Comment on “Singles Day” (by Elizabeth Guan)

Elizabeth focused on a very interesting holiday in China. I really appreciate one of her points, “this made-up festival is mainly celebrated by young people.” The Singles Day is artificially made by savvy sellers in China.

The marketing campaigns of savvy sellers target single young people. They understand that single young people are rebellious, so they persuade young people to buy stuff for themselves since no one cares about them. These marketing campaigns make Singles Day’s celebration like “Anti-Valentine’s Celebration”. The Singles Day actually becomes a day when singles buy stuff crazily online and sellers are busy counting money from Singles Day sales.

Here is an example of arbitrarily made crisis in North America. Everybody still remembers December 21, 2012 as the date that the world is supposed to end. Again marketing and advertisement campaigns of some savvy sellers persuade people to buy stuff for themselves. The campaigns’ logics are clear. Since the world is going to end, people should buy stuff crazily before they die. Obviously, the world is still running well today. Savvy sellers again have their wallet full by creating an artificial crisis.

In conclusion, I think that artificial festivals and crises are efficient marketing strategies that make customers buy stuff from sellers. However, sellers should use these two strategies cautiously. If customers no longer believe in the artificial festivals or crises, they are going to stop buying from sellers. Especially, artificial crises may cause chaos in the society. Sellers must not use the marketing strategy that may make the society unstable.