Question

Preparation

What started as a promotional strategy among several large U.S. retailers has grown into an annual, nationwide shopping event held the day after Thanksgiving: Black Friday. Every year, Black Friday sales get larger, the stores open earlier, the prices get lower, and, unfortunately, the even often includes angry crowds of shoppers, desperate to be the first ones to get a good deal. Black Friday has also given rise Cyber Monday, its online counterpart. There are even businesses that use an anti–Black Friday position as a marketing strategy! Black Friday has spread to Britain, and since 2015, citizens across the United Kingdom have also been able to share in the madness of this pseudo holiday.

For Discussion

From a marketing perspective, you need to make a decision about whether participating in Black Friday madness makes sense, given your target market and customers. Given this perspective, do you believe that ignoring Black Friday is a viable marketing decision? Why or why not? What segment of the market do Black Friday and Cyber Monday target? Discuss whether you believe that the targeted market segments are the same for all businesses. Finally, are you a Black Friday shopper? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Question: Black Friday madness makes sense, given your target market and customers. Given this perspective, do you believe that ignoring Black Friday is a viable marketing decision? Why or why not? What segment of the market do Black Friday and Cyber Monday target? Discuss whether you believe that the targeted market segments are the same for all businesses. Finally, are you a Black Friday shopper? Why or why not?

This discussion, we can divide into multiple parts;

1- From a marketing perspective, you need to make a decision about whether participating in Black Friday madness makes sense, given your target market and customers. Given this perspective, do you believe that ignoring Black Friday is a viable marketing decision? Why or why not?

From a marketing perspective, ignoring Black Friday is a viable marketing decision.

Few reasons are listed below as part of discussion.

• Customer loyalty: Black Friday mainly targets and attracts low-value customers who are eagerly waiting for huge discounts at the specific period and there is a high risk that they may not come back to the seller at a later point of time.
• It is very difficult to build a long term customer relationship with such customers. They come for one day benefits and retaining such customers is difficult.
• There are many high-value customers to whom we can serve throughout the year to generate a huge revenue and they can be easily converted into loyal customers who will remember the brand
• Yes, in one way we can agree that there is a huge spike in revenue on a particular day as part of this. But considering the extra effort, extra handling cost, extra promotional cost – which can be made as a gain will again take one more year until next year, it is suggested not to consider Black Friday as a viable marketing decision.
• There can be many other days where we can attract customers with a low discount rate and promotional campaign such as the time before Christmas period, New Year etc.

2- What segment of the market do Black Friday and Cyber Monday target? Discuss whether you believe that the targeted market segments are the same for all businesses.

If the company decides to participate in Black Friday campaign and sales, they can target below listed market segments;

• Shoppers who looks for offers and deals in general-

From the empirical set of data, it is easy to identify the segment of customer who is eagerly waiting for offers and deals whether it is online shopping or offline shopping. They should be the first set of customers to target during this period.

• Customers who shopped last year-

The list of customers who shopped during previous years Black Friday is next set of shoppers who can be targeted. Company can use last year’s data to forecast demand and carry out promotional activities for them.

• Loyal customers of company or brand-

This is the next set of customers. With personalized offers or customized combo offers, they can be easily targeted as they are already loyal customers to the company or brand. This can also help to improve customer relationship. They can be attracted by giving them offers such as early bird offers, product recommendations etc.

• The customers who never purchased anything-

It is very difficult to identify and target such customers. But the best thing is that, there is high probability and chance that they can be converted as regular customers with minimal promotional campaign such as email ads, SMS ads etc.

The conversion rate can be low, but the cost is also low. So company should not avoid this segment.

3- Finally, are you a Black Friday shopper? Why or why not?

Who doesn’t like deals and offers pouring in? Yes, I am a black Friday shopper. It gives me the benefits and options of shopping many items which are currently in my wish list at a low price.

I can compare the offers and try to get the best deals from them.

It never forces me to stick to one particular company or brand. I have various options on a single day. I can shop many things and gift to my family members as gifts. I also make sure that I am not compromising on quality of the product because of deals. For me quality product at a low price is always a YES.

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