Though resolutions are common in January, it isn’t necessarily the best, or only time of year to connect with customers seeking change.
On the first day of the new year, I resolved to use my iPhone a lot less. However, most people I know did Dry January – and they weren’t alone. With over 3.1 million people in the UK choosing to give up alcohol during the month, abstinence and self-control have become the new signals of cool in British culture. This trend reflects a rhythm and some honest truths about how and when people are motivated to make change.
Resolutions rarely last long into the New Year
Despite efforts to avoid my phone, it was only a couple of weeks before I found myself checking emails in bed. I wasn’t alone – but one of the many weak-willed individuals that failed to follow through on their New Year’s pledges.
In the first week of January, we feel a rush of optimism, hope and renewal where staying fit, losing weight and spending less dominate. Purchases of gym memberships and fitness wear reach a peak, but by week two, the zeal gives way to tiredness and anxiety, with 48% of people feeling less motivated. By week three, nearly half of us have already given up. This is why a fifth of UK gym members only visit three times a year and one in ten people don’t go at all.
As it turns out, human leopards find it very difficult to change their spots. For brands focused on health, fitness or abstinence, January is still a key time to connect with customers while they’re trying to build new habits, even if the resolve doesn’t last. For finance brands, post-holiday austerity lasts until the first payday of the year, giving you at least three weeks to develop spending and saving habits before a desire to splurge sets in.
‘Moments of change’ might be short lived, but they’re commercially powerful
Milestones – like the changing of a year or the birth of a child – key transitions and cultural pressure points give us permission to embrace change, creating moments when we’re open and motivated to develop new habits. This is why New Year’s is a great opportunity to recruit new customers.
For brands, this is the perfect time to embed yourself in the hearts and minds of your audience. By creating associations with what people are trying to change, brand messages can be burned into the brain’s memory pathways long after resolve has worn away. This is one of the reasons home improvement and furniture brands do so well at the beginning of the year – they go beyond traditional sales to connect with our driving need to experience change and renewal.
‘Moments of change’ aren’t just for New Year’s
If you missed out on connecting with audiences in January, or your campaigns didn’t perform as well as you’d hoped, fear not – there are other opportunities throughout the year.
As temperatures rise in May, summer resolutions begin to hot up again, with #fitness becoming the number one hashtag. Home improvement renewal kicks up another gear as the reality of having people around for summer events becomes more pressing. Additionally, many of us reconnect with our January resolutions in May by vowing to get out more, be active and try new outdoor hobbies.
For brands, understanding other moments of change throughout the year is very useful. Firstly, it gives you another bite of the change cherry as winter fades and summer builds, but more importantly sales opportunities increase significantly as audiences are faced with real deadlines. Unlike January, house guests, beach bodies, and a limited window to enjoy the outdoors become looming realities. Though it’s human nature to procrastinate, nothing drives action like an actual deadline.
Although resolutions may well put us on path to sobriety, or realising a better version of ourselves, it turns out that reconnecting during moments of change with real deadlines might be the best way for brands to help us finally kick those bad habits and outdated routines.
Andrew Hovells is managing partner at PHD UK.