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- Title
The Marketing of Christmas: A History.
- Authors
Erb, Lyle C.
- Abstract
Newspapers, of course, benefit greatly from department store and other retail advertising. Their biggest volume of ads occurs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the lowest in the period after Christmas through mid-February. They stood to lose as much as the merchants from the late holiday. Thanksgiving also traditionally marked the start of the Christmas shopping season. Great department stores staged huge Thanksgiving Day parades with Christmas motifs to kick off the annual festival of conspicuous consumption. But a November 30 Thanksgiving Day would cut a whole week from the buying period, and merchants were worried. This marketing of products through images goes back at least to Frank W. Woolworth, who didn't advertise, and R. H. Macy, who did. The story of the marketing success of these two entrepreneurs is a major part of the story of the marketing of Christmas, culminating in two of the major public relations coups of recent years: the Cabbage Patch Doll and Trivial Pursuit--both introduced without advertising and at Christmas time.
- Subjects
HISTORY of Christmas; MARKETING; ADVERTISING; BUSINESSPEOPLE; THANKSGIVING Day; CONSUMPTION (Economics); SANTA Claus; CHRISTMAS trees; MASS media; CHRISTMAS; WOOLWORTH Corp.; MACY'S Inc.; HISTORY
- Publication
Public Relations Quarterly, 1985, Vol 30, Issue 3, p24
- ISSN
0033-3700
- Publication type
Article