Cyber Monday Nonsense…
This whole ‘Cyber Monday’ thing hot on the heels of ‘Black Friday’ just shows us how far we haven’t come in looking after our customers.
Not content on over-eating we now seem to think that over-buying is the way to go….and the worst of it is , the retailers are fueling this trend.
Does it not make you feel that for the previous 364 days of the year the retailers have been holding out on you? How come items can be so drastically reduced for one day ( or now a weekend) unless they have been over priced originally?
Call me a terrible cynic but these two days in our calendar do as much to undermine confidence and breed distrust as anything else in commerce. We love to harangue the banks for their behavior but they are nothing compared to the brazen contempt shown by the mainstream retailers. Talk about inviting abuse! We dutifully line up each year to be fed the scraps from the big table and leave thinking we have got one over the stores….duh!
There is a movement in 65 countries specially created for this day, it is called ‘Buy Nothing Day’ and tries to redress the balance and restore some sanity to the mayhem. Unfortunately human nature is skewed towards gaining advantage so there is no limit to the machinations which will be accepted when justifying ‘getting a bargain’.
The frustrating thing here is that almost all of these companies are spending millions of dollars trying to ‘engage’ with customers throughout the year and yet they throw all the work away by practically giving their merchandise away over a few days.
Why should I spend time developing a relationship with a company which does not, in reality,care about my loyalty?
This year the average spend by American citizens is down about $25 per head, so clearly the root of success is money not engagement leading to long term loyalty. The current economic situation is blamed for the downfall but surely last year the economic situation was worse.
As long as we are fed from the trough of ‘cost not value’ we will be stuck in this unfulfilling world of transient attention from retailers.
In my world of content marketing the past few days does nothing but underline just how much work there is to do before ‘Cyber Monday’ and ‘Black Friday’ are no longer needed. I would rather see small spending on a regular basis throughout the year than one grand gesture initiated by the desperation of the retailers.
Video and blogging is a great way to start the process of strengthening your business and developing long term customers.
Remember, if you sell by cost you will lose because someone will always be prepared to sell for less than you.
If you sell by value you will always have a good chance to secure business , not just once but on a repeat basis.
see you on the long and winding road…… Patrick