Did You Capitalize on Black Friday?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If you are following me on twitter you might have seen some twits about trying to put together a Black Friday video. However, due to some problems with the equipment I wasn’t able to do this which was quite sad because due to over eating and drinking plenty of coffee I was up until 5 a.m.

Nonetheless my wife works retail and I am always amazed of how people interact during Black Friday. If you read the paper of saw the news on Friday than you probably saw reports of people getting trambled or people shooting each other over material items. I personally don’t get it.

Moving on though I find it odd from the marketing perspective how most (if not all) companies fail to market/advertise on this self-deemed shopping holiday. Yes, people are waiting in lines in single digit weather to get a 50″ flat screen television for 900 bucks or 79 bucks for a GPS. I’ve done it in the past but never overnight. I would always watch the news and see how ridiculous people are. Yet a few things stood out from a marketing perspective (of which I would’ve spoke on for my video):

Profit or Non-Profit: Be A Good Neighbor

This is #1 but yet so many companies over look this and especially on a day like Black Friday you can’t afford NOT to. If you are a non profit then why not hand out coffee and donuts to people with your logo on the cups? This act alone will show potential clients/customers just how nice your company is (or might be).

Shopping For Your Product or Not: Offer Discounts

Your company produces those flat screen televisions – why not go to those in line in large markets and offer a discount on that tv? How much publicity do you think your company will get for doing this? Ummm…A LOT. How many times do you watch the news about Black Friday and the reporters goes straight to the first few people in line. Talk about INSTANT PR for your company.

What if those people aren’t shopping for your product(s)? WHO CARES! Offer them a discount on it because people during these times you never know. If anything give them a gift card for that store where your product is being held. If they don’t purchase your product(s) they will definitely have something positive to say about your company.

Find Out About Your Customers

Another no-brainier. For some reason companies think they know EVERYTHING from their customers from market research. Why not go out and just talk with those people waiting in line to see how they are doing – why are they purchasing one product over another (possibly yours over another or vice-versa). Be honest with them and they’ll be honest with you.

These are just the top three things but even these can be expanded. If your company hasn’t done this I would highly suggest this. This would be a hit for non-profits as well and its low cost at its finest.

Tagged as: advertising, Black Friday, Marketing, Shopping, Thanksgiving