BLACK FRIDAY: Another Monetizable Day For Your Brand & Business!

In some days' time, your screens will be filled with the exciting ‘Black Friday Offers’ that will make you forget you just had a shopping spree during the Diwali offers. Till a few years ago, was Black Friday even known or advertised the way it is today? From both the marketer’s point of view as well as that of a consumer, this newly arrived or popularised phenomenon has great significance. We at Passio felt curious about this and thought of sharing it with you.

The first recorded use of “Black Friday” to refer to the day after Thanksgiving was in the Factory Management and Maintenance journal in 1951. Thus the start of the year-ending holiday shopping season, and the day after Thanksgiving started to be known as Black Friday. With the season’s sale, retailers would be ‘in the black’ and hence the name ‘Black Friday’. But wait, do Indians celebrate Thanksgiving? Most people in India don’t even know the existence of such a day. Like the various modern-day concepts of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, this seemingly recently discovered celebration came into being with the advent of online shopping and the rise in consumerism. And the credit for the popularity of days like this can be attributed to people like us, the marketers and advertisers! (We don’t miss taking credit for something good!)

Recently, Gen-Z and millennial users have embraced the sale across platforms, including Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, Ajio, etc. Nykaa went overboard to introduce the ‘Pink Friday Sale’ during Black Friday. And that didn’t go wrong – Nykaa saw 400 orders per minute on its platform on the first day of the Pink Friday sale last year! Smaller D2C brands, which sell mostly on Instagram, created a buzz with 50-60 per cent discounts, bagging more sales than any other season.

At this point, you might think about what you can do to increase sales for your brand during this time. Our digital marketing experts do have solutions for that;

• Start providing offers ahead of the season: You need not provide the best of offers prior to the season, but make sure your offers are seen before anyone else’s!
• Encourage a sense of urgency: Humans are drawn to things in high demand but also difficult to obtain. When something is in short supply, people are more likely to buy it at once.
• Enhance your sales prospecting: Make sure to monitor your results keenly and push as the final campaign days approach.
• Do Retargeting: Reach back to your potential customers before they go for another option!
• Be Personal: Personalised ads can be a winning formula for sales. Make sure to incorporate dynamic ads into your Paid Social, Display and Programmatic strategies.
• Data is everything: Analyse your data in advance and be confident in the strategies, audiences, keywords and ads!
• Test your Creatives: Creative is the king, today or any day! A number of recent studies have shown creative quality as the single most important driver of return on investment (ROI) for advertising campaigns , says Meta Foresight. When in doubt, go for a split test or A/B test!
• Know your Competitors: Analyse, plan and stand out in the market and user interaction.
• Think what’s next: We saw Dusshera, Diwali, Black Friday and coming up next are Cyber Monday and Christmas – Have you started planning?

Know what works for your brand and who’ll work the best for your brand. When in doubt, Contact us!