I listened to a podcast this morning about the use of mobile by retailers during Black Friday. Apparently some retailers were trying to use mobile to lure away shoppers from other stores while they were out and about.

A lot of really smart marketers on the podcast looked at this in many different ways. The best point was raised by Joseph Jaffe that it is important to look at this from a human experience aspect. That said, here’s my anecdotal typical Thanksgiving and Black Friday experience:

1. Go to Mom’s/Aunt’s/Grandma’s house for a Thanksgiving feast
2. Watch football and drink a “soda” while absorbed in constant smell of turkey, potatoes and pie
3. Flip through newspaper ads looking at how cheap television and tablet prices now are
4. Try to convince yourself you are not one of the crazy people who is going to go shopping in the morning
5. Look through the ads again and wonder how you could afford not be one of those crazy folk
6. Eat lots of food and talk about whether or not we are going to go shopping at midnight or 6 a.m.
7. When finally deciding to go, plot out the course and timeline for where you are going and what you want
8. Set the alarm for an appropriate time, whether it be for 11 at night or four in the morning
9. Wake up, find coffee, race to the mall, grab stuff
10. Recap with the rest of the family members who stayed home what great deals you got
11. Get them all excited and debate going out again once they decide they too want to go out

Looking at that experience, I find it hard to believe a lot marketers could sway consumers with mobile marketing on Black Friday. So much of the planning and debating about where to go shopping happens while family members pass around print ads while the food is cooking and during football commercial breaks.

It should be interesting to see though, if anyone was able to have success with mobile. If you know of any case studies, please share.