1. Black Friday
Influence: Influence
Consumer Behavior
Why is it called Black Friday? According to wikipedia:
The day’s name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to
describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle trafficwhich would occur
on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see
broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation
began to be offered: that “Black Friday” indicates the period during which
retailers are turning a profit, or “in the black.”
Most online retailers can attest to the value of being able to influence your buying
decisions. Back in the 90′s as Wal-Mart was just taking off, this behemoth of
modern retail would cut their prices below any competitor, just to get you in the
door. And it worked. Now however, the price of delivering goods to a retailer is
relatively fixed; the Wal-Mart strategy is gone, never to return. Furthermore,
today’s consumers are much more savvy than in years past. With the rise of digital
and then social media, the most refined knowledge remains at the fingertips of any
who desire it.
The question becomes, how to you create lasting Influence? Businesses certainly
want to influence consumer behavior and as design would have it, they have a new
medium into consciousness of the consumer. Through the hugely small, fully

2. ambiguous role of ‘Social Media’ organizations posses the ability to deliver
coupons and incentives to get people to buy where they shop the most; online. This
takes the window shopping experience epitomized by generations earlier and
places it squarely in the chair in which I sit. Where’s the influence though?
This is the real struggle, because as Jim Weldon points out in his Competitive
Intelligence article, without key knowledge of who your competitors are, you are
automatically reduced to “guess-marketing”. No one likes to guess and just
because everyone else does it, doesn’t mean we should continue in a very
low success rate strategy. The question remains however, how can you create
influence among your customers? The key here isn’t revealed in technology,
gadgetry, widgets or even search engine manipulation. The facts are, you need to
give them something they didn’t have before. A reason to buy from you. Most
people are afraid to believe that there is a value simply in that. In my experience,
it’s easy to get hung up on speeds and feeds, but customers only every really care
about value. So, how do you create influence? Simple, create value. And no, not
everyone can do that. Once you’ve arrived at the true value, which is features +
benefits + {reason to buy from you} the natural result is real value. I humbly
submit, consumers, whether companies or people, cannot get that anywhere. Make
that the difference you make today!
Posted in: Influencer Marketing