Maybe what we seek doesn’t need to be bought
Tighter budgets will again impact Christmas spending this year, with between 33% and 40% of all UK customers set to cut back on gifting, food and socials.
The above stats come courtesy of KPMG, but numerous polls and research reach the same or even bigger conclusions. Accenture reckons as much as two-thirds of all Britons will spend less during this year’s festive season.
Whatever the percentages, though, the overarching fact ain’t a surprise. Times are tight.
Brands that want to sell stuff have a balancing act on their hands, and we can see it all playing out on TV as Christmas ad season hots up. Retailers have to strike different-than-usual notes if they’re to engage and touch … and grab bigger portions of smaller budgets.
New messages
With a few exceptions, brands’ Christmas ads once did as so:
See this thing? You need this thing. Your kids want this thing. Christmas ain’t complete without this thing. Buy it now. NOW. Nothing says Christmas more than hot, spicy swag.
However, now that the unadulterated consumerism, indulgence and decadence of Christmas-old won’t land, brands are instead serving messages of tension, hope and escapism et al as they vie to cut through, provoke, entertain … and, yes, sell stuff.
Some brands have gone ubercreative to drag us out the mire (Morrisons, Tesco) while others ask we embrace the unknown (John Lewis). There’s nostalgia (Amazon), quirky / moral takes on classics (Aldi), charity (Lidl) and even some anti-Christmasness (M&S).
NB the above is interpretation – not fact. Click the links and judge for yourselves …
The father (Christmas) of consumerism
Still on ads, this year’s Coca-Cola Christmas campaign is particularly interesting; not for what it says but for what it represents. If you haven’t seen it, Coca-Cola deploy Santa Clauses here, there and yon to remind us mortal folks to be kind and patient and nice.
On its face, sure, it’s an apt time to prioritise humanity’s basics. But …
There’s such irony in Coca-Cola using red beardy Kringle to push humility, niceness and tolerance over fizzy pop. As you probably know, the classic red-and-white Santa is a Coca-Cola creation and many would — rightly or wrongly — cite this creation as ground zero for Christmas consumerism.
The symbol of Christmas commercialism is now fronting for human connection? It feels significant. Okay, cynicism reminds us that this is still a play to engage customers, stimulate brand awareness and ultimately shift product, but even so …
So … what?
If you’re keeping score, this is Christmas #2 under the cost-of-living cosh. Prior to that were a couple under Covid rules. That’s four Christmases on the hop where the priorities changed. Good looked less like stuff and more like family, togetherness, kindness and etc.
So now we’ve had a few goes at it, is Christmas so much worse when it’s humbler, or on a budget? Does more expense = better Christmas? Nope, never seen that science.
The benefits in scaling back are numerous. Research by The Big Issue found that Christmas pushes one in five Britons into debt, which most will still be paying at Easter. Overshooting at any time, even Christmas, doesn’t jive with money management basics.
Boycott Black Friday trended this year to again highlight the waste (and the tax games and the unsavouriness) associated with roided-up consumerism. Among the countless ways to exemplify the damage done to people and planet there’s this: UK consumers will return 1,000,000 tonnes of clothes to retailers … and 75% of it’ll wind up burned or in landfill.
Too preachy?
Rest assured, media will carry surveys and polls this year (as they do every year) ranking the things we humans value most about Christmas. Spoiler alert, the results will show family and connection and love. Not presents. Not overspending. Certainly not debt.
So maybe Coke Santa’s onto something. Maybe kindness and connection (not fizz) is what we should be pushing from now on. Maybe one exists fine without the other. Maybe Christmas cheer is measured in happy, not in overheads, debt, stuff and waste.
And just maybe your friendly neighbourhood money platform is getting too lecturey. Fair.
But to bring it back into our shop, financial planners see way too many people spending way too much at Christmas. We know the extent to which overdoing it can derail plans, budgets and more meaningful goals and it prompts a big question: does what we really seek at Christmas need to be purchased?