Modern Retail+ Research: Deloitte, Wrangler and other execs talk holiday marketing

Just ahead of the holiday shopping season, Modern Retail+ Research sat down with marketers at top brands and retailers to see how they’re preparing for the upcoming season. Here’s what executives at Tanger, Bespoke Post, and Wrangler had to say about their sales plans.

Holiday communication with customers is a balancing exercise

For many businesses, the holiday season is a vital time to hit end-of-year sales goals. But a brand’s final marketing push can get drowned out by the noise and competition from other brands in a similar position. Therefore, marketers prioritize meeting consumers where they are and maintaining their attention once they gain it. 

“The holiday is an extremely important time of the year, and something we invest heavily into.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post

“Our North Star is ultimately going to be the ability to get to you personally and only share with you through whatever method you consume advertising. That could be text, that could be email, but get to you and only share things that we know you’re going to open.” — Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger

“We want to train customers to open emails, not ignore emails, and the best way to do that is to be thoughtful with regard to frequency, messaging, and what products we choose to put in front of the consumer.” — Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger

“One of our big takeaways this year is, as people shift their share wallet somewhere else, or focus on discounting, it’s really important for retailers to build that loyalty [with customers].”  — Lupine Skelly, retail, wholesale and distribution research leader at Deloitte

While consumers search for holiday discounts, brands find creative solutions to add value

Modern Retail+ Research’s holiday survey revealed the majority of marketers planned on offering similar discounts this year to last year. And on top of that, nearly one-quarter of marketers (22%) said they offered deeper discounts in 2023 than this year. Rather than incentivizing holiday shopping through price offerings, marketers are looking into other ways of offering customers more value for their money. They’re also striving  to maintain flexibility and react quickly to offer the deals customers want during the holidays. 

“We have a [promotion] calendar but are also reactive, because as a third-party retailer, we carry brands that discount their product. That means anyone who carries them can discount their products. So we make sure to be reactive to that.” — Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger  

“We’ve been successful with gift with purchase offers, both when you know what you’re getting, but also even mystery gifts with purchasing. “It adds a fun component to what you’re doing.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post

“[Our “Black Box” offering] breaks through a little bit more than just straight discounts, and it’s more tangible sometimes. People love a discount and dollars off still works great, but it’s another method where you can drive a promotion that doesn’t necessarily have to be dollars off.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post, regarding the brand’s mystery box of stocking stuffer items that it offers with each purchase

Brands seek the right mix of holiday ad formats on social platforms

The executives Modern Retail spoke with were quick to point out the important roles social media platforms and influencer partners play as surrogate  search engines and brand spokespeople during the holiday season. These platforms and influencers can help brands target the right people and help first-time customers discover the brand. 

“Facebook and Google are massively important for us during the season — and TikTok has entered the mix a bit in our ad spend too. With Facebook and TikTok, their algorithms do a lot of the heavy lifting of matching an ad with a user. What we look to do is make sure we have a good variety of ad types and even product types in there. I’m interested to see as we enter this holiday season the rise of TikTok Shop, because there’s been a huge focus on them.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post

“Based on past performance, social media gift guides have been an important lever, as they reach a broader audience and encourage immediate engagement.” — Chandler Jasperse, director of global digital commerce at Wrangler

“Locally, we work with influencers that are connected to their local centers and communities through ongoing relationships. We curate activations and events based on these relationships and share details, allowing the influencers to create content in their unique voices.” — Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger

“Our largest campaign work with influencers happens during the holiday season, where our goal is to raise awareness and engagement of Afterpay’s platform. We work collaboratively with our brand ambassadors to align on the content that fits their niche, and provide any relevant messaging to anchor them on how to use Afterpay, but largely leave the creative concepting up to them so the end result still feels organic to their audiences.” — Alison Meyer, head of commerce marketing at Afterpay and Cash App

“We encourage our influencer partners to lean into the specific products that resonate the most to them and to create content that most resonates with their followers. But, we do align on the outputs in terms of number of posts, reels or stories. We have found the most authentic and engaging content comes from providing Tanger-brand information, but not being too directional on content output specificity. We select influencers based on their voice and want that to shine through in their content without being too restrictive.” — Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger

Holiday catalogs make a comeback, but for how long

‘Tis the season of giving and not knowing what to get loved ones. Holiday catalogs have long helped eager shoppers plan their holiday gifts and purchases, but shifts toward digital marketing channels have made direct mail catalogs a forgotten art for some brands. However, in the past few years, marketers have noted a resurgence of physical holiday mail. 

“One-hundred percent of people are thinking of gift giving during the holiday season, so definitely the holiday catalogs have seemed to work. In 2022, it was something we immediately were surprised at how well it performed, and so we decided to invest in it again for 2023 and even test in different seasons. We’ve tested Father’s Day and a fall apparel catalog. We’re steadily trying to test into other seasons, but nothing quite matches the holiday season.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post

“The thing we’re continuing to try to test is how incremental is it? In the DTC community people share knowledge, and people hear through the grapevine that these channels are beginning to work, and you quickly see people dive in. There could be a shift again because I know my inbox is more full with catalogs than I have felt in a long time. I think [catalogs] are going to start diminishing in impact because of the sheer quantity of it. We’ll have to see what the future years bring. That’s why we’re being very cautious about how we scale into it.” — Alvaro de la Rocha, CMO at Bespoke Post