Black Friday. Originally isolated to the US, it creeped over the pond and infiltrated Britain in 2010.
But what is the origin of the term Black Friday?
It was originally referring to the financial crisis in the US; specifically to the crash of the US gold market on September 24th, 1869 when two Wall Street financiers worked together to buy as much gold as they could, to drive up the price of the precious metal and sell it for ridiculously high profits.
That Friday the conspiracy sent the stock market into free-fall and bankrupted everyone, from Wall Street giants, to shop owners and farmers.
And the shopping-related story?
This is how it links back to retailers – the story says that after an entire year of operating at a loss (known as ‘in the red’), retailers would supposedly earn a profit (going ‘into the black’) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much of their money on discounted merchandise.
This is just one of the stories that has been depicted as the start of the crazy shopping day, but has been announced as inaccurate. Whatever the true story behind Black Friday, it doesn’t stop the fact that this consumer-friendly day – where products are hugely discounted for a week afterwards – has become a worldwide phenomenon.
But does discounting products harm your brand?
There’s an argument against offering discounts that it gives your brand lower brand value. That it decreases the value of your product or service and not only makes your customer view your product as lower quality as it is cheaper, but gets them into the routine of only buying when there is a discount. This can have a spiral effect, where the brand needs to continually discount products to attract customers.
One of our exhibitors, RedEye knows this ‘marketer’s problem’ all too well. Rachael Kotadia, Marketing Director at RedEye is holding a seminar at our marketingSHOWCASE in Birmingham. Rachael speaks about the difficult situation where customers are spending less, sales are down, so what do you do?
The immediate reaction is to have a sale or send out discount codes to attract purchases. But this has an impact on profitability. RedEye’s presentation will cover some top tips on how to build your own price promotion exit strategy.
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