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How to overcome seasonality in marketing

  • Exverus Staff
  • Apr 9
  • 4 min read

5 ways the top brands stay evergreen and top-of-mind

two women in sunglasses looking at a phone

  1. Expand product offerings

  2. Market repositioning

  3. Subscription models

  4. Live experiences

  5. Plan ahead


What is seasonal variation?


Flowers for Mother's Day, new cars for Christmas, costumes for Halloween -- some products really sprout with their season, right?


Seasonality is an important consideration for marketers in terms of predicting demand, planning sales, and measuring campaigns.


But major fluctuations in cash flow can make it difficult to plan and sustain the business’s finances throughout the year. And consumers can easily forget about your brand during off-seasons, undoing all the hard work you’ve put into building your brand equity already!


So some brands are working to make their product sales less seasonal and more evergreen to keep the growth steady all year long. This is called a seasonality strategy.


Advantages and disadvantages of seasonal patterns


Advantages

  • Built-in consumer demand

  • Plenty of time to plan a campaign

  • Excellent customer acquisition opportunities


Disadvantages

  • Instability of cash flow

  • More competition = higher overhead

  • Risk of too much leftover product


Whether you want to smooth out the fluctuations in your sales throughout the year or just weather the ups and downs more efficiently, a few similar guidelines can help. 


Deep market research into your target audience segmented by location, demographics, and media consumption habits is crucial to understanding your consumers’ needs and meeting them without wasting ad spend. 


Here are a few ideas from top brands you could employ to mitigate the impact of seasonal cycles on your business!

5 ways to overcome seasonality in marketing


  1. Expand product offerings


    1. UGG, known for its wintery fur boots, has launched a new line of sandals and Mary Janes for spring with a global ad campaign called Big Spring Energy, featuring popular musicians enjoying fun in the sun. 


    2. Canada Goose clothing (another winter staple) is adding T-shirts, rain boots, and polos to its repertoire of heavy parkas to catch outdoor adventurers all year long. 


young women dancing

  1. Market repositioning


Expanding product offerings isn't the only way to reduce seasonal patterns.


Le Creuset promotes their high-end Dutch ovens for summer barbecues as well as winter stews, expanding the perceived utility of their existing product line.


This approach offers several advantages over product diversification:

  • Lower investment costs (no new product development required)

  • Maintains brand focus and identity

  • Leverages existing manufacturing capabilities

  • Builds additional value into products customers already recognize

  • Strengthens the core brand proposition of versatility and quality

  1. Subscription models


Setting up steady revenue streams, as FabFitFun and Dollar Shave Club have masterfully demonstrated with their monthly delivery boxes, saves money and automates loyalty.


These brands didn't just create subscription boxes; they fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with their categories, delivering some serious benefits to their business goals, like:


  • Predictable cash flow. By generating consistent revenue, companies can forecast with confidence, managing inventory and staffing needs with surgical precision throughout the year.


  • Frictionless ordering. Subscription club members don’t have to decide or remember to re-order products each month – products simply arrive on schedule, creating an “always-on” relationship that transcends the calendar. 


  • Lower acquisition costs. Rather than repeatedly spending to attract customers during peak seasons, subscription-based companies invest in retention strategies that maintain value year-round—a much more efficient approach to sustainable growth.


boy in glasses looking at colored strings

4. Live experiences 


Build immersive, experiential activations that let customers (current and future) see, touch, and feel the brand in a memorable way. These tentpole events help you set the pace of growth, not the weather. 

“Pre-market testing can help brands fine-tune in-store activations to make a real impact. By testing designs, messaging, and displays in advance, brands can be sure they’re creating experiences that genuinely engage and resonate with consumers beyond the usual seasonal rush.” - EMARKETER

5. Use consumer behavioral data to plan ahead


While some fluctuation of sales throughout the year is inevitable, your business isn't beholden to them. Gather historical data and analyze search keyword trends to anticipate highs and lows well in advance, so your audience already has you in mind (and not your competitor!) when the rush comes.


Conduct competitive analyses, too, so you know which media channels your competitors are running on, and find the untapped whitespace. 


For example, when media planning for Amazon Prime Day or Prime Big Deals Day, our Premier Protein team knows the category giants will load up on Amazon Ads. So, instead of wasting ad dollars trying to compete, they start elsewhere for brand discovery (like clickable social ads or Reddit threads) and build a clear path to the Amazon product pages. It really works!


Exverus is now offering more predictive keyword insights through our proprietary tools. Reach out to us if you'd like to conduct these analyses for assessing opportunities and outsmarting your competition, no matter the season.


Plan ahead with long-term media strategies in mind so your brand can thrive, rain or shine.

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