By Todd Thibodeaux Marketing CE products for the holiday season is a 12-month job. As with most retail industries, success or failure in the holiday season can make or break the bottom line. The axiom is especially true in the consumer electronics business where shipments from September through December account for more than 40 percent of annual business.
Some historical perspective using the audio market as an example is demonstrative.
From 1988 through 1998, year over year holiday growth in the audio market averaged eight percent as growth averaged seven percent in the eight months prior. For audio at least, momentum developed during the year has, historically, carried through the holiday season, but the momentum knife cuts both ways. We've been just as likely to see periods of positive and negative pre-holiday momentum define the holiday season in the audio market over the last 11 years. In only four of 11 years between 1988 and 1998 did holiday audio sales grow faster than the pre-holiday rate. In other years, roughly the same rate of growth accumulated through August carried through the rest of the year.