Offbeat. Quirky. Funky. Nontraditional. These are some of the adjectives used in today’s Wall Street Journal to describe the “Christmas tree-like objects” that are increasingly finding favor with consumers in lieu of either natural or artificial Christmas trees. The trend cannot more clearly demonstrate today’s consumer desire for authenticity. In the article, Nancy Koehn of the Harvard Business School rightly contends that consumers are “trying to claim Christmas for their own in a way that doesn’t fit how Madison Avenue defined it.” Right on! Consumers want real; they want their trees to confirm to their own self-image.
Meanwhile, the unresponsive and axiom-violating National Christmas Tree Association (which really ought to be called the Natural Christmas Tree Association, for they do not let faux Christmas tree manufacturers join the association, only growers and retailers of “natural” trees) continues to proclaim its own grown trees as alone authentic — you know, the ones planted in rows, trimmed into perfect shape, and often painted green before shipping . . .those real trees! And it continues to see industry sales decline by double-digit percentages each and every year. Go visit the NCTA’s website at www.christmastree.org/home.cfm and see just how much energy the organization and (therefore) its members put into calling faux trees fake — including offering the online game, “Attack of the Mutant Artificial Trees.” This all equates to saying their “natural” trees are the only real option. But in substituting “Christmas tree-like objects,” consumers are obviously proving this wrong. It’s consumers after all, not providers, who get to define what’s real and what’s fake.
Rather than continue to view natural trees alone as real — and continue to see sales of such plummet — the NCTA would be better served to embrace all forms of Christmas trees as real. In doing so, the organization would truly be what it says it is, the National Christmas Tree Association. And rather than continue in vain to portray non-natural trees as fake — an objective at which it is clearly failing — perhaps a new objective could be embraced by the association: Maximizing the number of Christmas trees on display per home — and encouraging at least one of the trees to be a naturally grown one. In pursuing this goal, perhaps the tree-growers might finally see a rise in sales volume.
Over ten years ago, I attended an off-site meeting with a small team (from my client Whirlpool) held in the home of a local “home enthusiast” consultant. I’ll never forget how she had placed a Christmas tree in each and every room of her home — the most memorable of which was a natural tree entirely decorated with plastic McDonald’s happy meal toys. (The juxtaposition on real pine needles and fake plastic ornaments rendered the tree most authentic!) The NCTA should be trying to encourage more of this multi-tree behavior, resulting in more natural and artificial trees — and tree-like objects! — being sold. After all, most families have more than one television in their homes, and many have more than one computer. Why not Christmas trees?
To view the market as limited in size, requiring real Paul to rob from fake Peter, is myopic — even Scrooge-like — and certainly not in keeping with the spirit of Christmas. To see and seize the opportunity to grow the market is a lesson for us all.
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