It is hard to see the future while the present is clouded in war, outrageous politics and our own daily drama. As entrepreneurs that is what we must all do. See demand and opportunity in the market before the hoard of competitors makes us undistinguishable.
I want to call your attention to what should be the best December retail sales since 2007. It is time to act now in order to take advantage of pent up demand for consumer goods. For you travel companies, it is time to start planting seeds for next year’s vacations.
Let me explain. I would not expect you all to trust my gut on this. Take a look at these stats and articles and tell me what you think.
Unemployment has been steadily trending down:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000What this tells me is that companies are hiring. Employees are expensive to train. Companies only bring on new people if they have demand.
Large luxury goods companies are doing better than expected in an off-season:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/tiffany-s-profit-tops-estimates-after-product-costs-decline.htmlIt is reasonable to assume that people will buy goods they need even in a recession. Luxury goods are different. They are treats used to celebrate. This is a very good sign that people have money to spend beyond their daily needs.
Consumers are making big purchases again:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/business/us-auto-sales-gained-in-double-digits-in-august.htmlIt takes credit and/or cash to buy a car. Many consumers have been short on that the last few years. The return of the credit market and consumer confidence is a very good sign.
If you now believe, like me, that the next three months are going to rock, take action now. One of the best things you can do is remarketing. It plants little seeds in the minds of your customers. This is important as they will be thinking about gifts for loved ones, new business investments for Q1 2014, and they will begin thinking about taking long overdue vacations, not this year but next year as cash and jobs stabilize. It is important to act on this now because large companies will be investing millions into their own marketing campaigns after Thanksgiving. This is your chance to be top of mind for customers. For those of you who don’t know much about remarketing, here are a few resources to get you up to speed:
https://www.madfishdigital.com/blog/7-reasons-your-websites-traffic-has-plateaued