Making Black Friday work for your brand

Brands are rethinking their approach to Black Friday, from campaigns about conscious consumption to multi-channel live experiences that go beyond the traditional yearly sales. As companies seek to build Black Friday campaigns that better fit their brands and the cultural context, let’s explore the role that the event plays in shaping brand reputation in the short and long term.

Every word and every visual involved in a customer’s interaction shapes a brand perception, whether that be via a marketing campaign message, an element of the shopping experience, and even a specific element of a product. The approach taken to Black Friday is a branding decision – even if that decision is to intentionally not take part in Black Friday or share an alternative message. With brand reputation accounting for at least 63% of a company's market value according to one study, the need to manage how you are perceived as a brand is more important than ever. The key question, then, is how to approach Black Friday in a manner that suits your brand and positively influences its perception.

What exactly is Black Friday anyway?

We've come a long way since Black Friday began. So long, in fact, that the origins of this annual event are actually surprisingly vague. There are various stories about the origins of the Black Friday shopping rush. Some claim that the term refers to the way businesses experience financial loss, putting them “in the red” in their balance books, until after the US national holiday of Thanksgiving when they start making more sales that put them back “in the black.” Others suggest it refers to a stock collapse market collapse in the 1960s after two investors drove up the price of gold. Yet, a journal entry from November 1951, in Factory Management and Maintenance, refers to “Black Friday” as the day that workers attempt to take a day off sick following Thanksgiving celebrations.

Whatever the true origin, the term Black Friday today has essentially become synonymous with the term “sale”, often with higher-than-usual price cuts. Across the world, on the fourth Friday of November, millions head out to their local high street or open up their laptops to indulge in online shopping.

Is Black Friday still a powerful branding event?

To prepare for the occasion, brands around the world gather together their marketing departments to spread the word far and wide about a cost-cutting sale like no other in their calendar year. Meanwhile, other creative teams join meeting calls with the objective of finding a new way to approach the occasion or share an alternative message, often about conscious consumerism.

While Black Friday has become the subject of controversy amid the climate crisis, the power of the event is still indisputable for business. According to a survey ahead of Black Friday in 2021, more than half of all shoppers worldwide said they are likely to shop in stores on the day and 80% of consumers were likely to discover a new online store during the occasion. With around 30% of those surveyed already thinking about Black Friday deals between one to two weeks in advance, one of the factors that seem to draw customers in is the time-limited nature of the sales and the build-up beforehand.

Nevertheless, one has to question the long-term impact on customer perception, rather than simply the short-term excitement about the sale, particularly with other surveys showing that 2 in 5 people regret their Black Friday purchase. Since maintaining a strong brand reputation is all about its perception over time, it's important to call into question the overall impact of the annual event on brands.?

Finding your way: From being different to being oneself

We see that companies act in different ways. Recent Novembers have shown us a wide variety of alternative approaches. It seems like brands have found out that it is not a must — and not necessarily a good thing for one’s reputation either — to go with the flow and simply do what everyone else is doing.

Campaigns like Amazon’s Black Friday Live event create an experience that will remain in customers' minds long after the sales close. Other companies, like Ikea’s #BuyBack Friday concept and the bag manufacturer Freitag’s “Don’t shop, just S.W.A.P” campaign, is focused on initiatives that show a desire to have a positive impact.

Many other brands, however, have started to communicate that they won’t pay any attention to it at all. For a while, ignoring or even actively condemning mainstream activities used to be enough to stand out, as only a handful of self-confident brands did this.

Nowadays, however, just rebelling against Black Friday is not unique anymore; it all seems to be about what brands actually choose to do for the day. Many companies out there are aware of the opportunities for their reputation and take the freedom to interpret Black Friday in a way that is aligned with their brand. When planning the next November, those companies seem to start off from the brand’s essence (values and beliefs), add “Black Friday” to the equation, and explore what makes sense — if anything at all.

Sure, we still see brands that don't join (and even don't communicate this), and others that just throw huge discounts because they consider that a must. Both options can be based on conscious considerations about reputation, and as such, be good ways to strengthen brands. However, in most cases, the grey shades in between tell the most interesting stories that reveal what the brands are all about.

How brands have told their story in Black Friday campaigns

Apple: Four-day shopping event

Apple’s brand, which is all about consistent high quality and innovation doesn’t fit neatly with a uber-cheap, rushed one-day sale. So Apple created a four-day shopping experience, that broke away from the traditional one-day flash sale and incorporated gift cards rather than a simple price cut. This year, they are taking the same approach once again.

Instead of offering simple cost cuts to their product line, their campaign connects the Apple brand with a sense of generosity by lavishing customers with gift cards to contribute to their purchases. By also allowing their customers extra time to select their purchase than other brands, their Black Friday campaign mitigates the risk of consumers regretting their purchase in the long term. Ultimately, this approach to Black Friday positions Apple products as aspirational purchases, rather than cheap, “quick buys”, and the perfect gift during one of the high seasons of gift buying.

Ikea: “Buy Back”

This example from Ikea shows the power of spreading an alternative message on Black Friday. In doing so, they established their brand as a force for positive change, caring for people and the planet.?

Their campaign discouraged purchases of new furniture products and instead encouraged customers to pass on the Ikea furniture that they no longer need to others through their secondhand reselling scheme. Their hashtag, “#BuyBack”, expressed this in two simple words. Not only did their advert share the message that as individuals we have the possibility to make a significant and lasting impact, but it also touched on the emotional connections we have to our furniture through its messaging in their adverts.

REI: "Opt Outside"

The outdoor clothing recreation brand REI takes an approach to Black Friday that perfectly matches its brand essence. Their annual "Opt Outside" campaign encourages customers to spend time outside on Black Friday, as opposed to shopping in-store. To stay true to this message, since 2015 they have even closed their doors to their shops on the day.

By encouraging customers to share pictures of their day spent outdoors on social media, the campaign also fostered a sense of community among those who chose to spend their day outside, and, in doing so, the campaign spread the REI brand name far and wide.

Amazon: Black Friday Live

Amazon took a unique approach to Black Friday by crafting an experience that goes beyond shopping, with a live four-day long event. Their event included music performances, celebrity line-ups, yoga classes, family entertainment, and more. By including live streams for those who would not be at the physical event, they created an experience that went beyond four walls and reached out to a mass audience. Amazon paired this with the usual price-cuts and Black Friday deals, but the additional celebrations that they hosted created an experience that went beyond a short-term sale that customers will soon forget (and possibly regret) and instead created a memorable touchpoint with their brand.

Amazon's strategy is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. In various ways, we can see how this experience-driven approach to Black Friday may fit into these strategic points, by taking an innovative approach the occasion, by creating a real connection with customers to create a brand that they want to keep coming back to again and again, and also by thinking beyond a simple short-term, forgettable sale.

Patagonia: "Don't Buy This Jacket"

"It would be hypocritical for us to?work for environmental change?without encouraging customers to think before they buy," wrote the Patagonia team in an article that explained why they released an advert encouraging consumers not to buy their product. In taking this approach to Black Friday, the Patagonia brand voice became a voice for environmental activism. They also aimed to position themselves as an honest voice, by speaking transparently about the potential for hypocrisy in this campaign: "We’re in business to make and sell products. Everyone’s paycheck relies on that... The test of our sincerity (or our hypocrisy) will be if everything we sell is useful, multifunctional where possible, long lasting, beautiful but not in thrall to fashion. We’re not yet entirely there."

As we saw this year, with their decision not to make their company public but instead "go purpose", Patagonia continually makes bold moves that go against the status quo. From the beginning, Patagonia has never been a brand that backs away from the issue of sustainability and consumerism. Their approach to Black Friday continues this common thread.

Take brand into the equation in everything you do

Regardless of a company's individual stance on Black Friday, it is the brand that shapes the approach to the occasion. Even if this approach is to do nothing for the day, this is still a pivotal branding decision. Standing out by doing things differently, but without any clear connection to the brand essence, may draw some attention but dilute the public perception of who you are and what you stand for as a brand. When Black Friday appears on the calendar, start with the consideration of who you are as a brand. The rest will follow.