As with almost anything, this decision will depend on your overall brand image and your target audience.
1. If your primary customer base consists of children (well, actually your customers would be the parents) then Santa is a no-brainer. You want Big Red to be involved in your business somehow whenever children are involved. The shopping malls have known this for years. It's a given that every mall across North America will have an opportunity for children to have their picture taken with Santa Claus every December. Why? Because it creates a phenomenal customer experience; the kids are excited, it gets the parents into the mall, which subsequently leads to shopping in the mall while they're there.
2. Even if Santa doesn't show up in person, he can still generate excitement. For example, this holiday season, retail giant Target has a Santa-themed decor throughout the store. This brand takes customer experience very seriously and puts a ton of muscle behind their strategy. As soon as you walk into a Target store this season, you'll be greeted by a herd of reindeer flying in through a hole in the ceiling, pulling a sleigh with the big guy on board. For research purposes, just go to a Target and do some people watching. Take note of how every kid's face will light up as soon as they walk in the store. Guess where kids will want to go pick out their Christmas list (and where parents will subsequently pick up their gifts)?
3. When your business does not cater to children, however, things get a little more tricky. Say you're a shipping company. Does Santa play a role in your December customer experience strategy? Potentially. A particular shipping company in Canada painted an elaborate Santa and reindeer scene across the side of a handful of trucks in their fleet. These select trucks were assigned almost exclusively for distribution to toy stores. Their seasonal tag line was "Helping Santa deliver Christmas". Let me tell you, every kid in town was over the moon when they saw Santa and his reindeer zooming all over town. Stores were talking about it and parents were talking about it. Everybody wanted those trucks delivering to their store.
4. Be aware of cultural sensitivity. While political correctness has given rise to the phrase "Happy Holidays" in place of "Merry Christmas", recent years has seen a resurgence of the "C" word. It's now officially okay to wish people Merry Christmas again. Most people have grown tired of pretending that "Christmas" is a taboo word and have passionately tried to bring it back. That being said, depending on your target audience, involving Christmas may not be wise. Say you operate mostly overseas or the majority of your clients reside in countries where Christmas is not celebrated. In those cases, you would be best advised to avoid Santa. While your clients may not necessarily be offended by the theme, it just might not be culturally relevant. It would be like having a Chinese New Year themed strategy when your business caters primarily to Caucasian Americans; they wouldn't be offended by the theme, it just wouldn't relate to most of them. Essentially, you would be wasting your time and money by developing the strategy because it wouldn't add any value to your customer experience.
To summarize, know your customers. Know what they value and what excites them. If Santa makes sense, then find a practical and thoughtful way to work him in. If it doesn't make sense, then skip it.
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