How to break Black Friday marketing rules
Last November I asked my (now closed) free Facebook group how they felt about Black Friday promotions.
Most of the members - mainly small business owners - had strong negative feelings about it. Not because they don’t want to give their buyers a good deal, but because they already give them excellent value year-round. The thing is, when you’re up against the likes of Amazon or supermarkets, small indies just can’t budge that much on price. Their margins are tight, and they have mouths to feed.
Many of them echoed my own feelings, which is that Black Friday encompasses everything I dislike about business. It’s about marketing that fuels excess consumption, that thrives on scarcity, campaigns that squeeze small retailers, and messages that make shoppers feel panicked to spend money - which they sometimes don’t have - under a cloud of FOMO.
Image by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.
I should add a disclaimer here that I’ve bought things in Black Friday sales before and may well do so again this year (I have my eyes on a leaf blower and a new vacuum, yes I’m in my 40s).
I definitely think it is an opportunity for people to pick up a bargain, especially when money is tight, and I am not judging anyone who buys stuff on Black Friday. Of course I think it’s better for everyone when we make conscious purchases and where it is an equitable value exchange, but ultimately it’s your money and I’m not going to judge you for how you spend it.
Black Friday and unethical marketing practices
But the reality is that Black Friday is prime time for those unethical marketing practices to be rolled out en masse, and for small businesses and independents to feel they have no choice but to follow suit.
Newsflash: You have lots of choices! You can:
choose to do nothing.
let the day (or month, as it seems we’ve already had weeks of Black Friday promotions coming at us) pass by with no comment or action.
choose to do nothing and explain why. It’s a great opportunity to let your audience get to know you better.
do something that is the exact opposite of the traditional Black Friday campaigns, like these excellent examples.
Patagonia: Don’t buy this jacket
Patagonia’s says they are “in business to save our home planet”. This purpose isn’t just a nice statement: it runs through everything they do.
They even recognise that new clothes are bad for the environment, and they don’t shy away from this at all (unlike others in the industry notorious for ‘greenwashing’).
On their website, Patagonia actively discourages people to buy their products. They are upfront about the fact that instead of buying new, you can have your Patagonia gear repaired or traded in for new (and they make it super easy to do that, or to buy their stuff second hand).
Their iconic Black Friday 2011 campaign saw Patagonia take out a full-page ad in the New York Times, pleading with people not to buy their stuff.
The instruction “Don’t buy this jacket” came with a stark breakdown of the environmental cost of its manufacture (including 135l water and 20lbs of CO2). In their words this was “an environmental cost higher than its price”.
Then the gut-punch call to action: “Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything.”
I’m not saying go around telling people not to buy your stuff. But I think you can take inspiration from Patagonia in how they put their purpose into action!
Incidentally, Patagonia’s purpose statement also has two key words: “in business”. They don’t just exist to save our home planet. And their Black Friday campaign contributed to their bottom line when it ran in 2011.
That year, Patagonia’s sales were up 30%, their annual revenue was over $500,000 and they had their best profit in about two decades, according to SNews.
All of a sudden having a clear purpose is more than just a nice to have. It’s central to the bottom line.
Read more about the Patagonia campaign.
Deciem: KNOWvember
They call themselves the abnormal beauty company, and they live by this tagline. They close their stores and website on 27 November “for a moment of nothingness”.
Instead, they offer 23% off everything for the whole month of November, to encourage people to shop slowly and make skincare purchases not on impulse but based on education (hence KNOWvember).
This decision was not made as a publicity stunt, but because Black Friday no longer felt like something that was good for people or planet - hence it wasn’t something Deciem could participate in.
Goodness Marketing Black Friday
Unlike perhaps retail stores, I’ve never really been tempted to run a Black Friday promotion. But last year, inspired by these anti-Black Friday campaigns, I felt I wanted to make a gesture.
I thought about what I dislike about Black Friday and how I can turn it on its head. And this year I’ll be doing the same.
For the rest of the year, my Unlearning Marketing course will continue to sell at the listed price of £20, but half of the revenue for the rest of the year will be donated to Afghanaid. (Last year I invested proceeds in Lend With Care.)
I chose this course to be my Black Friday offer, because it helps small businesses understand that they don’t have to follow the marketing “rules” in order to be successful - and that includes jumping on bandwagons such as Black Friday.
What’s so bad about marketing rules?
Rules are often just old habits which hide opportunities. They preserve the status quo, and in doing so can make us think that following these tried and tested ways will lead to success.
Instead, find your own way, be true to what you are bringing to the world, and live your purpose courageously.
If you want to shift your marketing mindset from feeling like you need to follow a certain formula so you can be successful, to one that is about marketing that feels good, does good and gets good results, check out Unlearning Marketing. No need to rush, this is available at all times and half of all sales revenue until the end of the year will go to Afghanaid.