Traverse City Record-Eagle

Betty Werth

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November 9, 2008

Betty Werth: Marketing Thanksgiving

By BETTY WERTH

Now that we're past all of the Halloween hoopla, it's time to think about the thrills and chills of Thanksgiving.

Except there aren't any, unless you count the excitement of learning, late Thanksgiving night, that your digestive tract has finally conquered the bushel of mashed potatoes and tankard of giblet gravy you joyfully stuffed down during Thanksgiving dinner. It tasted so good at the time but since then, like Plymouth Rock, it has sat, weathering nature, a monument to fulfillment.

Eventually it passes into history. Whew! But other than that, Thanksgiving doesn't pack much of a wallop.

Some people complain that Thanksgiving is being eclipsed by other, more commercial holidays, but I don't see how that's bad. I don't believe Thanksgiving fits our modern sensibilities. It's outmoded, inexpensive, understimulating and over after dinner. These days you just can't sustain a holiday on feeling thankful and eating pie. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Look at the stores. The same day they put away the witches they're putting up the wreaths. They go straight from aliens to angels, candy to candles, Satan to Santa -- -- and did you ever notice those last two have the same five letters? And wear red?

But before we rush into Christmas, let's force ourselves to spend just a minute on Thanksgiving. It has, at its foundation, the one necessary criterion for celebration, e.g. a day off. That alone makes it worth preserving, but not unless we make it worth celebrating.

How? Marketing! Not the kind where you go to the market, which is already part of the "fun," but the kind where people you don't know sell you things you don't need based on a desire you never knew you had. My son's friend Chris, who spends a lot of time thinking about this because, well, his evenings are long, believes Thanksgiving needs to stop "going rogue" and get with the program. It needs to merchandise, baby, merchandise.

First, he recommends building a sales campaign around a central figure, as Christmas does with Santa or Easter with the Easter Bunny. Yes, the turkey is a Thanksgiving icon, but unlike Santa and the Easter Bunny, he dies in the end. What about a cast of engaging characters who are immediately identifiable with Thanksgiving? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turkeys? No. But wait! No one has ever tapped the marketing potential of the pilgrims and American Indians, who could be heroic and battle hostile tribes, deadly Viking interlopers, not to mention crazed trappers with foreign accents. And just to spice up the story line, they occasionally could turn on each other. In terms of merchandise, I'm thinking action figures, weapons, costumes, teepees and houses, and every kind of footwear from moccasins to Viking sandals.

Once you've got a central icon, Chris says, you need a connection to 1) presents; 2) candy; or 3) explosives. Santa brings gifts; Halloween, Valentine's Day and Easter involve candy; New Year's and the Fourth of July feature fireworks. Thanksgiving could tap into any of those, they're all money-makers.

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