Black Friday is flooding brands with the wrong customers and we all have the inbox to prove it.

This is what I woke up to this morning.
And it’s the same every morning since the start of November.

An inbox full of countdown timers, “last chances”, Early Access, offers and 20%… 40%… 70% discounts from brands I buy from, brands I signed up for years ago, and brands I’d forgotten existed.

It’s not surprising anymore, because I’ve been waiting for it since summer ended.
And that’s part of the problem.

As a customer, I scroll past most of it until I see the discount that’s big enough.
As someone who works in customer value and loyalty, that worries me.

Because if even I’m waiting for the deal, it means we’ve built a system that rewards waiting, not loyalty.
And here’s the thing, a discount isn’t relevance.
It’s a temporary reason to buy, not a lasting reason to care.

The thing is, this isn’t just about marketing clutter.
It’s about what’s happening inside companies this month.
Entire teams working weekends to push volume.

Discounts approved because we can’t afford it to not get into the Black Friday madness.
Teams that celebrate the short-term spike in revenue, even when we all know it attracts customers who’ll vanish by January.

Black Friday has become a mirror.
It shows which brands have real relationships with their customers… and which ones are renting them for a week.

At 20oneC, we make sure that we deliver real customer value beyond the discount. This starts with being relevant without needing to be cheaper every year. That’s the real loyalty challenge for brands today.

So I’m curious, how is your team handling the Black Friday pressure this year?
And what are you doing to keep long-term value front and centre?