Hi Jim,

Michael Ross could be right - they may not have a "problem" at all, since probably the Christmas tree market should "heat up" during December...!

I did have some thoughts though.... My thoughts were that Christmas trees are very generic - one Christmas tree is generally as good as another. So, it's hard to make them "stand out from the crowd"....

Perhaps trying something to make them "stand out" more in people's minds might help. Sometimes, having a "story" to go with a difficult-to-sell product can help!

Joe Cossman tells a story in his books about how he was stuck with these earrings with bells in them.... He couldn't sell them. Nobody wanted earrings with bells. But he found a way to sell them - and once he did this, everybody wanted them!

What did he do? He simply re-christened them....

to "Mother-in-Law Earrings"! (Give these earrings to your mother-in-law, then you'll hear the jingle as a warning of her arrival!)

The product was the same - all that changed was the "story".

Another example which springs to mind is the "pet rock".... Of course, the "pet rock" was just an ordinary rock. But it came with a "Pet Rock Training Manual" which explained how to make your pet rock "roll over", "play dead", and how to "house-train" it! Anyhow, the key here was that it sold just because of the "story".... (Nobody actually wanted a rock!) You can read more about the Pet Rock at the Pet Rock Page!

Would a "better story" work with Christmas trees? Anyhow, it's food for thought....

How about "Santa's Christmas trees" - you could explain how Santa still had some trees left over after giving away trees to his elves and his reindeer, and that's why you're selling "Santa's Christmas trees". (It could come with a little inflatable Santa - charge extra to cover the extra cost.) Anyhow, this is off the cuff! I'm sure you could come up with some further possibilities....

- Dien Rice


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