Black Friday. These two words have a very polarizing effect on all of American society. The first group of people everybody recognizes are those who believe it is kill or be killed. These people salivate at the first sign of Black Friday advertising and plan their holiday around the best deals out there. If it comes down to the deal of the year or the person next to them, the deal will win nine times out of ten. Then there are the people who resent Black Friday, the fact that it distracts from the meaning of Thanksgiving, and all of the traffic and clashing shoppers driven to the store by some measly sales. Although these people resent what Black Friday is all about, some of them will still venture out to the stores late Friday morning and try to "see what is there." Black Friday advertising evokes plenty of emotions in plenty of people, and I wanted to explore the essence of this brilliant exercise in marketing and advertising.
This year distinguished itself from every previous year's advertising in many ways, but Wal-Mart dominated this new idea. Not only did they begin their deals in the evening on Thanksgiving, but they separated these deals into three separate sections. The first string of deals began at 6 pm and ran until 7. Now, what was unique about these deals is that they had a 1 hour guarantee. They were guaranteeing that if you were in line for any of their big-ticket items between the hours of 6 and 7 pm, you would be able to buy the product and if they were out of stock, they would have it shipped to you by Christmas. A pretty radical idea for Black Friday, and I was excited to see how that went. Slightly less exciting were the next two waves of deals. The second began at 8 pm and ended around midnight with some pretty decent deals. Third was their traditional 6 am sale and these sales had taken a drastic increase in price from the previous two deals, which made me wonder why anybody would wake up at that hour?
Admittedly, Wal-Mart changed the game and the only adjustments other stores made included bumping up the time they open to 6 pm, which only angered the non-Black Friday goers that much more. In order to get a closer look at the type of impact these new advertising strategies used by Wal-Mart might have on their competitors, I ventured out into the wild that is Black Friday approximately one half hour before all hell broke loose. Target had a line wrapped all the way around the side of the building awaiting a plethora or door-busters and Wal-Mart's only visible sign of chaos from the outside was the parking lot.
My exploration of the Black Friday society began on the inside of Wal-Mart, after parking approximately a quarter mile from the doors of the store. What I saw was one line. Then another. Then another. After a few minutes I began to realize that every single deal in the store required the customers to stand in line! A brilliant move by Wal-Mart. Sure, you could save hundreds of dollars on their door-buster television, but that would hardly leave you with enough time to shop for another deal, let alone two! By drastically limiting the amount of deals per consumer, Wal-Mart was able to pack the store and save face financially by limiting items per person. Though this plan was devious, the deals appeared to still be good enough to pack every line front to back. The store was packed. Even with the new "wait in line" strategy, Wal-Mart's deals were good enough to fill the store to capacity and continue to cause avid Black Friday shoppers to butt heads.
Following my 1-hour guarantee adventure to Wal-Mart, I visited Target's earliest Black Friday door-buster sale to date. What I expected was far different that what I experienced. I expected the crowd to be depleted as a result of the excellent deals offered by Wal-Mart coupled with their guarantee. After stepping through Target's doors, all I could see was chaos. People running through each other to get to the televisions were the least of their problems. There were piles of people fighting for headphones and pushing and shoving for the best place in line. Target embodied everything those who avoid Black Friday dread. Overall, neither of these two places were any safer than the other, and it seems the population split was simple. The people who needed the biggest deals on a few products should attend Wal-Mart and those who needed deals on many products should have visited target. I can't verify whether or not that was exactly how the split worked out, but it sure would have been strategic from a consumer standpoint.
In the holiday season, advertising is king, and no one day is more powerful than Black Friday. These advertisers control the entire population. Whether you consider yourself to be a Black Friday participant or not, the truth is that most people will venture out to the store on Black Friday, or even Thursday night now that savings have interrupted the sanctity of a family holiday. If it weren't for the power which advertising holds over society, people would spend their whole day being thankful for what they already have. Even though the idea of Thanksgiving is a great one, it cannot stop the fire that is the inherent greed of man, especially not with advertising fuel the flames.
This year distinguished itself from every previous year's advertising in many ways, but Wal-Mart dominated this new idea. Not only did they begin their deals in the evening on Thanksgiving, but they separated these deals into three separate sections. The first string of deals began at 6 pm and ran until 7. Now, what was unique about these deals is that they had a 1 hour guarantee. They were guaranteeing that if you were in line for any of their big-ticket items between the hours of 6 and 7 pm, you would be able to buy the product and if they were out of stock, they would have it shipped to you by Christmas. A pretty radical idea for Black Friday, and I was excited to see how that went. Slightly less exciting were the next two waves of deals. The second began at 8 pm and ended around midnight with some pretty decent deals. Third was their traditional 6 am sale and these sales had taken a drastic increase in price from the previous two deals, which made me wonder why anybody would wake up at that hour?
Admittedly, Wal-Mart changed the game and the only adjustments other stores made included bumping up the time they open to 6 pm, which only angered the non-Black Friday goers that much more. In order to get a closer look at the type of impact these new advertising strategies used by Wal-Mart might have on their competitors, I ventured out into the wild that is Black Friday approximately one half hour before all hell broke loose. Target had a line wrapped all the way around the side of the building awaiting a plethora or door-busters and Wal-Mart's only visible sign of chaos from the outside was the parking lot.
My exploration of the Black Friday society began on the inside of Wal-Mart, after parking approximately a quarter mile from the doors of the store. What I saw was one line. Then another. Then another. After a few minutes I began to realize that every single deal in the store required the customers to stand in line! A brilliant move by Wal-Mart. Sure, you could save hundreds of dollars on their door-buster television, but that would hardly leave you with enough time to shop for another deal, let alone two! By drastically limiting the amount of deals per consumer, Wal-Mart was able to pack the store and save face financially by limiting items per person. Though this plan was devious, the deals appeared to still be good enough to pack every line front to back. The store was packed. Even with the new "wait in line" strategy, Wal-Mart's deals were good enough to fill the store to capacity and continue to cause avid Black Friday shoppers to butt heads.
Following my 1-hour guarantee adventure to Wal-Mart, I visited Target's earliest Black Friday door-buster sale to date. What I expected was far different that what I experienced. I expected the crowd to be depleted as a result of the excellent deals offered by Wal-Mart coupled with their guarantee. After stepping through Target's doors, all I could see was chaos. People running through each other to get to the televisions were the least of their problems. There were piles of people fighting for headphones and pushing and shoving for the best place in line. Target embodied everything those who avoid Black Friday dread. Overall, neither of these two places were any safer than the other, and it seems the population split was simple. The people who needed the biggest deals on a few products should attend Wal-Mart and those who needed deals on many products should have visited target. I can't verify whether or not that was exactly how the split worked out, but it sure would have been strategic from a consumer standpoint.
In the holiday season, advertising is king, and no one day is more powerful than Black Friday. These advertisers control the entire population. Whether you consider yourself to be a Black Friday participant or not, the truth is that most people will venture out to the store on Black Friday, or even Thursday night now that savings have interrupted the sanctity of a family holiday. If it weren't for the power which advertising holds over society, people would spend their whole day being thankful for what they already have. Even though the idea of Thanksgiving is a great one, it cannot stop the fire that is the inherent greed of man, especially not with advertising fuel the flames.
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