It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I'm not simply making a reference to the freakishly cold weather here in the Pacific Northwest (as I type this the local news is talking about the amount of snow that has accumulated in the area - yep, snow!) but the fact that the holidays are on my mind.

Why holidays? Because this is the time of year where trade publication editors start asking about what seasonal products we'll be carrying and we have to start doing all the fall tradeshow marketing which will also include seasonal products since our retailers buy all their holiday merchandise in September and October.

In a way it's a little odd to be thinking Christmas (and Valentine's Day!) at the beginning of June. The main thing that's coming up is our half day professional photo shoot next week to get all of our seasonal products photographed and get some new product shots that we'll use in the upcoming tradeshows.

This is all part of my plan to try and bump up the overall external marketing image of the company. We have a web-rockstar working on our new website (hoping to have that up in July), we're pulling together a new interim marketing brochure that will stand in until we have the time to get a brand spanking new professional brochure pulled together in 2009, and I'm trying to upgrade how our booths will look at our big Fall tradeshows so that we truly look like a serious market leader rather than simply a player. It's all about image, right?

And in the meantime, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.