I am a big fan of Seth Godin. Seth is an American author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker. One of the books he has written is “All Marketers Are Liars” in which Seth teaches us that great marketers don’t talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story—a story we want to believe, whether it’s factual or not.
In one of his recent blog posts Seth told us why Black Friday is a scam. He wrote:
#Black Friday = media trap
Black Friday was a deliberate invention of the National Association of Retailers. It was not only the perfect way to promote stores during a super slow news day, but had the side benefit of creating a new cultural norm.
Any media outlet that talks about Black Friday as an actually important phenomenon is either ignorant or working hard to please their advertisers. Retailers offer very little in the way of actual discounts, they expose human panic and greed, and it’s all sort of ridiculous if not soul-robbing.
Sixteen years ago, my friend Jerry Shereshewsky helped invent ‘cyber Monday’ as a further expansion of the media/shopping complex mania. It was amazingly easy to find people eager to embrace and talk about the idea of developing yet another holiday devoted to buying stuff.
Here are some of the steps involved in creating a marketing phenomena like this:
Apple does this with its product launches. The IRS does the opposite of #1 around tax day. Nike sold a billion dollars worth of sneakers this way.
People like doing what other people are doing. People don’t like being left out. The media likes both.
In another post from a few years ago he wrote:
Making your customers uncomfortable
Tomorrow is the ridiculous Black Friday ritual, gaining in steam every year, in which large American retailers run big sales that start at 6 am. People line up even earlier to get in first. Kids are stampeded. Muscles are pulled. Friendships frayed. Credit cards exhausted.
Why? In an always-on internet world, why force people to do something they would ordinarily avoid?
Because they like it. It feels special. They are somehow earning the discount. The store creates discomfort and then profits from it. And the customers save money…
Southwest did the same thing to load their planes. By getting rid of boarding passes, they create a small sense of panic. People line up and push and shove to get on the plane in the mistaken belief that somehow they won’t get on.
Southwest created discomfort and then got their planes out faster. And the travelers save time…
Better is not always better, at least according to some measures.
I love reading Seth Godin. You should give it a shot at his blog – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
I mean just do not go out shopping on Black Friday. Or if you have to, then go to a Mom and Pop store. They could use the business. Besides, you don’t want to trample someones Grandma do you?
I didn’t think so.
Or better yet…
today at Amazon. They will deliver it to you really quickly and you never have to leave the house and visit those big crowded stores where people and workers are mean to you.