Small Businesses Shying Away From Black Friday Chaos as a Marketing Strategy

While many Americans get fired up about Black Friday as turkey and stuffing are barely making the journey from their stomachs to their large intestines, not everyone is gung ho about the idea of American employees having to work on Thanksgiving night at all. In fact, for many small businesses especially, letting customers know that there won’t be anyone tending the shop on Thanksgiving Thursday, and that the Friday following will have the same business hours as any other Friday has become its own kind of marketing campaign. For those who own companies in industries supported largely by consumers with workers’ rights on their minds, and who operate from the “99 Percenter” mentality, spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that Black Friday is an enemy to American traditions has helped many small businesses do quite well this holiday shopping season.

But how can this be so? Aren’t all consumers completely jacked up on shopping at 3 a.m., getting insane deals on smart TVs, and completely incognizant of the fact that the people manning the retail shops and monster merchandizers are actual humans missing the holiday with their families? No. In fact, the closer and closer Black Friday creeps to the Thanksgiving table, the more and more off-putting it is becoming, even to average, everyday shoppers. And when it comes to small businesses, going against the grain is paying off. Taking advantage of Small Business Saturday, which was originally created and marketed by American Express, thousands of small businesses all over the nation are faring very well this holiday. By putting together marketing plans and campaigns that are geared toward weekend shopping after Thanksgiving rather than blasting retail goods down shoppers’ throats before the champagne buzz has worn off, the little guy is winning big.

The weekend after Thanksgiving last year boasted some record breaking sales for small businesses across a host of sectors, and the reason isn’t just because these companies are shutting down on Turkey Day and having sales the following Saturday. It is because they are taking to social media outlets to spread the word—the word about how they care about their employees, won’t apologize for the inconvenience of being closed, but will happily offer up great deals for patrons willing to wait.

The interesting part is that in many ways, Small Business Saturday doesn’t really belong to American Express anymore, and for the most part, those using the #SmallBusinessSaturday hashtag are not even affiliated with American Express as business owners or as shoppers. Of course, AMEX could not possibly have known when they started the Twitter campaign several years ago that it would go viral in a completely unexpected way. And while it may not mean big business for the credit card company, it has certainly been the cause of a social shopping revolution that has taken hold on Main Street everywhere from rural towns to the most urban hubs.

Social media has surely been revolutionary for marketing for companies of all sizes, no doubt about it. But it has also tremendously leveled the playing field for companies that could otherwise never have competed via television, radio, magazines, or newspaper ads. By utilizing younger people on their marketing teams, getting to know their communities and their niches better, and by understanding that Black Friday really does turn some people’s stomachs, small businesses are proving that caring isn’t just hip—it’s selling goods and services.

Image via: Share This

Small Businesses Shying Away From Black Friday Chaos as a Marketing Strategy