We Got Black Friday’d! What Makers Can Learn From It

Welcome to Make Good Things Happen, a podcast for Makers in Business, presented to
you by Angela D’Alton and Renee Baker.
Welcome to Make Good Things Happen. Season two, episode five. My name is Angela
D’Alton, and joining me, as always, is Renee Baker. How are you? Hey, Renee. So this
episode, we’re going to hit the ground running with our from scroll to cart.
We got Black Friday’d. We did. And for those of you who aren’t familiar with what
that means, allow us to explain. You as a loyal customer may purchase something from
a store that you’ve possibly had your own for a while or you know you’ve been
considering buying. You are a loyal customer, et cetera, et cetera. In the legions
of campaign messaging that you’ve been receiving. You see that this store that you
love that has this thing has announced their big discount for the shopping frenzy
season, etc. You believe it. You see the countdown. You follow all of their
marketing employees work on you. You are there. You go and And by the thing at
probably, let’s say, 20, 25 % off, you are thrilled and looking forward to receiving
that parcel as a faithful e -commerce soldier in the capitalism machine.
But you then discover, and for Renee and I happened on the day that we received
the item, so this is also part of the Black Friday’d fiasco. You receive another
message through whatever means that you also follow that particular retailer on
because for some reason they have our social media eyes as well, that announces a
higher discount. You get a message to tell you that actually there is a much higher
discount and it’s available now and it’s 24 hours and wow, you thought the other
thing was good and And you get that sinking feeling like you’ve been had. I was
going to say out of that week.
changeably because in that whole sales process, you’re just building up to create
trust and build trust and build trust and then you get the trust and then what you
want is the loyalty. But how quickly that loyalty can be lost through these sorts
of measures. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, you and I’ve both worked in retail and
worked for large brands and business and have sort of been there where you’ve had
maybe a sale and then after about three or four weeks, There’s the dregs from the
sale rack that are still sitting there. And then they might throw an extra 10 or
20 % off on those. That’s not what we’re talking about here. This is site wide.
This is brands that weren’t even on sale. This is almost like you say,
having us as a bit of a fool. Yeah, it’s almost like what’s happened with Black
Friday. And there’s been so much news and information about this this week because
of obviously Black Friday having just been, or we’re sort of in the middle of it
right now. We’re in the middle of it at the time of the morning. Black Friday,
Cyber Monday. There’s kind of this talk about how it’s no longer just that long
weekend. It’s almost like the whole month of November and it’s even starting in
October and you kind of don’t really know where it starts and where it ends. And
so there’s this like you said, false sense of urgency. You feel like, well, if I
Don’t go now. I’m going to miss out. The sale’s going to be over. But it’s almost
the reverse. We feel like the longer the campaign goes on. It’s kind of like gets
the sale gets better and better. And so we’re being punished for being straight out
of the gate. It’s weird. I think for me, the sting was super harsh. Like the
timing could not have been worse. I’d been eyeing off. I’m not going to name the
retailer because I don’t really feel like doing that. No. And so I had bought,
let’s just say, I’d bought a diary. I’d waited until the sales to buy this diary.
I’d had my eye on this diary because I knew this retailer also did indulge in
Black Friday sales. It is an Australian -based retailer, but they are online. And as
I received the parcel, and I mean, I’d just signed for it at my door and it came
in this lovely box. I just signed for the or with the Australia Post dude on the
little pad and brought it inside, put the box onto my desk.
My phone received a text message. I opened it up and that retailer was telling me
that there was now 40 % off diaries for the next 24 hours. And I had received,
I think, 20 % off. It was something like that. Anyway, I was like, ouch.
I understand that it’s a tactic that retailers have to use.
or whatever it was, sort of anti -counter messaging to let their loyal customers know
that today is not the day to buy because tomorrow is the day that you’ll get the
bargain. That’s kind of the opposite message that we’re getting when we receive,
oh no, you could have had a better discount today. The other thing that I found
really interesting, the increase in SMS marketing that’s occurred this year in
particular, I’ve been receiving text messages from businesses that I probably haven’t
engaged within, you know, over 10 years. They’ve just got into the depths of the
archives and scraped the databases to get as many mobile phone numbers as possible
and just hope for the best. Because I don’t remember opting into these things. I
don’t remember even, like I said, they’re brands that I haven’t engaged in for quite
some time. So they’ve got my mobile phone number from a purchase or a loyalty
program. I’m fortunate enough to have had the same mobile phone number for, I don’t
know, 20 years, 25 years. So it’s a good bet they’re going to get me and they
did. It’s also a topic that I saw raise further to that because I think as we all
feel like SMS is a little more personal. It’s that, you know, line beyond email.
It’s a little bit more private, a little bit more intimate and a little bit more
personal. And that’s in line with what I saw on the report today that came out,
which I’ll talk about in a future episode that is talking about the importance of
personalisation and intimacy with your customers. And it’s bang on. They’re all
reading the same. They’re already the same emails. Well, and I think that with your
particular Black Friday example, that the sting is heavier because of the personal
text message and the timing, but the text message especially. And I think this is
where if you are thinking about doing this level of marketing, it’s really important.
or something you know like this is also being a topic that we’ve had mentees we’ve
had members of make good things happen ask us about when this does happen not not
to this degree but when it’s just normal full price and then it’s a sale and if
someone did buy the day before how do you handle it and how do you respond to
those customers who might be vocal about it for example there’s no real way to do
it whether you do choose to announce it up front or not. There’s no sort of one
right way. There is option to potentially honour or reward customers who may have
done that purchase in the days leading up. So whether that’s adding a little freebie
or an extra into their purchase and saying, look, I notice you purchase this. We
are on sale now, but I just thought I’d throw this in as a thank you for your
support. There’s, there are ways that you can manage it. It might sound like we’re
anti -sale and we’re not. It’s just about, clearly not. We were both buying in a
sale time and
just it stung both of us. You told me about yours and then I went, oh, guess
what? I just got Black Friday.
While we’re talking about Black Friday, it is expected that $6 .8 billion is going
to be spent over this weekend. And that’s in Australia, I should say,
and that’s a lot of money. Just in case you were wondering, that’s a lot of money.
What was more, I guess, alarming out of the statistics that I’ve been seeing
floating around was the
you’re already across it, duh, but this is a great opportunity for you to think
about buying local and shopping from makers, whether it’s at a market. I know
there’s plenty coming up in the next few weeks across the country, or perhaps
exploring the Australian makers directory. I think there is still time to shop for
Christmas, if that’s what you’re doing. You’ve probably got a couple more weeks, but
just think about how you spend and who you spend with, please. Thank you.
we have a little bit of grew and light to talk about on this episode and we
wanted to have a bit of a quick chat about advertising on Facebook or campaigns
that you’re running on Facebook and how you have to also be aware of the comments
that come with those advertisements gone are the days of us just having ads on TV
and us being passive humours of ads. We’re now very much participating in that
advertisement along with the brand and the business because we have the option to
comment publicly. Therefore, that means as a brand and as an advertiser, you have to
be across what those comments might be so that you ensure that the money you’re
spending on your ad isn’t actually working against you because, of course, not all
comments are positive. I had an example of this happened today because I saw. I
think it was an advertorial or at a partnership campaign that was actually through
Peppermint magazine promoting these awesome new, they’re called Market Day Carts.
It really caught my eye because as someone who’s shopped at farmers markets for
many, many, many, many years and has always really enjoyed walking as much as
possible. It’s kind of like a glow up on a Nana trolley that allows you to
actually more ergonomically use the trolley and also preserve your market haul.
And I saw the Peppermint campaign on, it was actually Facebook. I felt compelled to
comment. I was that, you know, I was that into it. And what happened was I just,
I can’t remember what I wrote. It was just like, oh, this looks awesome, something
like that. But of course, when you comment on something on Facebook, you then get
the notifications of the following comments. And so I then got to see a whole bunch
of other comments that people had left on this particular post. And it was an
interview with the founder of the business. So a very goodwill story called for no
negativity whatsoever, but of course where there is internet, there are people happy
to provide an opinion. I clicked through and had a look and I was just quite
shocked to see quite a few negative comments, in particular around the price of
these carts, which I think, I don’t want to misquote, but I believe they retail for
around 600, 650. The comments were, you know, almost incredulous about how expensive
they were and how could anyone possibly afford these. And it’s just outrageous that
they would even cost that much. And I’m very much paraphrasing, but you get the
idea. But then, of course, the founder, Michelle, actually responded to these
comments. And this is actually something that Angela, you and I talk about is that
we don’t see the proactive response. We often see the advertisement on Facebook and
we might see the negative comments and we sort of think, but we don’t see a
response from the actual founder. In this case, Michelle’s actually responded in a
very, I would say, on -brand friendly and professional way to just explain,
yes, of course, they are retailing at this price. I think she mentions that you can
get a discount if you’re a reader of the pepperman article. With all due respect to
the reader who was complaining about the you know, pointing out the price was high,
it had an offer in the caption to get $100 off. So they went over there probably
knowing that they could get $100 off, but still, you know, that wasn’t enough for
them. Their expectations, when they clicked on the link, they had a price in their
head. Yeah, and that’s a really interesting point. I think we’ll come back to that
because this, this is a larger conversation that we’re using this example to
highlight. But yes, Michelle talks about how they design the cart very specific.
because it’s got a decent -sized basket in the bottom and actually it’s something
that’s really handy when I’m at a farmer’s market because there’s no trolleys. Well,
there’s no trolleys. It’s got a decent size like space where you can put stuff and
it’s usually got fairly hardy wheels on it too plus a pushing handle. It’s a
trolley. It’s not just a shopping trolley that you’re dragging behind you. It’s one
that you’re pushing in front of you. It’s almost like a four -wheel drive shopping
experience. Exactly, but I’m not always going to have a pram. That’s why this caught
my eye as well, because I thought, yes, that’s something that if I don’t have a
pram, and they’ve actually referred to it, like I said, post -pram pre -walker.
Acknowledging the price isn’t the cheapest on the market, but adds some friendly
commentary around who it might be for and that customers have been really into it.
But what I found really interesting about this interaction, this whole interaction is
that these people that are making these comments, I don’t think personally are ever
going to be one over. I don’t think that these negative comments who are saying
this is out of touch, they’re never going to be one over. But I think what’s
really important for Michelle and anyone who is in a similar situation like this to
remember is that these aren’t your target market. These aren’t the people that you’re
trying to convince. But who you are trying to convince is me, who I’ve already had
my interest piqued because I was the one that went, yes, this is something that I
could.
responding in a professional way. And I mean, we have a whole episode, a podcast
episode if you want to go back into, I believe it’s in season one about feedback,
but why feedback is so important because you can actually use this season. It’s this
season. Roll through, you’ll see it. It’s in the title. But you can actually use
these as further sales opportunities. And so yes, this ad might have negative
comments on it. But what you can do is actually use them to further cement and
further highlight your brand values. So I just wanted to use that because I just
thought it was a really interesting example. It is an interesting example and I
think there was another part of it that I found really interesting in the message
that Michelle wrote, which was she actually almost named her target market towards
the end of the message. She actually used as part of her messaging. She used
examples of people who she reckons are going to buy it. Almost purposefully
highlighting, this isn’t for you. What I really like about that messaging is it’s
not rude, it’s not nasty, but it is assertive. It is saying we’ve done our
research, we have a target market in mind. We feel confident that they’re going to
buy this product And that’s who this is for. You meant, you know,
we talked about the pricing before and even if you’re not at that stage in business
where you’re advertising on Facebook yet, but perhaps this might relate to you if
you have a price point that you feel maybe uncomfortable with. Sometimes I know when
I speak to makers, they feel uncomfortable having prices that they feel subjectively
is too high. Like you’ve said, you have to always come back to who it is that
you’re actually selling for. And it’s not your job as a maker and as a business
owner to make your product affordable for everyone. It’s your job to create something
that feels a need for your target market. And it’s their choice and it’s their job
to decide whether that’s within their means and within their budget. Yes, I know it
can feel uncomfortable putting a price on something, but you have to remember that
it’s okay to assert the value and to be okay with charging what it’s worth.
A super quick making news segment this week. There’s been some sad news that has
come about recently in the change that I guess began with Etsy deciding they weren’t
going to support teams anymore. We saw in Australia and I had quite a strong
affiliation with a lot of Etsy teams because that was one of my responsibilities
when I was working at Etsy is to educate sellers and seeing the decline of those
teams has been kind of sad. It would be heartbreaking for the volunteers that have
been maintaining those community groups for quite some time off the back of Etsy
sort of deciding that they didn’t want to do that teams thing anymore. Many
Australian teams turned those community groups into not -for -profits, volunteer -run
organisations that hosted markets and events and workshops and training and all sorts
of amazing things to support one another. And unfortunately, Sydney Made is the
latest victim of the decline in the support for organisations like that.
And we’re really sorry to hear that. And we just wanted to send our love to our
friends at Sydney Made. We’ve worked with Sydney Made many times. The highlight of
our time working with them would have been when we did the social media for them.
I think it was the 2019 market at Town Hall just before the shit hit the fan.
I know. But it was good. So just wanted to send a shout out to them and just
send our thanks for all of the hard work that you did do because it did make a
difference. And I hope all of you find fulfillment through your own businesses and
moving forwards that you continue towards success. In some more uplifting news,
we did see that Claire Cassidy of Studio Floss is doing the festive window of
object store at the Australian Design Centre who are also.
seeing some challenges with their funding from the government, but the New South
Wales government, but it looks like they’re still keeping the festive spirit alive
with this window display, which is really good to see. So if you’re in Sydney and
you have a chance to check that out, make sure you do so. So that’s open from the
27th of November and be sure to check that out. It looks fantastic. PayPal Melbourne
Fashion Festival is celebrating 30 years in 26. they have this
are dopamine dresses. The designer lineup includes Romance was born, Perks and Mini,
Laolin, Gary Begaini. It’s going to be amazing. Tickets are on sale and they’re
selling fast. But that event happens on Monday the 23rd of February at PayPal
Melbourne Fashion Festival. So that would be something that I reckon I would be
wanting to get along to. Check it out. And in further fashion News. We also saw
Becky Orpin this week has just revealed their
to create your own t -shirt, I believe, and print it off. So it sounds like a bit
of a cool, playful concept that would be right up Becky’s alley as well. There’s
some really cute illustrations that have been inspired by Melbourne, which I think is
very synonymous with Becky’s style. Yeah, I just wanted to give Becky a shout out
for that because I think that must be a big deal. The last thing that I just
wanted to quickly throw in to the news is that The 17th version of the Graphic
Artist Guild Handbook has recently been published. This is a book that came to my
attention as a result of working as an agent back when I worked for illustration,
the UK -based illustration agency. It remains one of the most helpful books to have
if especially you have trouble with pricing and other guidelines as a graphic artist
or as someone who is being commissioned to do any kind of commercial artwork. A
caveat, the prices of the guidelines are usually not in Australian dollars. I don’t
know if they are now, but they aren’t usually in versions that I’ve seen. However,
it does give you some guidelines. It does give you scale. It does give you an
understanding of how licensing works and how usage works and what your rights are to
a degree. It’s just a very, very helpful book to have if you are going to be
taking yourself seriously as a commercial artist. It helps with digital work, film,
you know, murals, all kinds of things, labels, book illustrations. It’s got a lot of
different tiers of pricing guidelines. So I can thoroughly recommend that to you if
you’re thinking of becoming a pro.
This week, I, again, I’m late to the game.
a very difficult scenario. And the characters are really rich and they’ve all got
these, you know, difficult to navigate stories that have been happening in their
lives. The acting is slightly hammy in the way that a lot of British shows can be
for me. And I say that because I think so much of the acting in the UK is taught
to stage as opposed to film and I think that often some actors unintentionally
overact in film and television if they’re not as familiar with that medium. That’s
just my observation. The reason I wanted to talk about it is I would recommend
watching it. It’s a little bit full on. It is a crime scenario. He starts working
on a cold case which is a little bit disturbing. However,
the colourist or the film colourist or the digital colourist I haven’t checked who
it is yet. I don’t look at things until I’ve finished the whole series has done
such an amazing job. There’s just these beautiful dual tones in every single scene
and contrasting with one another. And it’s the most unintentionally enjoyable part of
the show. Like I didn’t expect to enjoy this visually in a kind of a way that
looks like they’ve chosen the clothing and the background and the carpet. It looks
intentional to me at least, and I imagine it would be. It’s kind of an unexpected
consequence of watching this show has been appreciating the way it’s being coloured.
This week I have nothing, but I do want to watch. Is Deadlock out yet, the season
two? I don’t believe that’s coming out until next year. I feel like everything I
want to watch is being advertised for next year. It’s trying to hook me through.
Thank you for listening to another episode of Make Good Things Happen, the podcast.
We hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to like, subscribe, leave us a
review, share with a friend. All of it helps so much. We love to hear when we
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better when you listen to it. So thank you. Thanks. Bye.

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