Gen X consumers as the capable and financially sufficient adults that they are (or, at the very least, seek to be) — after all, a significant portion of Generation X has reached middle age; many won’t be checking in on social media on Thanksgiving as frequently as they might be on other days — but also respectful of their trailblazing tech-savviness. Most of Generation X was entering adulthood as email reached the masses, so members of that age group still hold the technology near and dear to their hearts.

It will help retailers looking to reach Gen X consumers on Thanksgiving to add a little video to those email marketing efforts; that might help grab their attention in the short spurts of time that they are on their mobile devices, momentarily, in between obligations, and able to perhaps make a purchase.

Millennials: Social Experiences (Not Necessarily Involving Other People Present)

Millennials: Who needs ‘em? According to every single media outlet that covers retail (including this one), everyone does.

But as we’ve learned in the past, brands can’t just market to millennials with direct messaging — on Thanksgiving or any other day; the generation finds that to be off-putting.

Millennials participating in traditional Thanksgiving festivities today will more than likely be looking to socialize; it’s also quite possible that they will find themselves — at any particular family gathering — outnumbered by members of older generations. Once the umpteenth awkward attempt at conversation with the increasingly incomprehensible Pappy Frank has run its course, where will they turn to interact with their peers?

Social media, of course. And that’s where retailers hoping to reach this age group that practically owns the rights to the phrase “coveted demographic” can make their move on Thanksgiving. As the Online Marketing Institute (OMI) explains, millennials’ buying decisions are heavily influenced by word of mouth, and that means the socializing they engage in online, as much as (if not more than) that which they do in person.

If a brand, via social media, can get just one bored millennial at Thanksgiving dinner interested in a product he or she is discovering on a mobile device, that person just might share it with another few hundred or thousand (or so on) other millennials who are also bored at their Thanksgiving dinners. The online conversation gets cooking, and voila, it’s a veritable buying bonanza.

For better or for worse, the connected world in which we live has made it veritably impossible for retailers not to be able to reach desired consumer groups on any day — even on those when buying products is supposed to be the last thing on people’s minds — by applying just a minimal amount of savviness.

As we said at the start, the fact that you are reading this article on Thanksgiving proves that there is room for retail to make an appearance even at entrenched family gatherings celebrating the holiday. Think we’re mistaken? Well, we’ll test that theory by stopping this last sentence before it concludes and see if you noti