The range of Christmas calendars grows and becomes more diverse every year. According to the consumption researcher, the Christmas calendar phenomenon emphasizes the contradiction between the vanity and responsibility of consumption.
Cosmetics, erotica, socks, candles, alcoholic beverages, puzzles, tools and sewing supplies. Every year, the spectrum of Christmas calendars grows and becomes more diverse, the S group confirms. According to Kesko, the demand for candy calendars has also clearly grown in recent years, and the entire selection with it.
24 products may sound like a waste, and according to a consumer researcher, the Christmas calendar phenomenon highlights the contradiction between unnecessary consumption and responsibility. On the other hand, vanity competes with the idea of indulgence and permission, states the marketing university researcher, docent Henna Syrjälä from the University of Vaasa.
“When it comes to Christmas calendars, the discussion about necessity and futility is emphasized. There are conflicting currents and motivations behind the phenomenon,” says Syrjälä.
Christmas calendar however, it may seem like a good buy for many reasons. The related advertising gimmicks can also guide the consumer to buy.
Someone could ask if it wouldn’t make more sense to only buy candies that you are sure to like or a product that you already know is good.
According to Syrjälä, the popularity of Christmas calendars is mainly explained by the element of surprise. He states that even when receiving a gift, we are especially attracted by the fact that the content of the gift is often a surprise.
“With the help of the Christmas calendar, you can give yourself a gift and a surprise. This can be a meaningful thing, especially given the darkness, boredom, and impatience associated with waiting for Christmas. You can get a daily boost from the Christmas calendar.”
According to Syrjälä, we have been used to the daily surprises offered by the Christmas calendar since childhood, even if previously the surprise was just a picture on the calendar.
It is admittedly somewhat exceptional that in this case, surprise could explain the consumption.
“In general, when buying things, you don’t want to be surprised, at least negatively, but to get what you wanted. In that sense, the Christmas calendar is a special consumer item,” Syrjälä reflects.
The surprise the importance can partly be explained by the fact that the Christmas calendar is like a game.
“The Christmas calendar is like a gamified consumer item whose purpose is to hook people. You can play the Christmas calendar every day, and every day you also get a prize for it,” says Syrjälä.
The makers of Christmas calendars might use this to their advantage. According to Syrjälä, when it comes to Christmas calendars, you can get hooked at least on the Christmas calendars, but also possibly on the calendar’s products.
Sometimes when advertising Christmas calendars, emphasis is placed on a limited sales batch or the promise that the calendar is actually more valuable for its price with all the products.
In addition to such sales gimmicks, Syrjälä also highlights a classic marketing example of a throw-in product. The promise of the ad might be that the calendar contains one particularly good or expensive product.
“The promise is that the calendar will contain some super expensive face cream or extra good socks. They are throw-in products, like cheap bananas that lure people into the grocery store,” Syrjälä describes.
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“In the middle of the dark winter, more wasteful spending, gluttony and extravagance have been more legitimate things.”
The real thing the purchase decision can be viewed at three levels, macro, meso and micro.
In this context, the macro level can be described as cultural flows, says Syrjälä. Finnish Christmas has many meanings. Christmas has a special meaning of allowing joy and pleasure in the middle of the dark and gloomy season, says Syrjälä. Christmas skin summer comes in the middle of winter, as the familiar song says.
“Through this meaning, in the middle of the dark Finnish winter, more wasteful spending, gluttony and extravagance have been more legitimate issues,” says Syrjälä.
At the same time, flows from the world arrive in Finland. New manifestations of Christmas calendars have also been developed by global brands, and through social media they become especially quickly visible in Finland as well.
“This is how our way of thinking is penetrated and an image is created of what kind of consumption is acceptable at any given moment,” says Syrjälä.
In other words, through cultural currents and meanings, people are used to thinking that spending at Christmas is more permissible than at other times.
On the other hand, currents also cause contradictions, says Syrjälä. At the same time as incentives to encourage consumption are pouring out of the world, there is also a global climate debate that criticizes and questions unnecessary consumption.
At the meso level the groups close to the person that act as motivators, to which one either wants to belong or from which one wants to stand out. Groups are, for example, a circle of friends or a social bubble.
According to Syrjälä, the groups contribute to what we end up spending. The fact that a good guy recommends a Christmas calendar on his social media channel can push you toward a purchase decision.
The Christmas calendar can also create social glue between people, says Syrjälä.
“Even though Christmas calendars can be considered wasteful consumption from the perspective of responsibility, they can be used to achieve, for example, socially relevant things.”
It can seem meaningful, for example, to be able to share a common experience among friends or family, to wonder what is revealed through the hatch at any time.
At the micro level, progress has been made from the wider context through the influence of groups on trade. On a micro level, it is possible to look at what affects a person at the time of purchase.
“That is, which forces push us either to buy or not to buy. They can be, for example, how much money is available, whether calendars are on sale, whether the person is in a hurry and what kind of mood he is in,” Syrjälä describes.
Because Christmas calendars are especially associated with the conflict between responsibility and vanity, in fact, the most ingenious Christmas calendars are those that combine responsibility, Syrjälä states.
In addition to various consumer product calendars, there are also immaterial calendars to choose from, where a daily yoga or gym routine, cleaning tasks or woodworking tips are revealed behind the door.
“From a marketing point of view, they are ingenious. They emphasize the countervailing power of vanity, responsibility, and at the same time, the consumer is nevertheless made to consume the brand and produce its own meanings,” says Syrjälä.
However, according to Syrjälä, immaterial or self-made calendars are a better choice from the point of view of responsibility. Such Christmas calendars summarize the fact that nothing is unequivocally good or bad, not even Christmas calendars, Syrjälä states.
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