Some years ago, when I was worrying about when to start advertising for baseball, I ran into a psychologist’s paper that said “Psychological Spring Occurred on January 23.”  The paper went on to say that after the tumult of the holidays, and the long, dark days of winter, the increasingly bright days of late January actually got us to think optimistically of Spring. 

What this meant for we baseball guys, was that any effort before then to get fans focused on the coming season would only resonate with the rabid baseball fan. Those people we already had, it was the marginal fan we had to attract. So January 23rd became the launch date for major marketing activities. This doesn’t mean we didn’t try to sell season tickets before, what it means is that customers were more receptive to the message after 1/23.

Other industries also use this date for marketing activities. The sale of sun related merchandise, the summer stuff, bathing suits, sun tan lotion and such all pick up after Jan 23. Here in Minneapolis, with the weather at -15 this week, we saw the Baseball Diamond Awards take place to a full house and the coming Twins Fest is sold out this weekend. 

Spring blooms eternal and the optimism, fresh start and new birth of Spring does not wait for March to control our emotions. It is here now, and we are all two months ahead of the calender in the way we look at life. It is Spring, after all.