Halloween and It's Economic Impact

Halloween is a tradition in western world, with its roots in the Christianity. Halloween is the first day of the three days of triduum of all hallows also known as Hallowmass. This triduum, religious observance of three days starts with Halloween (All Hallows Eve) on Oct 31^st and concludes with All Soul’s Day on Nov 2^nd. The 1st day of Nov is All Saint’s Day. Halloween is also celebrated as harvest season in Celtic region of Europe.

Halloween is one of the most important events in the US. The typical celebration is trick or treat, children who visit your house are to be given candies else they play pranks. Costumes and costume parties are important part of the Halloween. Pumpkin carving is another important activity in this celebration. Haunted attractions in Halloween are for thrill and to scare. Age is no bar but largely it’s the children who participate the most. Many of the holidays in US are on Fridays or Mondays to enjoy long weekends. Some of the days are celebrated on a particular day in the month not on the date like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Not many ‘days’ that are celebrated on a particular date but Halloween is one of them that’s always on Oct 31^st, just like the Chrtistmas on Dec 25th. However the communities, schools have Halloween parade or party on preceding Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. Schools also have some celebrations and parades on Oct 31^st.

Pumpkin farm with witches and black cats

Pumpkins have great importance during this period. Every decoration in showcases has pumpkins. In restaurants pumpkins takes over other routine cuisine. One gets right from pumpkin soup to pumpkin ice cream. And of course the main course is full of pumpkin, pumpkin and pumpkin. The orange coulor of pumpkin dominates everywhere. Farmers growing pumpkins are the happiest lot.

I tend to compare this period with Sarva Pitri Amavasya (सर्व पितृ अमावस्या last day of Shraddh श्राद्ध fortnight) in India as far respects are to be paid to departed souls and to Holi in terms trick or treat and costumes. Here colours of Holi are replaced with costumes. Decorations of the houses reminds of Diwali, but for the fact that these decorations are haunted/horror based. All festivities come with great business opportunities. I wrote a blog Marketing Significancs of Shravan in July 2011. I got reminded of that when I saw the marketing activities for Halloween in USA.  

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Celebrations have some rituals. These rituals are from belief  (in Sanskrit shraddhā श्रद्धा). There is a thin line that divides faith and blind faith, as these are mostly religion based. It’s best not to touch them. UNICEF an organ of United Nations Organization collects donations on Halloween Day to support the children from poorer nations. Traditions are followed, departed souls are respected and no one has challenged UNICEF as to why they believe in Halloween. It should be left to individuals to decide what they should believe or not believe. However in India certain elements want to encroach on individual religious practices and sentiments. They pronounce themselves as crusaders for abolition of blind faith. As far as an individual causes no trouble or harm to the society and has some faith or a blind faith, others need not worry. In India these so called champions attacks the poor Hindus for reposing certain faiths or blind faiths. They have a lobby. Ghosts demons, souls all have a mention in every religion, Christianity and Islam included, yet only Hindus are targeted by these groups. Someone observes a fast, someone doesn’t drink water, someone remains absent from meat and alcohol, how can one pass a judgment? What one calls as a faith may be a blind faith for others, it’s subjective. Leave it alone as long as it is not a threat to the society.

I always teach my students of International Business that faith, beliefs, superstitions have a great potential for business. Chinese trader and manufacturers become rich when India celebrates, Ganapati festival or Diwali. Most of items needed for decoration come from China. Faith, rituals and religious practices of Indians is a business opportunity for Chinese. Celebrations in any part of the world have an economic angle. Halloween has a great impact on American economy. The business reported last year for Halloween was nearly USD 8.00 billion. This year it is expected to be USD 7.00 billion. The drop of USD 1.00 billion is attributed to slowdown and shutdown of US government for few days in this October. But we really don’t know, the business may be higher than estimates. There has been a constant growth in the Halloween related business. It has grown from USD 3.29 billion in 2005 to USD 8.00 billion in 2012, a phenomenal growth even in the so called recession. Of the USD 8.00 billion spent last year USD 2.33 billion was spent on the Halloween Candy and USD 2.87 was expenditure on Halloween Costumes. Decorations had a share of USD 2.33 billion and the greeting cards could net USD 0.59 billion in competition with free e-cards and texting on BBM, WhatsApp etc. Remember these are all direct expenses. Indirect expenses are not accounted. Chinese must have been happy to supply variety of products and the local government is happy to collect taxes. The rituals have generated the income.

Crooner and children in costumes

There is month long horror movies schedule on TV channels. Serials like Walking Dead top the TRP charts. Haunted places, haunted hotels are in great demand. One finds lots of advertisements for haunted hotels. Malls have special activities to attract the customers. They conduct programmes and event particularly for children, like pumpkin carving, face painting, singing and dancing.

Pumpkin painting for children in a mall

Parents and Children in a mall

Homes are decorated with pumpkin lamps and with haunted look. Halloween parties are a big attraction as everyone comes in Halloween costume. Artificial skulls, bones are in great demand. A local cake shop in Princeton had an offer of a free skull on order of thee dozens of cupcakes, needless to mentions that many of these cakes had pumpkin. People dress up in Halloween costumes and go to the work place, have fun, enjoy the thrill and scare. It’s a great atmosphere. I only wish no self-advocated reformist group comes forward and demands a ban on these celebrations. Enjoy the festivals and rituals, it’s a binding force for the society.

Marketing Significance of Shravan

Marketing and culture go hand in hand. Marketing has to be relevant to a given culture to ensure success. One can effectively make use of this strategy in ritualistic societies. In India various rituals are associated with festivals.  When it comes to rituals, who can ignore  Shravan (श्रावण)? Shravan is the most important month in India. The importance is from astronomical and cultural aspects. The stellar constellation of Aquila, known to Indians as Shravan Nakshatra (श्रवण नक्षत्र) consisting of α, β, and λ Aquila, rules the sky around full moon in this month. From cultural viewpoint this month is of great significance due its association with religion. Many cultural events are religious rituals. Shravan is wonderful blend of culture and religion. The significance of this in agro based economy like India is enormous. Major manual agricultural operations are over just before the beginning of this month. All those engaged in services in the farming sector have relatively free time. The peak of the rainy season generally starts receding after the full moon.

The food culture for the month is significantly different from rest of year. Abstinence from alcohol and non-veg food makes this month different. Marketing implications are a lean season for breweries, butchers, eateries and alike. A good season for service sector engaged in religious rituals (priests), vegetarian food and food that’s consumed for the fasts (उपवास), florists, and many others. In rural India the entertainment sector gains as the snake charmer earns an extra buck on Nag Panchami (नाग पंचमी), the banjo party does a brisk business for Govinda (गोविंदा) which in urban India has unfortunately become a political platform with huge turnover, and a multimillion dollar business for Rakhi (राखी). It’s an international business opportunity, and China has already replaced many indigenous gifts that brothers and sisters would like to exchange. Multinationals like Cadbury’s wait for this festival to improve their turnover and of course the profits by replacing traditional sweets. The courier companies work overtime and those in the online business make money by offering satisfaction of having sent Rakhi or a gift to brothers and sisters settled abroad. The festival like Narali Pournima (नारळी पौर्णिमा) in the coastal region of Maharashtra is also a money spinner for coconut farmers. The last day of Shravan, Pithori Amavasya (पिठोरी अमावस्या) is also of religious significance and the same day has festivities for the bulls. Business opportunities, for this thanks giving day (पोळा, Pola) for the bulls, who had toiled untiringly during past few months for the farming operations, are enormous.

Shravan helps us to understand the ecology. Nag Panchami signifies importance of snakes for farmers to control the rodents that eat away the agricultural produce. Had snakes not been there the farmers would have been left with no grains due to rampant rodents. Offering of different flowers and leaves in Puja (पूजा) provides the knowledge of horticulture and helps control the growth of certain unwanted plants and propagate the growth of useful plants. Rituals have been our teacher for this.

Fasting, restrictions on diet and ban on certain food items is prescriptive to have good health during somewhat unhealthy season. Water gets polluted and lack of sunshine gives chance for pathogens and bacteria to strike during rainy season (seen advertisements on TV for soaps), thus this food culture is for disease free period. Culture is our teacher.

Shravan is a month for socialisation, with no work on farms people gather together to perform Bhajan (भजन), Kirtan (कीर्तन) and other religious activities. As a ritual, Satyanarayan Puja (सत्यनारायण  पूजा)  is also performed in Shravan. Inviting friends and relations for this Puja makes it a social function. Each day is significant from religious ritual viewpoint. On Mondays one can observe long queues outside Shiva (शिवा) temples. The itinerant traders do a brisk business outside the temples. On Tuesdays the newly wedded brides worship the goddess in groups (मंगळागौर, Mangalagaur), it’s a more of a social event and lots of traditional games played on this day, rather night, that are designed for exercise and physical wellbeing. These games obviate the need for a modern day gyms. Shravan being a rainy season not much of physical activity is done, so such celebrations keeps the body toned up. On Wednesdays and Thursdays the housewife worships lord Vishnu along with Budh (बुध Mercury) and Bruhaspati (बुहस्पृती, गुरु, Jupiter). The images of these two celestial deities are drawn on door frames and cupboards. The underlying reason for this may be is to ensure the cleanliness and removal of dampness and fungus growth from wooden surfaces in the humid rainy season. Fridays mark the celebrations with high protein diet like Puran Poli (पुरण पोळी) and prayers are offered for the welfare of children (जीवति पूजा, JivatI Puja). Saturdays are for appeasement of Saturn as well as wealth accumulation. Sundays assume importance due to traditional Sun worship in this continent. So each day of the week is important.

Lots of marketing opportunities are available in Shravan due to its cultural and religious significance. One can design the products and services suitable for this month. The culture can be used for designing promotional tools and for effective communication. Being a ritualistic seasonal product prices never come under stress. Just for few flowers one shells out a ten rupee note without hesitation. Another business opportunity has emerged with revolution in IT. The e-pujas are also available in large number of temples. It’s a novel way for distribution of services.  One has to just design an appropriate strategy to take advantage of the belief of public, but in an ethical way.  

So go ahead and plan something  for a successful marketing career. Best of luck.