Black Friday - do we really want it?

Black Friday - do we really want it? Do we really need it?

There is an internet meme doing the rounds, poking fun at the Americans and Black Friday.

Black Friday - the day Americans fight each other in the shops in their desire to snag a bargain, the day after they all sit around the table and give thanks for what they have!

But what is it all about, and where did it originate from?

No one knows where the name comes from, but rumour (and Wikipedia) would have it that the name reflects the state of a retailers P&L. The retailers would operate in the red until the end of November when Thanksgiving and the last payday before Christmas would create a perfect storm of retail sales, and thus put the books in the black.

It's a marketing managers dream. The whole world loves a bargain and what better way to whip up some sales than to simply whack out some emails and online ads offering big discounts.

Or is it? With headlines like this one from today's Daily Mail you have to wonder.

I wonder what conversations are going on in the Tesco and Walmart Asda HQs this morning. Are they congratulating themselves on shifting pallet loads of last years technology for a good price, having charged the hapless manufacturer a premium for being included in their Black Friday promo - a true win / win for the retailer, or are they having nervous discussions about how to explain the sight of police officers being called in to keep the peace?

Sadly, I don't believe that the negative and at sometimes sensationalistic journalism will affect their market share or share prices. So, we now only have 365 days to wait until it all happens again.

What really concerns me is the jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon of seemingly every business going. Let's take a look at my email inbox as totally unscientific random sample of the sort of offers that I can bag this Black Friday.

I've been offered discounts ranging from massive to paltry, on a whole range of goods and services. Some of the stand out offers, not necessarily for the right reasons, include: web hosting reseller accounts; home broadband and TV (addressed to my business); golf club memberships and email newsletters - yes, truly, it was free to sign up yesterday, and it's free to sign up today, they just used the Black Friday fever to email me twice in 2 days!

If you are a B2B business and you used Black Friday as a promotional opportunity, then I think that you need to change your agency and your marketing team. Sales growth will not be born out of a cheap, imported promotion, but by taking the effort to build a relationship with your future and current customers.

If you succumbed to sending out a B2B Black Friday offer, I think you need to hang your head in shame, alongside the shoppers who were fighting in the aisles of Tesco and Asda across the nation in the wee small hours of the morning.