Black Friday is coming! Get your brands front and centre

Retailers are gearing up for what is arguably the biggest retail sales day of the year, Black Friday, on the 24^th November. What can brands do to win their share of mind amongst consumers? Marc du Plessis, Joint CEO of SPARK Media advises.

Traditionally an American shopping holiday, Black Friday has grown in popularity amongst South African shoppers over the past few years. 2017 is forecast to be as frenzied as ever, with retailers slashing prices by 50% to 80% off usual prices. With the current state of our economy, we’re anticipating that this year participation in Black Friday shopping will be even bigger than 2016 as shoppers gear up to buy as many products as possible at the lowest prices.

Consumers will be on the look-out for the best deals ahead of Black Friday, scouring the internet and media in the weeks preceding this massive sales day. It’s imperative that your brand is front and centre amongst the consideration set. Last year, SPARK Media’s Retail Advertising Network (which comprises a variety of high traffic websites used to showcase catalogues online, including Guzzle and over 70 Caxton-Owned Local News Websites) achieved 580 000 page views two days before Black Friday, 870 000 the day before and over 1.3 million page views on the day.

Evidence-based marketing principles from EBI (Ehrenberg Bass Institute) state that as consumers, we buy brands that we ‘know of’ and ‘think well of’. Brands that occupy a large ‘share’ of our minds are easily thought of in buying situations, and are the most likely to be bought. Marketing efforts need to build this ‘mental availability’ through mass reach advertising and communication.

EBI also supports the principle that mass reach is far better than niched reach, a principle that we wholeheartedly agree with. Through our local community newspapers, reaching 3.4 million households per week, coupled with our collection of digital platforms visited by millions more, we’re in a fortunate position to offer advertisers mass reach into hyper local markets,  delivering advertising and lifestyle communication that is highly relevant to our readers.

So, how can retailers effectively tap into the Black Friday buying frenzy and get the edge against competing brands? Quite simply, by adopting a marketing strategy that makes them the most visible to the most people.