We all know it, it's pretty darn hard to escape the fact that silly season is approaching. You only have to walk past the local pub to see the Christmas bookings board outside, several Facebook updates standardly at this time of year "OMG - it's eight weeks until Xmas!!" The local supermarket has whole sections dedicated to the festive period for god's sake. No pun intended.
Christmas: the media darling of all occasions, the Daddy's favourite in the festival family and an opportunity for mass consumerism to take place in its full glory; the gifts exchanged, the technology bought, the alcohol consumed, the parties attended. Britons will spend an estimated £16.7 billion on Christmas gifts this year according to a recent Santander study.
But what about the quieter siblings like Eid, Rosh Hashanah and Diwali? Surely they deserve some attention too? Severely neglected and overlooked by Tech consumer brands and with a reasonable proportion of the UK population made up of Jewish, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu communities, surely there's an opportunity here for Marketing Directors to focus on and acknowledge how multicultural our society and consumers have become. I had no idea it was a friend's religious new year recently and would love to have given her a card and gift. I bring this up as it's Diwali today; the Hindu equivalent of Christmas and we celebrate in a big way. Expect lots of fireworks and the exchange of copious amounts of Indian sweets and presents. Some don't exchange gifts because they say it's too close to Christmas but I beg to differ, if I was encouraged to buy as much as I do at Christmas, I would.
Marketing Directors have a real opportunity here to bring in a consistent stream of revenue by targeting different ethnicities and cultures throughout the year instead of putting all of their proverbial eggs in one Christmas or Easter basket. At Lady Geek, whilst we focus on women, diversity is what we are striving for and Diwali is a real missed opportunity for companies to broaden their relevance to the multicultural tapestry that is Britain today.
It would definitely change my perception of a brand if they were to acknowledge the fact that Diwali's approaching, in the same way people attempt to speak Hindi to me or tell me how much they love a good curry. Are we that easily pleased? Well yes but it's more personal than that, more of a nod to a culture that has shaped the person I am...and well, I also really want the new iPad Mini for Diwali.
@belindaparmar is the author of Little Miss Geek and the CEO of Lady Geek and Lady Geek TV@ladygeektv