Taking Advantage of Anniversaries

It’s your company’s anniversary, and it’s time to celebrate. It’s tempting to jump in with both feet by making alterations to your logo or masthead, or create a big anniversary-themed ‘red carpet’ opening spread to reflect this excitement.

But truth be told, you are far more excited about your anniversary than your customers. And in fact, unless you make it a celebration through activities that are beneficial to the customer, it’s much ado about very little as far as they are concerned.

Consider how much history you have hanging on your logo or masthead and you may see why I don’t recommend your changing your logo. I have never seen anything positive come out of a logo change in honor of an anniversary, and it always becomes a source of more work—and expense—than it’s worth.

Try something smaller and you’ll get a lot more impact. For example, if you are a cataloger, you can create a small banner for the base of your cover that says “Celebrating XX Years” to make it more special.

But keep in mind, if you announce a celebration, that event must be supported or it is a non-event.

Here’s some perspective: to your customers, you are the same company they’ve been buying from right along, so just the announcement of the date only muddies the water. And for prospects there is less and less concern among customers about how long a company has been around.

This being the case, why would your anniversary be important to them? How could you make it meaningful?

Try developing special anniversary celebration events and products. Many years ago for their anniversary, Liberty Orchards developed a special metal “collectible” candy tin that featured many of the images that were a part of their company’s culture and that had some perceived value to the customer. Besides being a cool, reusable candy tin, it was collectible for some, so it had extra value.

If you have a gift catalog, you could try a special limited edition of some product you already have, like a candle with a date and some heartfelt sentiment, or a special ‘reprint’ of a favorite item. If you have seeds or plants perhaps you can work to develop your own special anniversary rose or flower. If you have apparel you could develop a special limited edition shirt or jacket that has a certain panache your customers will appreciate.

But if you don’t develop your own product, what then?

Try one of these:

1. A sweeps where every order has a chance to win some small gift that you have had made for the occasion—and a big grand prize at the end of the year, such as a trip.
2. A contest where customers write in a recipe, or their favorite configuration of sound equipment, or ideas for new products.
3. A gift for your customer number “xxx” (such as your customer #100,000).
4. Create a pledge where for the entire year you’ll donate a percent of all your sales to a cause your customers will appreciate, too. You may need to do some research to find a cause that will speak to the majority of your customers. Display your progress on your home page by updating a ‘thermometer’ graphic that shows how much you’ve donated so far on behalf of your customers. Show them how their purchases are making a difference.
5. Roll back to the “original” price on a popular item for a limited time only.

So, a date itself is not something your customers can get excited about. But the things you do to make that date significant for them—these are the things that can generate interest, sales, and customer loyalty. Now, that’s a great reason to celebrate.

Carol Worthington-Levy is a creative partner with San Rafael, CA-based catalog consultancy Lenser.