Cyber Monday
November 26th, 2007 by Chris Lucas“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” - Verbal Kint, Usual Suspects.
The exact opposite statement can be made about the National Retail Federation and Cyber Monday - The greatest trick the National Retail Federation ever pulled was convincing the world Cyber Monday did exist.
By all accounts the Monday after Black Friday is not the busiest online shopping day of the year, last year it was Dec 13 (the last day for shipments to arrive in time for Christmas), when sales neared $667 million. But we have bought into this mythical day, even so much as NPR had a report about it this morning. Why? The term was first coined in 2005 by Shop.org who saw a spike in online sales on the Monday following Black Friday. Seeing a need to capitalize on that spike they decide to brand the day and create a national awareness around an otherwise normal day.
This is a great lesson in marketing, how to take a slight truth (growth of online sales) and turn it into a national phenomenon by good branding, and good messaging.
It truly was a great trick and now millions of people are online, in their cubicles hunting for the best online deals instead of working, because, well, that’s what you do on Cyber Monday.
