Not sure if everyone knows but daraz.pk is originally not a Pakistani company. It is a franchise of an international company but obviously they staff Pakistanis and are located in Clifton, Karachi. So when they offered a black friday sale it offended quite a few people where they objected as to why any friday would be called black.
Reminded me of my course work from masters degree program where examples were quoted saying that when a company decides to go international, they should consider and accommodate local acceptable cultural norms and also use appropriate translation where required.
Some of the comments from their FB promotions
You guys are crazy…black Friday!!! How about a holy Fridays deal. Stop coping the west for once. Oh wait. You forgot Easter sale and Diwali sale
Excuse me!!! Friday is never black this is not we muslims represents and we don’t need these stupid discounts
just for earning you people made Friday, black friday… shame on Daraz Team… You have to respect Muslims… you are working in muslim country and no one has rite to say about JUMMA (Friday) as black friday
…
Is it wrong on daraz.pk’s part to to advertise discounts using the term Black Friday?
I think the people of Pakistan have much more important issues to dwell on and fix. Rather then get their knickers in a twist over "Black Friday" deals and steals on a website that caters to overseas shoppers, how about they try to stop Friday bombings at masjids and imambargahs. Or maybe demand more then 5 collective hours of electricity on Fridays.
The post below is a perfect illustration of an easy, cop out excuse. The day ALL muslims take ownership of this cancer that is obliterating Muslims worldwide is the day we will finally make strides towards eradicating it.
OP, yes, cultural sensibilities should be taken into account in marketing campaigns.
In this case though, I still maintain that its a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. Online shopping, especially the facebook sites that procure American & Western products for Pakistani consumers are so rampant and all the rage these days that I'm certain the very people who are objecting to the term "black friday" are also clammering to take advantage of the sales and get their MAC and Urban Decay cosmetics and Carters babywear from these very sights or overseas relatives.
The above post reminds me of what Independent posted today - perfect response.
OP - I live in the West and for a very long time I did not know that Black Friday is American equivalent of British Boxing day sales. I assumed Black Friday is a day remembering an awful tragedy or something. So it would be quite naive to assume that people living on the other side of earth’s corner would know about this. Try to educate your readers if you can. otherwise ignore them. But whatever you do, please do not rub salt in their wounds by saying go stop bombings in your mosques or imambargh. Pakistan is a major victim of terrorism, and we have lost 60,000 lives, and if ordinary people from Facebook could “stop” terrorism, they would not have even taken a split second to put an end to all this madness.
So please don’t insult any sensitivities. There are far better topics that worth “rubbing it in”.
Local culture is very important in marketing when international business dealing with local people. They may come with better promo ideas like Jumat-ul-Wida in Ramadan, or Eid sales etc.
I think its a strategic mistake by the vendor. They should know better that it wont fit in the culture.
There are many FOBs here who say Aastaghfirullah for first few years when we say black friday. So i can imagine how people in Pakistan would react. Just surprised why the vendor didnt do their homework before kicking in a campaign.
I'll share my personal opinion on this later but for now, need to clarify a few things.
Daraz.pk is a Pakistani domain with the target market of people living in Pakistan not overseas. 93.5% of the site traffic is coming from Pakistan and only 0.5% traffic is from US.
Not the topic of discussion, more like an FYI, this franchise, like many other international franchises doesn't offer any discounts or sales on known products (like MAC or Urban Decay). They take Pakistanis for fools who wouldn't notice when they wipe all their website clean of any known brands during the sales time and put up unknowns products with unknown pricing and 50% off tag.
I'll share my personal opinion on this later but for now, need to clarify a few things.
Daraz.pk is a Pakistani domain with the target market of people living in Pakistan not overseas. 93.5% of the site traffic is coming from Pakistan and only 0.5% traffic is from US.
Not the topic of discussion, more like an FYI, this franchise, like many other international franchises doesn't offer any discounts or sales on known products (like MAC or Urban Decay). They take Pakistanis for fools who wouldn't notice when they wipe all their website clean of any known brands during the sales time and put up unknowns products with unknown pricing and 50% off tag.
Urban Decay frequently runs 20% off sales on their products. MAC doesn't discount you're right but around Black Friday, the holiday sets and and deals and abundant for any and all "branded" top of the line cosmetic company. Sephora also just got done with their Rouge/VIB 20% your entire purchase sale. So while jaldbazi main I through out the first two brands that popped into my head, I'm sure you understand the gist of my post.
And as far as daraz.pk goes, the only experience I have with it is perusing for Pakistani labels and brands on kurtis and suits that are not readily available to people living outside of Pakistan so I have not fully explored it, and obviously don't fully understand the concept. My bad.
It is called Black Friday, coz most retailers go into profit ( from Red to Black ) on that Friday after after thanksgiving. So really, it is a good day. I pity the idiots who think a certain color is bad.
Completely agree, If they want to have a business that is profitable in a country where they chose to operate, learning some basic common sense and doing market research won’t do them any harm.
I can’t believe how some people are dragging terrorism into this. As if it’s something that average Pakistanis are responsible for bringing on themselves.
Let’s just hope nothing ever goes wrong in their safe little bubble so they can carry on belittling everyone else not as fortunate as them.
I think the people of Pakistan have much more important issues to dwell on and fix. Rather then get their knickers in a twist over "Black Friday" deals and steals on a website that caters to overseas shoppers, how about they try to stop Friday bombings at masjids and imambargahs. Or maybe demand more then 5 collective hours of electricity on Fridays.
The post below is a perfect illustration of an easy, cop out excuse. The day ALL muslims take ownership of this cancer that is obliterating Muslims worldwide is the day we will finally make strides towards eradicating it.
OP, yes, cultural sensibilities should be taken into account in marketing campaigns.
In this case though, I still maintain that its a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. Online shopping, especially the facebook sites that procure American & Western products for Pakistani consumers are so rampant and all the rage these days that I'm certain the very people who are objecting to the term "black friday" are also clammering to take advantage of the sales and get their MAC and Urban Decay cosmetics and Carters babywear from these very sights or overseas relatives.
Re electricity, let us not forget the US has the highest carbon footprint per capita. If we account for the fact we 8mpirt most of the manufactured goods, our per capita carbon emissions shoot up even more.
At least the south Asians do not pollute as much as we do.
It is called Black Friday, coz most retailers go into profit ( from Red to Black ) on that Friday after after thanksgiving. So really, it is a good day. I pity the idiots who think a certain color is bad.
