Marketing, E-Commerce and the Message on Black Friday 2022

Black Friday, where brands all over the world have been offering special discounts to consumers in recent years, got its name from the fact that it is organized on the first Friday after Thanksgiving and that in 1961, the city of Philadelphia in the USA was labeled ‘black’ due to the traffic problem caused by Christmas shopping. Although Black Friday, which marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, dates back to 1932, it was limited to some regions in the US until the 1980s, and it took the 90s and 2000s for it to spread across the country.  

Although Black Friday is understood as a one-day sale, today it is an important trading period where brands run sales campaigns for days, sometimes weeks, and millions of people shop by following brand announcements to take advantage of big discounts.  

With Black Friday, which falls on the last Friday of November, and Cyber Monday, which takes place on the first Monday after, many brands offer a wide range of products, from clothing to electronics, for sale during discounts that span almost the entire month of November. Within the framework of marketing campaigns prepared months in advance, shopping options are introduced to consumers on the basis of various campaign discourses such as “instant discounts, discounts on selected products, advantageous shopping, discount opportunity, limited number of product discounts”.

Black Friday 2022 was seen as a discount shopping opportunity this year, as it was in the first year of the pandemic. Last year, Black Friday shopping, which coincided with a period of restrictions in several countries, took place almost entirely online and brought supply chain issues. This year, this resulted in a more balanced increase in both store and e-commerce sales. On the other hand, discounting rates, the acceleration of digitalization and new digital marketing communications investments helped convert undecided or non-brand loyal target groups into existing customers. 

In the second year of the global pandemic, 125 thousand products were sold on e-commerce during Black Friday 2022 between November 20-26.  According to the same data, among these products, the most purchased products in technological devices were fast charging adapters and android phones. While bananas, dried onions and almonds stood out in food; products such as gift cards, men’s perfume and men’s running shoes in retail textile companies; In the kitchen and tableware category, serving plates ranked first in shopping. Due to the pandemic, it was noteworthy that the highest discount rates were in the categories of clothing, home living and sporting goods. Based on these results, it is understood that the effects of pandemic periods on consumer orientations in social and individual terms will be reflected in Black Friday purchasing rates next year. In this sense, brands will recalibrate their planning according to the research results.

In Turkey, Black Friday, which caused various reactions due to its name, was also referred to as ‘Legendary Friday’ or ‘Fabulous Friday’ by some brands. Even global brands responded sensitively to these reactions as a localized communication strategy. For example, e-commerce giant Amazon continued its campaign as ‘Anticipated Friday’. This approach of brands has been characterized by specific social repercussions. 

It can also be perceived as an embracing communication style that listens to all opinions, far above the issue of agreeing or disagreeing. 

This year, just like last year, brands, which started preparations weeks in advance in our country, were criticized for bombarding consumers with ‘harassing’ messages while competing to convey messages that would encourage consumers to buy by differentiating themselves from their competitors. The volume of these messages is said to have exceeded 250 million in e-mail transmissions alone between November 20-26. According to data from Related Digital, the open rate of these e-mails sent regarding special discount campaigns is calculated as 15% and the conversion rate from e-mail is calculated as 3%, while it is stated that 21 million campaign e-mails were sent on Black Friday alone. 

Black Friday figures for the last five years show a 432% growth in total campaign emails sent by different sectors. These results are expected to increase even more next year.  Thus, the importance of developing a customer-oriented planning strategy for brands in sending e-mails is once again understood in converting messages into sales. Brands that are able to manage the communication power of words and data, digital transformation, personalized messaging with CRM support, and tailored moves such as remarketing will be even more successful on the next Black Friday. In addition, it is predicted that brand loyalty will be tested more and more with each passing year, and discount information that the brand offers more advantages will parcel the persuasion element in the messages more and more. 

It is not too much to predict that all the tools used by brands in their efforts to reach consumers, even if they provide high returns at the beginning, will start to become routine in a very short time and their impact will diminish. Trends form, spread, become commonplace and lose their impact. What is essential is the impact and originality of the message to create a change in attitude and behavior. Therefore, when messages become commonplace in terms of form or quality and lose their impact, there is a danger of turning into a message garbage dump. In other words, it is the impact that is critical; whether it is delivered to customers via e-mail or through a new advertising medium that we do not yet know, creativity, technical writing and compatibility with user behavior will always remain the most important elements of the message.