Survey Says Black Friday Shopping Is Hyped

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Friday, November 23, 2018 - 5:05am

Black Friday is finally here and if you’ve decided to lay low and say “no” to doorbuster sales, you are not alone. Surveys say the hype around Black Friday is mostly that: hype. At least that's what Adam Pierno says. He is the Chief Strategy Officer at Sanity, an advertising agency based in Scottsdale.

“I thought, oh Black Friday, there’s always a line, and there’s a crowd, and I wouldn’t go because I don’t want to deal with the crowd, but to see a number of almost 70 percent of people saying they’ve never done that popped off the page to me,” Pierno said.

Sanity surveyed clients to see if Black Friday is as big of a deal as advertisements would lead the public to believe. Surprisingly, more than half of survey respondents said they don’t plan on doing any shopping on Black Friday and 68 percent have never attended a door buster.

“So we want to understand what’s motivating people to shop and when I see a number like 68 percent of people have never done a doorbuster, it tells me it’s inflated and probably the reliance on those supersales of any kind are over-inflated. We see that (with) our retail clients. A more controlled message where you are explaining a real true value and a real true benefit to the shopper is going to go much further than a 99 percent off sticker,” he said.

Now, his agency is going through the data to see who does and who does not respond to Black Friday advertising.

“There’s a huge significance if you are a retailer to understand what motivates people and what doesn’t. We’ve put so much emphasis on the idea of a sale. As a consumer, I have the impression of Black Friday being a shopping holiday."

Pierno said surveys are done regularly by advertising agencies in order to understand consumer behavior.

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