Ads are forcefully injected into our daily lives, without permission or explicit consent. We didn’t explicitly sign up for them and never agreed to the terms. And yet, we live alongside these glossy pages, commercials, and billboards every day.
They are ubiquitous. Ads are everywhere from our public schools to smartphones. Frankly, it’s easy to get fed up with the onslaught. To crave peace, tranquility, and minimalism is only natural. People are forcibly removing ads from view and saying “enough is enough.”
Marketers have noticed the resistance among consumers. Their old methods don’t seem to work. Print is dying, television is increasingly losing out to on-demand, and people are using ad blockers for the Internet. In response, they’re changing their methods, mediums, and messages. They’ve cleared the drawing board and developed new ways to attract us.
For marketers, the times are a changing. Consumers are living in this strange epoch of technology, social networking, and the “sharing economy.” Growing numbers of people are eschewing ownership, as technology has minimized our book cases and empowered us to pool resources. Selling us products has become a difficult proposition: what will we buy?
Amidst changing demographics, economic interests, and consumer preferences, growing numbers of companies are creating inspirational, aspirational, and ethically driven advertising. They know that if they inspire, touch, and/or move us we’ll share, tweet, fave, and like. The strategy is complex, but if advertisers can appeal to causes you believe in, you’ll be more likely to spread the word. As a bonus, articles and ads that are shared by consumers aren’t tagged with “advertisement” or “sponsored;” instead, they sneak behind the consumer wall and get peers to market to each other.
Even people who believe in anti-consumption, frugality, and simple living are being psychologically duped into sharing advertisements. And we seem to be accepting that our friends’ updates and tweets now include these reminders to buy, buy, buy. We are volitionally advertising to those we love most.
By now you might be looking for some examples. Most recently, REI created a massive social networking ad campaign centered on boycotting Black Friday. USAToday’s Hadley Malcolm wrote, “In an unprecedented move for the modern-day holiday shopping season, REI’s 143 stores will be closed the day after Thanksgiving.” REI even inspired a creative hashtag: #OptOutside. How fun! This outdoor and recreational company’s value driven campaign appeals directly to those who hate the co-opting and consumerism of that day.
Malcolm’s article has been shared over 200,000 on Facebook alone. That’s one article for the company’s decision. Many in the simple living community have written about the decision – highlighting how it meets their values. It’s been shared all over Twitter.
REI is bucking a trend, but it’s not the first company to say they’re not supportive of post-Thanksgiving mass shopping. Last year, Patagonia published ads that said, “Don’t buy this jacket” in regards to Cyber Monday (the week after Thanksgiving). Again, the anti-consumptive ads were shared massively. It was a viral success — just like this year’s ads.
After Patagonia’s advertising campaign, they received huge press attention and their sales skyrocketed. It worked. REI’s advertisements have already worked, too.
They’ll reduce sales for one day: Black Friday. And then, the sales will greatly increase as those remember REI meets their values. To the company, money is money – doesn’t matter if it comes on Friday or next week.
Ultimately, it’s our power not to share. Companies know how to captivate us with their messages – even if they say “Don’t buy me.” We can’t help but respect these values and click tweet. In this economy, we choose what brands, products, and companies win. The responsibility is ours, but we needn’t do the work for them.
I wonder if using their hashtag, especially when this post headline is shared out on social media, kind of goes against the spirit of this post. It keeps it trending, just for different reasons.
Penny, great question! What do you think? Does it take away from my message to use the hashtag? I think this is an important consideration! 🙂
I certainly agree that this is free publicity for them. There are companies who have always closed on holidays (Von Maur is a Midwestern anchor store at some malls, for instance) who don’t do much more than post a sign. So REI is definitely benefitting from being talked about, it would seem.
In terms of your headline, I suppose it depends on whether or not you want people to click on the hashtag. On one hand, seeing your message in the stream of other posts that use the hashtag could be positive in that it would cause people to think. But it could also connect people to more of the advertising that you’re already questioning.
There is no doubt that this is very, very clever marketing. Sadly, in today’s hyper competitive market, almost any press is good press, and they just got their name in front of hundreds of thousands – or perhaps millions, of people, as more of us highlight their tactic. It’s actually a pretty effective way to advertise – like you’ve mentioned, other companies employ this tactic too. It’s unconventional, and people like to talk about those things.
Fortunately for me, this marketing scheme doesn’t really effect my willingness to shop there this holiday season. I plan to make exactly ZERO purchases at REI, and very, very few at other establishments as well.
This is a rare instance where I don’t agree completely (I don’t quite disagree, just have a different take). Patagonia’s campaign last year to me felt disingenuous. *Of course* they want you to buy that jacket! But REI is in the unique position among big retailers, given that they are not publicly traded, to sacrifice some sales on a day that’s seen as a bellweather in order to make a point. So many of us hate the disgusting consumerism that goes along with Black Friday, but our voices don’t matter when other consumers are willing to stand in line on Thanksgiving and give up part of their family holiday to save $20 on a poorly made TV. We are saying “enough is enough,” but aren’t breaking through. A big retailer who is willing to take a stand, however, and willing to actually close and pay their employees while closed, sends a real statement. And I think all of the sharing that people are doing on social media sends a potent signal to other retailers that there’s huge support for tamping back the worst of our nation’s consumerist tendencies. The Targets and Best Buys and Walmarts of the world will never change their ways just because some thoughtful bloggers write lovely pieces about how we should all live with less. But if they see someone like REI make this statement and get a huge PR boost from it (and maybe a sales boost too), then we might actually see others follow suit.
Most of this modern madness began in the USA so I think it’s high time they started something better and this may be a drop in the ocean, but it’s a start!
Europe follows like a sheep, it’s pathetic. Fortunately, Switzerland is a pretty stubborn sheep (and although in central Europe, not a part of Europe politically) and holds to stores closed overnight, on Sundays and holidays – for now. And they close earlier before Sundays and holidays, too (Saturdays 4 or 5 pm).
Smaller stores which are open on Saturdays are closed on Mondays so the staff at least gets a “weekend”. To have a life, you know?! ;o
Yet you just gave the one of the biggest boosts they could receive. It would have been better not to have posted this article..
I’m not sure why you would be against sharing the message if you happen to agree. If people are generally disgusted with Black Friday or simply wish that stores would give workers a break and close for the day so they can enjoy a holiday with their family, supporting a company doing that is each individuals small way of voting with their dollars for a company that better reflects their values.
Adam,
I think you’re touching on one the important issues I have here. What you speak of is consumer led — voting with your dollars. This campaign by REI is corporate led. You’re deciding to share something that will plaster their logo everywhere. My article is meant to capture both the logo and the ridiculousness. Something modeled after the French counterculture movement. They tend to call this flipping of brands and logos detournement. I want consumers, shoppers, humans to be voting with their dollars — absolutely. But why did REI need to create a campaign to make it happen?
Sam
I don’t really follow your logic. How is consumer to vote with their dollars if they companies they purchase from don’t actively promote their values (which is the same thing as their brand). For example, people like Tom’s shoes because they give a free pair to needy kids. Or they like Costco because it pays much more than minimum wage to its employees vs. Wal-Mart. Or McDonalds letting you know it’s using real butter not margarine and requiring their chicken suppliers to not use human-antibiotics to better compete with Chipotle.
If the Company wasn’t actively informing you of that fact, how would consumers be informed enough to make that decision? If REI is doing what it thinks is right (closing stores for a day), why wouldn’t they want their consumer base to know they’re doing it and why they’re doing it? Otherwise you would be more likely to just be irritated when you went by their store in the mall looking for something and it was closed, actually lowering brand equity.
I’m very curious what example you would have of consumers voting positively with their dollars (making purchases) where the company didn’t actively promote or inform the consumer? There’s obvious examples in the other direction, such as Blackfish causing Sea World revenue to drop substantially.
I think it’s a very clever campaign and is perfectly in line with their outdoor brand and it happens to help all of their store employees for a day.
I agree with Adam!
I have to agree with Ome. You just gave them a entire blog post advertisement…..
Stop Sharing …???? And yet… You just did…
I don’t see an issue with a company promoting their values and people who hold the same values sharing them with one another. Maybe I missed the point of the article though?
I’ve been giving this post a lot of thought. I work in retail/grocery, so I’m inclined to see it from the perspective of employer/employee relations. My employer is closed on Thanksgiving day and open (but slow – everyone has leftovers) on Black Friday. I usually work on Black Friday and I wouldn’t go out shopping even if I had the day off. However, I have a lot of empathy for my peers who work on Thanksgiving day and Black Friday, so I was really happy to see that REI would be closed, just as I’m disappointed to see businesses opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving day. I think part of it has to do with the fact that few people really plan a life of working in retail; they fall into it or get stuck there, but with a career in retail comes working evenings, weekends and holidays, and with that a diminished opportunity to spend time with family and friends during the times they are free. So it makes me really happy to see a retailer publicly reducing their hours and getting a positive response, because I hope it might encourage other retailers to do the same, thereby allowing my peers to spend more time with their families. I hadn’t thought about it at all from a marketing perspective until I read this post, which got me thinking about the purposes of “helping” business advertise. Sharing this seems different than, for example, running around decked out in a bunch of obvious Nike gear. It is still advertising, but it feels completely different to me than sharing a post about Target opening earlier on Thanksgiving day.
As an outdoor enthusiast and general rare participant in social media, I regard the REI move as both authentic and genius. You might not understand if you’re not an REI person, but being a member is not just about buying their stuff.
The members overwhelmingly endorse this initiative, and because it’s a co-op, the move is, by definition, authentic.
I am generally a huge skeptic. But in this case, the skepticism is largely the result of lack of awareness.
LOL Not only is one of the ads at the sidebar for REI but your post promotes their ad. If it encourages other companies to act ethically towards their employees I’m okay with it.