There's little doubt that Black Friday and its companion, Cyber Monday, are moving from media events to real-time marketing events, with all the required upfront strategizing. There's also little doubt that the recession-induced pressure for marketers to live up to consumers' expectation--and demand--for bigger and better deals has become onerous. Why else would we see so many companies jumping the boundaries of their familiar brand personae to compete with marketers with brands intrinsically linked with yell-a-thons, sell-a-thons or just well-known value equations?
