Little Brands Look for Big Returns on Small Business Saturday
Black Friday started in the 60′s…
2005 welcomed Cyber Monday…
And now, we’re being asked to include the second annual Small Business Saturday into our Thanksgiving weekend shopping extravaganzas.
But why introduce another shopping day? Well, Small Business Saturday isn’t centered around 3 a.m. cattle calls, giveaways, slashed prices and free online shipping. Nope. Small Business Saturday is positioned as a day dedicated to supporting local businesses… the challengers we know and treasure, all while boosting the economy and our local communities. Feels good, right?
Well that’s what American Express is hoping. AMEX launched a multi-channel, multi-million (or so I’m assuming) dollar campaign and teamed up with Facebook, Google and Twitter to provide their cardholders with a toolkit they can use to affiliate themselves with, and self-promote the event. And with nearly 2.4 million “likes” on Facebook and hashtag conversations running wild on Twitter, it seems to be catching steam. Now obviously this isn’t a totally selfless gesture, American Express stands to increase revenue in terms of promoting business owners that carry American Express Open credit cards, and incentivizing AMEX cardholders (with a $25 statement credit) to use their cards to make purchases during the event. They also stand to gain new cardmembers — small business owners looking for support wherever they can get it; and consumers believing in the cause and a company willing to back it. From a marketing standpoint, it seems to be a win-win.
So, in the end will Small Business Saturday be able to stand up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Maybe not.
But if you should feel compelled to support local businesses, this Saturday seems like a great time to start.
And with all this talk about labeled shopping days, I came up with my own idea — Stiletto Sunday. We can shop ’til we drop in our patent leather bodysuits and sky-high stilettos. Ahhh, maybe next year…
Happy shopping!
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