26/12/2023
To Greet or Not? - Brands…Leave me alone on my birthday & anniversary!
We had an interesting debate with a client. It was about sending birthday and anniversary greetings to their customers. They asked our opinion.
Before we get into our opinion, please ask yourself the following…
When was the last time you got excited to see a birthday message from a brand or a store you had shopped at earlier?
Did that anniversary greeting message from a fashion brand - with a discount code - make your day special?
Most likely both of your answers would be negative.
However, do a Google search on whether to send such messages. You would see 100s of thousands of pages advocating the importance of them.
From our surveys, we found that,
Almost everyone felt irritated due to these messages - not because of the content - but due to the volume of such messages. They are bombarded through SMS, WhatsApp, Email and Social media - by every store they have ever shopped at.
More than 96% understand the brands don’t really care about them, and are just trying to sell through an offer/ discount code.
More than 90% did not want brands to send them greetings with offers.
Simply put, the users meant, “Leave us alone on our birthdays and anniversaries. We are getting spammed.”
Our take?
Do not send discount codes, or sales offers with your greetings.
If you want to leave a positive feeling, just greet. Don’t sell.
If it makes economic sense, then give an actual gift! Even a simple coffee voucher or chocolate would be great. But remember. A Gift. Not something they have to buy/spend money to redeem.