Black Friday – craziness and zombies…but is it worth it?
The myths around Black Friday have turned it into a day when Americans lose their shopping minds! If you ask most Americans ‘What does Black Friday mean?’, you’ll get responses like: ‘the day after Thanksgiving with the best shopping deals of the year’, or ‘the start of the holiday shopping season’. Some pseudo-experts may even say that it is s0-named because it’s the day that most companies turn their profits from being “in the red” to being “in the black”. Those all range from somewhat true to basically false narratives.
The Phenomenon
If I were to tell you that, after a joyful day (or not so joyful if you have a dysfunctional family) spent with family and stuffing myself with the most delicious food, I left the house at midnight to go line up outside a closed store in freezing weather, you’d call me crazy – right?!
Then the store opens and I see even senior citizen ladies begin to channel an NFL running back, elbowing people aside to be the first into the store. All for what? For the belief that there are a few deals so, so good inside that store, that it is worth causing others grevious bodily harm to get to them. They’ll rush to grab the product of their delight so tight that one would only then be able to pry it out of their cold, dead hands!
And the old ladies aren’t the worst culprits. You may see an 18-year old college kid push past her as if he were a college linebacker, pushing her to the floor.
That is the craziness that Black Friday is – all for what?!
The beliefs – truth or myth?
Many consumers believe that retailers are offering them the most fantastic sales, for a limited day and for the whole family to enjoy together and kick off the holiday shopping season. Was Black Friday borne of retailers’ being altruistic? Have Black Friday sales always only been for that day? Is it for the whole family? No, no and no!
Let’s look at the real origin of Black Friday.
Black Friday origin
Just the name would give anyone a suspicion that the origins of Black Friday are not positive. We won’t dwell on them but they trace back to a historical financial collapse in one instance and uncontrollable crowds, unruliness and looting of stores on the other.
As History.com explains, in the mid-60s Philadelphia police named the day after Thanksgiving ‘Black Friday’. This was as a result of the chaos that crowds coming into the city on Thanksgiving weekend for the Army-Navy football game would cause, particularly in the shopping districts. Despite the efforts of the police force to tarnish the reputation of the day, the day was beneficial to retail sales and retailers attempted to rename it ‘Big Friday’. And like all such contrived efforts, this fell flat on it’s face. However, the reputation of the day and the name ‘Black Friday’ began to spread across the United States in the 1980s, as a great shopping day for the Thanksgiving weekend; and the name stuck.
https://www.history.com/news/whats-the-real-history-of-black-friday
So, is Black Friday worth it?
Naysayers (like me) have long-maintained that Black Friday is a con and a farce. In the past we’ve said things like, ‘the discounts are fabricated’; ‘it’s only the less desirable goods that are discounted’; ‘the doorbuster deals are great, but there aren’t many more great value discounts in store’; ‘this type of desperation discounting is a hiding to nowhere’.
To a large degree, I’m sticking to my guns. However, I’m not a hard head and you don’t need a drill to open up my mind. So I’m open to new developments and information. Although to a large extent Black Friday is a hiding to nowhere; both for most retailers and for the zombie shoppers, there are some silver linings.
Let’s start from the downside and build up to the positives.
The losers
The shopper
If I had a dollar for every deal-hunting Black Friday shopper I’ve known, who dragged themselves out of bed before dawn into weather in the teens, I’d be a millionaire. Okay, maybe not a millionaire, but I’d have a hundred bucks! The reality is that shoppers are not truly getting the perceived “great” discounts the drive all the hype. Between doorbuster deals on a highly limited selection of items; inferior versions of products sold specifically for Black Friday and discounting of aging stock, the shopper benefits are on a small basket of items. And all this shopping mania for the loss of family time on one of the biggest family holidays of the year.
The retailer
You must ask yourself, why does a retailer run discount promotions?!
Theory states that retailers must run sales promotions to increase sales, attract new customers and retain current customers. Sales promotions are a key tool in giving the business a boost when it is down and periodically provide some excitement around the business and thus drive sales.
The theory is…blah, blah, blah, blah! It would only apply in an ideal world. The unfortunate thing is that most of the Black Friday retailers were the losers. They focused on the theory instead of the reality. You can be sure that Black Friday did nothing to improve the position of most retailers and some simply continued to dig their graves.
Stopping the losing
Look, here’s the reality. Most – and yes I said most – retailers have no clue about how to use sales promotions effectively. The thinking goes, ‘sales down – oh, let’s do a sales promotion’. Sales promotions are applied without having a clue about what the causes of the poor sales are. Sales promotions must always be strategically planned but tactically applied! Retailers must first understand their business challenge and decide whether a sales promotion would be effective in addressing it. There’s also a difference between sales promotions and discounting. There are ingenious ways to apply the former; but the latter, when poorly done, helps to drive many retailers off the cliff. @alyssarimmer has saved me a lot of work in outlining this argument, in her Hubspot blog, which mirrors my thinking.
https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/should-i-discount-my-product
In essence, discounting risks devaluing your product or brand, whereas value based sales promotions can enable you to boost sales while maintaining your brand. Alyssa has done more than a great job in covering this area in greater detail in the link above. Suffice it to say, if more Black Friday retailers were driving value through value-driven sales promotions on the day, rather than simple discounting we’d all be better off.
The encouraging news is that we are beginning to see more retailers turning away from Black Friday discounting. Alongside this, we are seeing those who apply sales promotions correctly on the day, yielding the fruits of their efforts.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/23/18109020/black-friday-anti-rei-everlane-deals
On the road to winning
All that said, this last Black Friday, though few and far between, there were retailers who did it the right way. The encouraging thing was that it was akin to Rick, Michone, Daryl and their crew finally winning their never-ending battle in The Walking Dead. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1520211/
Brands that had spot-on identified their target market were offering simple value-added deals like buy one, get one free. Experiential brands were offering physical engagement and free trials. And the strong brands were (and yes, I am about to blaspheme) offering discounts!
As Chris Walton observed examples of the above at the Mall of America, he also saw the old T-Rex and Compsognathi dinosaurs in their graveyards. Sorry Sears and all you small apparel stores.
So, on this Black Friday the keys were:
- Pull out of the game if you know it’s a hiding to nowhere. Thank you TJ Maxx, Marshalls et al.
- Clever retailers found a way to both benefit their shoppers, while building affinity towards their brands by linking their Black Friday sales offer to charity. Thank you Everlane and Cuyana.
- If you’re a strong, aspirational brand then go ahead and offer discounts so as to bring more consumers into your franchise…but do this strategically, cleverly and tactically for the day!
Black Friday has given birth
Indications from 2018 are that shoppers are going to in future become more sane on Black Friday. However, we must accept that we are a consumption society. Not only will Thanksgiving weekend continue to be a shopping weekend, but it has now grown into a 5-day shopping weekend. As Black Friday gives birth to the 5-day shopping weekend, like sheep, retailers are all moving in a flock with similar actions, wherever they are led.
Unfortunately, the archaic bricks and mortar retailers who need the foot traffic for sales have started Black Friday discounting as early as Thursday or before. Although this alleviates the Black Friday rush, it interferes with Thanksgiving Thursday, which will not endear them to families.
The two new offspring of Black Friday are Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. One of these two offspring is much more sane than their parent, while the other may be an even madder hatter.
Small Business Saturday
Although a creation of the American Express Corporation as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, Small Business Saturday appears to have gained traction.
It’s objectives are altruistic and are more in line with family values. Let’s get real, we can’t lock ourselves in our houses all of Thanksgiving weekend stuffing ourselves with turkey and mashed potatoes. The objective is to preserve small bricks and mortar stores in local communities, and getting out on the Saturday would be in local communities would be in line with all those family values.
I haven’t heard of any of the Black Friday manic rush spilling over into Small Business Saturday, so all I can see coming of this is good. These retailers just need to be educated and equipped to sensibly apply sales promotions and not simply use discounts as a blunt tool.
Cyber Monday
Online retailers also want to get into the game and thus the emergence of Cyber Monday. Whether you take the Monday off or go into work, online retailers are targeting you. Sorry employers, Cyber Monday will be a low productivity day for you!
Cyber Monday a very dangerous trend for online retailers. Because they have limited tools for sales promotion, discounting is the main tool available to them. We’ve already spoken of the pitfalls of discounting: The issues of devaluing your brand, addicting buyers to discounts and not being able to sell at full price, are all amplified in this sales channel.
The online channel is also more competitive. It favours the stronger online retailers. Those who can deliver the right product cheaper and faster will win out.
So, see you all on Thanksgiving 2019. We can no longer just call in Black Friday, as her two offspring will also be interesting to watch in the future.
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