Good Riddance To Black Friday!

Black Friday is one of my least favourite days (or weeks because it’s not just a day any more!!!) and I actually call it “Personal Unsubscribe Day” because I find all the companies I’m no longer interested in and clear up my subscriptions.

Also, the companies that “fake” Black Friday offers…grrr…either they pretend it’s an offer when those same things were cheaper months ago or you get to the website and it’s just the crap that they can’t shift that’s 10% off.

Eight in 10 products advertised as Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year, according to a study by Which? Even brands that you might usually trust like John Lewis.

And yet…companies feel they HAVE TO get on the bandwagon because they believe that’s what customers expect.

I disagree so I thought I would run this through my Calm REBEL Arc to show you how it works.

Let’s assume you’re a product manager. Over the years, you’ve slowly drifted into this habit of coming up with your Black Friday nonsense. The distorted message you have received and internalised is “Everyone else is doing it and customers expect it”. You might even go so far as to believe that “If we don’t do it then our competitors will win our customers.”

As well as taking you away from what you believe in (genuinely good value for money all year round) and take your energy away from other great things you could be doing (like product discovery for example), this could ultimately lead to self-sacrificing behaviour of anchoring your customers to lower prices and forcing them to delay purchasing at other times of the year.

So what could you do as this product manager?

Well you could remember why you exist as a retailer.

What’s your promise to customers? Is frantic discounting actually part of that? For a lot of companies: no, it isn’t. They’re about craftsmanship. Or fairness. Or sustainability. Or relationships.

Then you could examine by looking at what’s really going on. Are your customers really going to leave you and flock to the competitors? Are your competitors really going to laugh all the way to the bank and leave you behind? Quite possibly not. Quite possibly your customers might be fed up of all this crap and unsubscribe from your competitors or their perception of them might go through the floor because their “offers” are fake.

The you could breathe and set a boundary. Imagine a company saying:

This might even be refreshing to your customers; but if nothing else it might bring you back in line with what you believe in and free you up to run some experiments.

Perhaps you try:

• A transparency sale: “These are our real margins. Here’s what we’re choosing to lower — and why.”

• A gratitude event: “Buy as normal, and we’ll include something extra as thanks.”

• A Black-Out Friday: “We’re giving staff a day off from this chaos. Everything stays full price.”

• A donation model: “10% of Black Friday revenue goes to X cause.”

Some of these experiments might feel too risky but maybe they are safe enough to try. And you never know this might just liberate you from this crazy system you’ve been dragged into. A brand that opts out of Black Friday with integrity and clarity doesn’t just avoid noise. It stands out.

In a market full of 40%-off labels nobody trusts, authenticity actually becomes a differentiator. And the customers who share those values? They stick, they advocate, and they remember.

Do I think these small acts of Calm Rebellion are going to get rid of Black Friday? No.

Do I think it could help product managers and brands (and their teams) find a way back to authenticity while simultaneously creating a differentiator that customers might appreciate? Yes.

If you want to talk about how applying the Calm REBEL Arc could help you then let me know because I love thinking about those kinds of things. Perhaps I’ll write a post about it.

Cheers

P.S. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you can check out the book (with zero Black Friday or Cyber Monday discount) here.