Election Day Is Over, Will Consumers Start Buying?

Back in January I got in touch with Tony Cox of 5th Food Group, Gina Valentino of Hemisphere Marketing and Geoff Bartouney of Estee Marketing Group to talk about mailing catalogs around Super Tuesday. And of course, it led to talk about Election Day, which John Lenser followed up on in this article.

What it all boiled down to was past trends in presidential election years. The trend has been when a new leader is elected to office, as was the case no matter what this year, consumers start opening those purse strings.

Is 2008 going to be different?

Once Obama was projected the winner and McCain gave his very classy acceptance speech, I literally felt like I was ready to start doing some Christmas shopping… or at least go out to a bar and celebrate. And to be honest, my income isn’t that disposible.

What do you think though? Will the results of yesterday’s election cause a surge in buying? Maybe the holiday sales for 2008 won’t be as poor as projected? Or has the American consumer learned to do more with less, and even do without?

I’m thinking consumers will still buy toys for their kids, even if not as many as in the past. And that my wife is going to want something under our tree.