After deciding that the European markets had been destroyed by World War One, Santa decided to move operations to the American continent, and so, sometime in 1919, the now sizeable corporation based itself in Canada. This location was for two reasons.
Firstly, as a Commonwealth country, it was easy to transfer direct from Scotland to Canada, thereby avoiding difficult U.S. immigration procedures.
Secondly, the large wilderness areas of the Canadian back-country, gave ample privacy, while the close proximity of the border allowed easy access to the massive American market and manufacturing facilities, which were, by now, an absolute necessity to the continuation of the success of Claus Enterprises.
Almost immediately after settling in the new location, a great windfall occurred, with the United States declaring Prohibition in 1920. The immediate ban on the sale of alcohol meant that anyone who wanted to drink booze had to obtain it illegally from overseas or make it themselves. In the Southern States this gave rise to the "moonshiners", with their home distilled alcohol, while in the North, there was a massive demand for liquor smuggled from, you guessed it, Canada.
Naturally, U.S. authorities immediately set up stringent controls on the borders to stop the illegal trade, but organised crime syndicates utilised the Great Lakes and high powered speed boats to run the gauntlet of United States Coast Guard patrol boats, and thereby continue supply to their markets in the United States.
How did this benefit Santa Claus? Well, at a time when the war on alcohol was being fought on land and water, Santa owned a flying sleigh which could carry large quantities of almost anything.
So in the "off-season", when he was not importing from the factories South of the Canadian border, Santa raised extra revenue by exporting to the U.S. on a regular basis. This additional income stood him in good stead when the Great Depression struck in 1929, and the Christmas market suddenly crashed through the floor. The sales of expensive toys dropped dramatically, and had it not been for the extensive cash reserves held by Clause Enterprises, the whole operation may well have gone under. As it was, the company survived, but even so, Santa had to resort to appearing in advertisements for other companies in order to maintain cash-flow.
In the 1930's, successful soft-drink manufacturer Coca-Cola, approached Santa Claus, with the offer to appear in a number of print advertisements promoting their product. The money was too good to pass up, so Santa agreed, and even accepted the condition that he must wear a suit that showed Coca-colas corporate colour scheme.The advertisements were so successful, that he become identified with the red and white uniform and has retained it ever since.
It is also interesting that this is the first time we see the effects of "good living" in the appearance of S. Claus, with significant weight gain, and evidence of his fondness for Scotch whiskey showing in his red nose and flushed cheeks.
From this point, for at least 50 years, Santa's image was to remain unaltered, for the most part.
When World War Two, broke out in 1939, Claus Enterprises, safely insulated away from the conflict, suffered little economic setback. The rationing and conflict on the European Continent meant a reduction of his overall market, but the growth of the U.S. economy, through the manufacture of military equipment, compensated somewhat for this. Overall, Santa was little affected by the war, especially when comparing with World War 1.
It was just after the Second World War that Santa's only real rival began to make his presence felt.
Easter Bunny had, like Santa Claus, been around for centuries. Unlike Claus, Bunny had not had the opportunities which Claus had been able to exploit. Easter is not traditionally a gift-giving season. It tends to be more serious, and the presence of Bunny as an icon was almost purely as a symbol of fertility, rather than as an entity or personality in his own right. As a result, Easter remained almost completely a religious holiday, with the exception of a rabbit distributing painted eggs for children to discover on Easter morning.The turning point came for Easter Bunny with the end of war-time rationing and the beginning of mass production of....chocolate.
The secret of all smart business people is the ability to recognise a trend before it actually happens, and Bunny had been looking for such a trend for a long time. He had studied Santa Claus' operation closely, and when he saw the potential in mass production of an inexpensive, easily transportable commodity that everybody, adults and children, liked, he moved quickly to make sure it was associated with his operation.
Wrapping thousands of chocolate eggs (his traditional symbol at Easter), in brightly coloured foil, (emulating the hand-painted, traditional eggs), he instantaneously changed the focus of Easter Morning from an Easter Egg hunt, to eating chocolate. Suddenly, the Easter Bunny was very important to everyone's idea of Easter.
Showing that he had studied his competitor well, Bunny emulated the professionalism of Santa Claus, and grew a business into a wealthy enterprise. Unlike his more established counterpart, Bunny has not diversified his product very much at all, preferring to keep chocolate as the central theme, and only allowing small variations, such as the addition of chocolate rabbits to the range in addition to the eggs, and even then, all manufacturers pay a royalty for the use of Bunny's image on the product. Toys and books, while gaining popularity, are still strictly a sideline. Despite this narrow marketing, Bunny has proven that minimal diversity equals reduced production costs and a more streamlined transportation/delivery network.For instance, every Christmas, Claus Enterprises hires tens of thousands of Santas, each of whom has to be outfitted and trained in mannerisms, speech patterns and protocol. Easter Bunny pays rabbits to deliver, end of story.
Santa and Bunny each grew their businesses through the 50's, 60's and 70's, watching each other but not worrying too much, as they were parallel businesses, each not affecting the others' market. In fact Santa was not too concerned at all by the Easter Bunny, as the timing of Easter, a scant 3-4 months after Christmas, meant that Santa still scored the lion's share of the market. The massive production costs of Santa's operations, with it's huge diversity of gifts and bulky nature of presents, was beginning to tell on Santa's profits, however. Especially with American manufacturing becoming more expensive and being undercut by first Japanese, then Taiwanese and Chinese factories. In early 1980, seeing the writing on the wall, Santa decided to move operations once again, and headed for Asia.
END OF PART TWO
It's all sounding so feasible :-)
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