If last year’s Black Friday is anything to go by, retail marketers will be worried that their brand marketing initiatives will get lost in the online buying frenzy. Vince Kerrigan (pictured) looks at what they doing to make sure their messages stand out.
If the pundits are right, tomorrow’s Black Friday sales event could see UK shoppers spend as much as £2bn – and yet one prominent high street retailer will be noticeable for its absence: Asda. The supermarket has decided to opt out this year in response to customer feedback and it is promoting ‘sustained savings’ instead. While this has undoubtedly generated some positive headlines ahead of a critical sales period, Asda could end up paying the price.
In a bid to stand out during this highly-competitive sales event, which is increasingly evident online, some retailers have chosen to go early this year. Argos, Amazon, Carphone Warehouse and numerous others have launched discounts during this week prior to Black Friday and, in some cases, lightning deals – which apply only for a few days, hours or even minutes – are being used to encourage shoppers to stay on the look-out for the best offers. Amazon is already winning the most attention in this area having promised new offers on its website every ten minutes for this entire week prior to Black Friday, and Argos has also been publicising ‘12 days of deals’.
This year’s Black Friday winners will be those that manage to extend the sales event for as long as possible by keeping shoppers interested before and after November 27. Of course, there is also a need to make customers aware of exactly what is on offer by communicating messages about specific deals in a timely and targeted way.
Yet again this year, Black Friday should see another sharp rise in online sales, much of which will be driven by an upturn in mobile sales. For this reason, the retailers that are most successful at using personalised marketing tactics such as SMS messaging to target customers as they enter shopping centres, or during peak online sales periods such as between 6-7pm, will be in line for the biggest increases in sales.
Based on last year’s experiences, marketers recognise that Black Friday and next week’s Cyber Monday (30th) have become critical moments in the retail calendar; a time when there is great deal to play for and yet the reputational risks are high. No retailer will want to see a repeat of the scenes witnessed last year when shoppers fought each other just to get their hands on a hot deal. This could be part of the reason that most of the buzz ahead of Black Friday this year has been generated by online retailers.
As Black Friday dawns, all retailers will be hoping that their websites will stand up to the strain. They also know that the key to leveraging sales events like Black Friday to the max is to spread their discounts across a longer time period and use personalised, mobile marketing initiatives as part of an integrated, multi-channel campaign to engage customers and reach out to new ones.
Vince Kerrigan is strategic solutions manager at Vital Communications.
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Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
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