Since Black Friday has come and gone, I thought I would do a blog post on the marketing lessons that one could learn from it. According to Cynthia Boris’s blog post, there are five marketing lessons that you can take from Black Friday.
1. Social Media
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would know that Facebook, Twitter, and etcetera are big right now. It’s not surprising that major retailers have started advertising their sales on these platforms. I mean, take Facebook, for example. It’s pretty commonplace to have 100+ friends. If you mention a great deal you found on Facebook for some retailer on your wall, that info will be instantly transmitted to all your friends. The fact is, email just doesn’t work on its own anymore.
2. Deals make unwanted products attractive.
Cynthia discusses how she bought a bluetooth headset that she didn’t really want or need it because it was at such a low price. I wish I could say that I had the strength to resist buying something that I wasn’t looking for, even if it’s really cheap, but I can’t. Discount items make it seem like you’re not spending as much. Quantity over quality argument, in this case. I’ve bought scarves that were on sale in the past, even though I didn’t really like them.
3. Urgency sells.
Black Friday is all about the time limit. I saw many signs that said “until noon” or “today only” when I was shopping. With this constraint, I think shoppers will have the tendency to buy rather than to not buy because the deal won’t be there anymore. I know that I would most likely buy something on discount if it were on a limited time. I feel that if I don’t buy it, and I actually think about it and realize after a while that I do need that something, I would miss out. If I do buy it, and it turns out I don’t need it, well, at least it was cheap.
4. I’m special.
Cynthia also talks about special deals for a select group of people. I remember how I went shopping in a store that offered 50% off for customers that had the store card instead of the 30% for other customers. By making you feel like you’re special, retailers entice you to spend more. And I definitely did that day.
5. Go the extra mile.
The last marketing lesson to be taken from Black Friday is that retailers should do something extra for their consumers. Cynthia mentions adding a bonus item to online purchases. Now, I haven’t actually seen this in practice, but I do think it is a good idea. Black Friday only comes once a year, and it’s a pretty stressful time for consumers. Think about all those who waited in line to try on something and then waited in line to pay. Some may have waited ages just to get to the store if they crossed the border. If retailers do something extra, consumers will remember that and hopefully come again. Creating lifelong customers is a big thing.