They are trying to corner the "Christmas tree" market and the "Hanukkah bush" market with one product. ;-)
Posted on 11/24/2007 1:31:58 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Retailers shouldn't be shy about wishing customers a "Merry Christmas."
A new survey found that 67 percent of American adults prefer the holiday-specific greeting in seasonal advertising, while only 26 percent want to see "Happy Holidays."
There wasn't a gender gap in the answers: Both men and women like seeing "Merry Christmas" in store windows, according to Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, an independent polling company.
But from a political perspective, there was a sleighful of difference: 88 percent of Republicans wanted to see "Merry Christmas," while just 57 percent of Democrats favored it.
Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said the "Merry Christmas" versus "Happy Holidays" issue has been around for a few years.
"I don't think it's a new issue" for the industry, Mr. Krugman said yesterday.
In 2005, Target stores ditched the use of the word "Christmas" in promotional materials, but the retailer decided to resume using it after immense public pressure.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
It is very difficult actually to defend changing Merry Christmas to Happy Holiday. As marketing is more and more tailored into market segmentation, they don’t want to offend a big chunk of the population. So, many stores now put both Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday together. I have no problem with that.
Corporations seem to be more responsive to the minority
P.C. agenda than to it’s own clientel. Problem with disconnected M.B.A. snot noses in marketing and P.R.
Target was taken to the wood shed on this issue.
Bout time we won.
I avoid those who think I'll be happy with... "[anything] Holiday [anything]".
I won't.
I know that there are lots more indignant folks, just like me, who want Christmas back, and were willing to NOT pay to get it (if you see what I mean.)
I once bought a newspaper that I didn’t really want from a street vendor because his sign read ‘Blessed Christmas’.
Out in the Pennsylvania Dutch country the preferred greeting among Church people for New Year's is Heilige Ny Jaar!, literally, "Holy New Year." Anyone can have a happy New Year and many who are very happy are far from holy.
I remember there was a story a few weeks ago regarding Lowe’s sales circular advertising Family Trees instead of Christmas trees. James Dobson and Focus on the Family had a link on their web site showing the circular. Lowe’s apologized and reversed their first decision, saying it was a “proofreading mistake”. Well, I just opened the K-Mart circular in today’s Sunday paper and they are advertising Holiday trees. Nowhere in the circular is there any reference to the word Christmas, not even in their ad for Christmas cards or Christmas area rugs.
If everyone in the U.S. hypothetically were to completely stop shopping for Christmas and decided to stay home, these stores that don’t want to use the word Christmas would go bust immediately. Who do they think is shopping in their stores in November and December? Granted, there are a few people that may be shopping for Hannukah gifts, but it is the Christmas shoppers that keep these stores afloat during this time of the year.
My own little anecdotal story....
Went to Disneyland last weekend. Went on “It’s a Small World”. They have it decked out for Christmas. One small problem I noticed...they sang in many different languages, and had signs in each of those wishing ‘Merry Christmas’, in those respective languages. In the Spanish section, there were at least 3 signs saying ‘Feliz Navidad’. Not once did I see or hear ‘Merry Christmas’. ‘Seasons Greetings’ and ‘Happy Holidays’, but not one single ‘Merry Christmas’. I don’t think the omission was an accident.
They are trying to corner the "Christmas tree" market and the "Hanukkah bush" market with one product. ;-)
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