Black Friday mindset madness – Reset!!
Black Friday approaches and I’m filled with dread. I detest the urgency of Black Friday fashion marketing messages designed to make purchasing decisions seem like a now or never opportunity.
These emphatic communications (the imperative of your speedy response or with a clock ticking down) make me anxious and flustered, designed to build feelings of FOMO and drive compulsive consumption. The message is always about price and how quickly you can receive your purchase. Once I look away from such communications and take a breath – I remember thankfully, there are other ways to bring fashion into our lives.
To my mind, shopping and dating have similarities. Both require searching, and are dependent on preferences and decision-making, both have a social and physical dimension and are improved through interactions or ‘getting to know’ each other. Shopping for clothes or love can be done either compulsively or in a considerate thoughtful way…. leaving you feeling either elated and fulfilled or else confused and uncomfortable. And of course, there’s the aesthetics or visual appeal – a double-take and eyes meeting merchandise across the shop floor, but as with dating the encounter will be short-lived if based purely on looks!
Reading Daniel Miller (2001), he asks us to think about the complexities and nuances of our relationships with stuff, to move beyond simplistic view of consumption. For us to really understand both the social and material dimensions of our relations – we need to encourage a respectful encounter with the item. And so, I return to my shopping and dating comparison. To find companions, the people and things we will live well with, we need to get to know them – their story, where they came from, where they feel comfortable and at ease and how they fit in and around our lives.
We must transform Black Friday (and its messaging) with new mindsets on consumption. Cancel the 24 hour panic buying of stuff, replace it with some old fashioned matchmaking, because we should all know what we are getting before we commit!