Black Friday and huge discount

This morning in class we talked about Black Friday and the conclusion was: this year it’s going to be mad as it was in China three days ago. In fact, it was 11/11 and in China. It’s single person day. It’s a commercial event with huge discount similar to the Black Friday. In only 24 hour, their main retail website (Alibaba) registered a turnover of 34,7 billions euros which represent an increase of 26% compared to last year.

It’s clear that more and more people want to consume on internet and buy products online. But this year in France, lots of brands have decided to boycott the black friday (and I think they are right). Their reason is that it deregulate the offer. It encourages to "artificial over-consumption ». I read an interesting article which says : « From the consumer's point of view, this may be an opportunity to do business. But this day makes jobs precarious by not paying manufacturers, brands and stores the right price. It also contributes to climate change by encouraging overproduction »

Also prices don’t represent the real value of the product because in some shop they are always discount (attracting the consumers) but prices increased. For me we can’t trust the price anymore. By the end you end up paying the same price (and the brand earns the same amount) but you feel good, you made a great deal. People are interested in promotion and sales and that is one of the main reason that push them to shop but it seems that it’s just a marketing communication to make you consume more and more.

What do you think about this as marketer? Do you think you will shop during the Black Friday? Don’t you think it is too much?

I often check out the Black Friday sales but to be honest I've found that it is mostly out of date stock that is discounted and the price of new stock is moreorless the same before and after.

Last year I wanted a new computer but in the end waited until after Christmas to get the laptop I wanted at the price I wanted to pay.

There are probably bargains out there but with so many people looking I don't think you're likely to get them.

It's simply a marketing ploy to move old stock before the Christmas bonanza.

Hi everyone !

To me, all these kind of campaign are just meant to sell and sell. It can be interesting when there are still a lot of stock in shops or warehouse that costs a lot of money to maintain.

I used to look on websites to see if there were some good deals but I never found what I wanted on Black Friday. Moreover, the offer is so big that it is really hard to be focus on only what you want. So, I usually check many articles and I am more lost than guided by websites.

Now, I don’t spend that much money because I have none.

I think we will see more and more marketing campaign like this such as the Single Day in China because companies are earning a lot of money. But we may wonder if the consumers won’t be disgusted by all of these that are just meant to spend money.

Hi,

I completely agree with you Blongyyy ! I loved when you said "now I don't spend that much money because I have none" haahahah
I rememeber last year, it was a big rate between all the companies for Black Friday ! there were one week before Black friday, the Black friday and the after black friday !!!! JUST TOO MUCH !

I don't know if last year I was more sensitive to that because I was studying Marketing and we were speaking a lot about it but it marked me  (JOOOHN I don't know if it's correct but if you have the English expression of "ça m'a marqué" I'm waiting for)

This kind of things makes me say "Why am I doing marketing?". Is not really funny because I haven't even started working yet, and I don't even want to do that... Hope when I'll start to work I'll love it for some times, just like few years and after good bye marketing

"this year in France, lots of brands have decided to boycott the black Friday"

I'm not sure that we really make the Black Friday in France, we only see some offers with 20-30% reduction and as you say they make this offer every time.

In the USA the black Friday is 80% reduction !! It's a fake black Friday in France

For me, this kind of sales is interesting. We all want to have a product at a low price.
If you're interested to have a good deal, I recommend to you https://www.dealabs.com/ you can see all the reduction every day in France!

This year i have the impression that brands are not talking that much about Black Friday . 
I remember last year, one month before the Black Friday we could see spots everywhere .
Personnaly i have never bought during Black Friday because i have never found something which interest me . I always see only thing that are not sold normally so they reduce the price to sell it (often weird colour or extre size) . And then the promotions are not that much , i mean 20 % doesn't change a lot 

Hi everyone,

Interesting topic Lea! I can understand if the consumers would like to boycott black Friday but I can't see why brands and stores wish something like that.

As John said the majority of items sold in black Friday were in stock and as you supported, finally we buy them in the same price as before! We are manipulated by the 'great' discount we see and we are happy. So stores and brands win.

I see a big marketing plan here and unfortunately each event/fact or celebration that differs from a normal day leads us in consumption.

Personally, I don't know much about Black Friday, but it's scares me, because I have those images in my mind where people are in clothing stores fighting with each other in order to buy the 'precious' product.
Maybe I am overreacting but I don't really like shopping with a lot of people around me. In fact I don't like people around me generally. ahah

And I imagine that on the internet it happens the same. The same mess, in which we have to choose quickly before someone gets the product 'inside from our hands'.

Cédric Bourgeois wrote:"this year in France, lots of brands have decided to boycott the black Friday"

I'm not sure that we really make the Black Friday in France, we only see some offers with 20-30% reduction and as you say they make this offer every time.

In the USA the black Friday is 80% reduction !! It's a fake black Friday in France

For me, this kind of sales is interesting. We all want to have a product at a low price.
If you're interested to have a good deal, I recommend to you https://www.dealabs.com/ you can see all the reduction every day in France!

Cedric i love your profil picture so much

I agree with you sometimes it could be interesting. Also, i watch every year the sales of the black friday but i never bought something this day.

I think that it depends of the persons. Some people are more likely to buy on this day, even if they buy some things they don't need and yes it's a kind of overconsumption, but we can't prevent people to buy this day, that's everyone's feedrom

I'm looking for a dishwashing machine that is 45cm wide.

I think it's a little bit weird to see product with -80% reduction. I'm scared all those products are things no one want to buy because they are not good quality and brands just want to remove them from their warehouse. They know they can't sell it at a normal price because of their bad quality so they HAVE to break prices (??) in order to get rid of them.

Black Friday (and other sales periods) is just a symbol of the destructing overconsumption model we are in. The worst is we are in an amplifying loop of the process. We buy cheaper and cheaper each time, so regular people (not big companies of course ) can't make a decent living anymore, so they want cheaper goods... you get it
I hope a day will come where this won't be true anymore but sacrifices need to be done.

And more! have you noticed there are sales quite always now? Everything is a pretext for it. I needed a new computer last month and there were discounts because it was Halloween. Halloween!!? How is this possible ? Who lost money here ? Or are the products already at a higher price that they were meant to be ? I don't know what's happening...

Hello everyone,
We know that Black Friday is just a way to consume more and more. To me, it's just like the sales we already have in January or July and I buy on Black Friday only if I see it worth it. For example, when I know I need clothes (like this year), I planned my basket on many websites and will see next Friday if sales are really interesting. If it's not, it's not a problem for me to wait until January. But I understand it could be interesting more about Christmas shopping for gifts and maybe I will check if it will be interesting too for that.

Hello! I join you in the idea that the Black Friday is a marketing action that push the consumption and it's made by the brands especially to liquidate their stocks. I noticed that the last years, brands in France and Tunisia also do a lot of communication above and they even make a whole weekend of promotion or a whole week and it is precisely join the idea to liqquider stocks because I think that the initial idea of ​​black friday was rather real reductions but in one day. But that does'nt prevent that sometimes we can find interesting promotions but it is rare. For me I think I never bought something the day of Black Friday especially but I can do it if there will be real discounts on something that interests me before.

About Black Friday, as many of us in this discussion, I find this too much marketing… Indeed, it’s stressful, because people want to have something, they can buy all the year at cheaper price. So they are on their computer during this period of Black Friday and track all they could nee to buy. Such as, they don’t really know if they will need it…
So at least, with this marketing of “stress”, brands arrive to sell a lot of products even if people don’t really need it, but they are happy to have a very good price.

I personally boycott this day, except if I really need something in this period. But it’s adapt about what I need because I try to buy only what I need. It’s better for planet to buy only what we need and no matter if it’s the last computer, or pull, ….than buying for buying…

Hi,

Yesterday we talked about Black Friday and Miss Amélie told us not to buy anything just because there is a discount!!! Of course she is right because the only purpose of these reductions is to push us to over-consumption. And now I'm really trying not to buy things, and I'm certainly buying less than before ! And it's the same thing about Chrismas !! Sadly, now Chrismas is just the over-consumption...

See you all this afternoon:)

Hi!
As everyone said, Black Friday is just another excuse to push people to buy something more. Sometimes it can be useful if you already need something, for example, a dishwashing machine that is 45cm wide   , but in France, Black Friday is not a Black Friday, we have only -20%, -30% or -40% on some article (sometimes on all articles, so not storage product).

Moreover, in France we have ………. (Drum roll) ……… THE BLACK FRIDAY WEEK !!!
Friday and week at the same time, I don't think it's logical but if the brand says so …

As marketers, we'll have to change that to make sense of this! because today promotions have no meaning, so prices have no meaning, so buying and consumption have no meaning, and in fact, nothing makes sense anymore.

Guys, we need to change this, we need to change the word.

And now, It is Cyber monade, what do you think about it ? It is not Black Friday anymore ... Ahahah marketers are so good. What is the next step? Grey Wednesday ? Let's be creative and guess what marketers are going to find to still make us believe that we are doing a bargain !

Ps : The Back market add for Black Friday was great this year, on TV they said like "Hey, it is Black Friday soon, be ready for it, it will be just like other day on Back market, nothing is happening"
And on their website, a section was "black friday" and if you click on it, you will be in the same page than the other day with an image showing that they are against this special day ! Well done !

Diana Gashi 1 wrote:Hi,

Yesterday we talked about Black Friday and Miss Amélie told us not to buy anything just because there is a discount!!! Of course, she is right because the only purpose of these reductions is to push us to over-consumption.  And now I'm really trying not to buy things, and I'm certainly buying less than before! And it's the same thing about Chrismas !! Sadly, now Chrismas is just the over-consumption...

See you all this afternoon:)

Hi everybody, yes my contribution to black Friday this year was telling everybody not to buy anything, except it was a planned purchase for something you really need. I personally bought a new phone (10% off), because mine is not really working anymore and the battery is inflating which can be dangerous. So it's going to be my Christmas present from my family (come on, I can't afford a phone otherwise).

I was happy to see that more and more brands were developing other kinds of Fridays. Such as the red Friday which was a collect in Paris organized by different association to collect products for periods to donate to homeless women or green Fridays were not sales were made but 20% of the benefits were given to association.

I think Black Friday should not even exist but maybe a charity Friday would be useful, stop spending for yourself, spend for others in need...

I'm sorry guys but I completely disagree with you all

I feel like no one is ever happy. We have the opportunity to buy cheaper products for a few days and people complain. Beyond that, I think it is a marketing strategy that brands must adopt in order to boost their image and assert themselves on the market.
So, indeed, consumption is being pushed to its maximum, but I think we should rather point out the sales now practiced all year round by the stores, rather than 2 small days of reduction once a year.