Target Black Friday Ads 2009 : The story behind the leak
The Black Friday Best Buy ad 2009 is in hot demand. What deals are in the ad from Best Buy? Black Friday shoppers are curious as to whether the popular electronics retailer or Walmart has the best deal. We all know that Walmart will not be undersold, but if you are looking for specific types of products, Best Buy may be your best bet. Best Buy is a major electronics chain. They sell TVs, computers, laptops, peripherals, music, movies, appliances, and much, much more. If you are in the market for small consumer electronics, they may be able to offer you a better selection than what is available at Walmart.
According to Tech Banyan, the Best Buy Black Friday ad for 2009 has a few great items. For instance, you can get a Compaq netbook with a 160 GB hard drive for $179.99. If you prefer Apple, check out their deals on MacBooks. Get a MacBook plus a $150 Best Buy card for only $999.
You can also purchase an iPod touch and receive a $30 gift card. A 50″ Samsung 720p HDTV is only $697, about $100 more than Walmart’s 50″ Sanyo deal.
Black-Friday.net also has some leaked Black Friday deals from Best Buy. You can get an AT&T Sony Ericsson W518a phone free with a 2 year contract. You can also get an Insignia 10.0 megapixel digital camera in either pink or blue for $49.99, or you can splurge and get a great Nikon camera for between $179.99 to $499.99.
One thing that Best Buy has that Walmart doesn’t is appliances. You can get a stainless steel electric range for $399.99, or a side by side refrigerator for $599.99.
Now is the time you need to start strategizing your Black Friday approach. First, take a look at all the deals – even at smaller retailers such as Kohl’s, Lowe’s and Home Depot. Figure out what deals you MUST have. This is where you need to go first.
Keep in mind that Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are going to be the three most popular first stops of the Black Friday rush. Plan accordingly. Consider getting to your destination a few hours before the sale begins to get in line. If you’ve never shopped a Black Friday sale, you will be surprised to see that lines can easily wrap around buildings and parking lots can easily fill up FAST.
Where just this past weekend Wal-Mart was brandishing its brace of lawyers at the leak of several movie and videogame prices, Wednesday it OK’d the release of its entire clutch of Black Friday secrets ahead of its own Nov. 23 release date.
Why the change of heart? The move that speaks volumes about a company trying to harness the Internet’s viral power while not tipping its hand too soon.
Over the weekend of Nov. 15, a user on a forum hosted by the website DVDTalk.com posted Black Friday prices for several DVDs, Blu-Rays, and videogames.
Since Wal-Mart had already sent letters this summer warning websites like DVDTalk and others not to publish its Black Friday deals early, what happened next came as no surprise. The company’s lawyers quickly contacted the site’s owners, Internet Brands Inc., and demanded that the post be removed. DVDTalk took the item down.
“We try to be good corporate citizens. While we didn’t editorially post it, we respect everyone in the retail space,” says DVDTalk director Brent Conver.
Then on Tuesday, Wal-Mart confirmed the price of six Black Friday items to CNN. After a user e-mailed him a high-quality copy of Wal-Mart’s Black Friday circular, BlackFriday.info founder Jon Vincent called the company to negotiate its wider release and was allowed to publish the entire flyer to Wednesday.
“I was saying, listen, this thing is all over the place, it’s kind of stupid to not let us post it. They gave us permission,” Mr. Vincent says. “They realized they can’t stop the Internet.”
Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment for this article.
But why admonish DVDTalk and then give BlackFriday the juice? Several reasons, Black Friday analysts say. First, because many Black Friday sites are tiny operations with a small crew or single proprietor, a Wal-Mart lawsuit threat carries a lot of weight. When CNN came calling, the threat of litigation was diminished.
“The difference is Wal-Mart knows they can’t litigate CNN out of existence,” says Michael Brim, founder of BFAds.net.
Further, the many sites pursuing and posting the latest Black Friday deals don’t want to spoil relations with their golden goose, an issue not faced by CNN. BFAds makes a small commission from Wal-Mart for each shopper that passes through its portal en route to a purchase on Wal-Mart’s website.
What could be seen as a corporate giant bowing to the pressure of the savvy Web sleuths might, in fact, be an integral part of Wal-Mart’s marketing strategy. In terms of timing, Vincent says it may have been almost perfectly placed.
“We’re only about a week away from Black Friday so it’s not too far away. People are going to be taking the next week off probably so now is kind of a good time to reach them before they check out,” Vincent says.
Noting that his site’s Black Friday post was Alexa.com’s 7th most popular on the Internet Wednesday afternoon, Wal-Mart’s release certainly generated interest.
“Tons of people are visiting our site and they’re getting tons of exposure,” he says.
By working diligently to keep their ad off the Internet before the right moment, Wal-Mart may have safeguarded its best Black Friday secret: Its deals really might be the best.
“Their ad this year is great. I think it beats all the other Black Friday ads,” Vincent says. “They want all the other ads to leak out and then their ad goes out and they one-up everybody.”
By battling when they need to and then carefully allowing their promotions to slip, Wal-Mart walks a fine line in the holiday market: whetting consumers appetites without sacrificing too much commercial edge.
“They basically want the best of both worlds,” Brim says.
And for now, they’re getting it.
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