How weather should influence your marketing strategy

Should the weather really influence your marketing activities?

You can't really control it...

Yes it should!

As marketers, we love looking at variables that can optimise our marketing and we need to be creative when understanding our target group.

So, many of my clients are Norwegian (yes, because I’m Norwegian and can service them in their language), and as Norwegians, we love to talk about the weather!

Fun fact:

A Norwegian weather company developed the most used weather app in the world yr.no and more or less every Norwegian has the “Yr” app on their phone. Yr means very light rain and I haven’t found an English word for this (stand to correction:)). Norwegian also has somewhere between 12 -200 words for snow (various sources and discussions). This just confirms how much interest we have in the weather!

As a marketer, this is relevant because?

To optimise your ads you need to understand people’s reactions to the weather!

(Source: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services)

The more classical way to approach “weather marketing” is to have relevant product offerings and imagery depending on seasons etc. This is quite predictable as winter comes more or less at the same time every year. You also get tools that present ads based on live weather.

As the table above also shows, people are willing to pay more for products on a sunny day, which can be interpreted to better buying will, but again this could depend on what you sell.

E.g. if it has been pouring for a week, people don’t necessarily want to spend the only sunny day shopping.

The more interesting trends that require us to be more hands-on (or adjust our AI settings if possible) is how changes in weather and forecast can have a short term effect.

Here is an example.

I run a webinar on a Monday afternoon. How does the weather forecast affect my marketing planning?

So, if there has been a sunny weekend and overcast or rain is coming on Monday, then it is more likely that people will attend, but they might not want to think about Monday when they are going into the sunny weekend. Who likes Mondays anyway? (I actually do:)) I would then not necessarily market the webinar over the weekend. And I would maybe send a last minute email invite.

But, if the weekend has been grey and Monday is sunny, then no-one wants to sit inside and watch my webinar. I would maybe move my webinar and/or communicate something around them rather go and enjoy the nice weather and send them some written tips and a new invite instead. I would not bother to push for people to attend last minute as this will be to ask them to sit at home when the weather is nice - not happening.

This is something I observed through working with Norwegian clients and my own agency but is also reflected in other populations/audiences.

It really just boils down to understanding your target group and what affects them. The better you understand your target market, the better your marketing can be tailored, and the better it would work.

We often find with our clients that they are so good on their own product that it can be challenging to see it from the customers perspective.

Want to add some (sun)light on your thoughts around your target market?

Looking forward to hearing from you.