Does anyone else cringe when they hear someone say Cyber Monday? We are hearing "Cyber Monday" tossed around a lot because online shopping traffic spikes today with office workers using their Internet connections at work to whittle down their Holiday shopping lists.
But the name Cyber Monday feels so 1996 to me. Cyber Monday was hip lexicon in the online world eons ago—back when HotBot and Lycos were hip. But HotBot and Lycos have long lost their naming relevance, shouldn't Cyber Monday?
Let's tap into our collective wisdom and come up with a better, more appropriate, and more up-to-date name to signify the first workday online buying opportunity of the Holiday shopping season.
Share your best name(s) to replace the bygone era "Cyber Monday" term in the comments section.
I'm personally commited to "Merry Tossmas"...
Posted by: Pat Nerr | November 26, 2007 at 11:32 AM
How about we toss holiday shopping and replace it with holiday giving!
Posted by: Paula | November 26, 2007 at 12:14 PM
How about Cyberman Day, as everyone seems to be intent on acquiring new, bright, shiny things, usually resulting in bouts of crazed and irrational behaviour?
Posted by: Dr Who | November 26, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Miracle Monday
Mad Monday
Merry Monday
Money Monday
Posted by: Dennis Ray Nestor Jr. | November 26, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Attaboy Dennis ... GREAT WORK! Love the "Merry Monday" and "Money Monday" names. Nice! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 26, 2007 at 01:14 PM
Materialism Monday
E-Day (as opposed to D-Day...)
Buy-a-bunch-of-stuff-online Day
Monday Bloody Monday
Click-till-you-drop Day
E-Judgement Day
Manic Monday
Markdown Monday
Mega Monday
No-Mall Monday
Posted by: Ryan Karpeles | November 26, 2007 at 02:06 PM
Ryan ... I like your "E-Day" angle. Its simple. It evokes e-commerce. Its easy to say. It jibes with other worldly names to describe momentous occasions (D-Day, VJ-Day, etc.)
"E-Day" certainly resonates better to me than does "Cyber Monday." Nice.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 26, 2007 at 02:25 PM
How about "Monday after Thanksgiving" or "Monday". I've always thought those were appropriate. :)
Seriously, though. Since I'm currently lacking creativity (Disclaimer: lack of sleep), I throw my vote in for the e-Day or even e-Monday moniker.
"Cyber" should never be used unless referring to pre-Y2K happenings.
Posted by: Derrich | November 26, 2007 at 03:56 PM
OK OK I think e-whatever went out with CyberCash.
But to the E lovers MerrE Monday!
Posted by: Dennis Ray Nestor Jr. | November 26, 2007 at 04:30 PM
Anybody check out www.cybermonday.com? It's put together by the folks at shop.org, who seem to be the unofficial authority on cyber monday. Most of the retailers represented there are traditionally brick-and-mortar retailers.
John - question for you here, I guess - What does online sales do for these retailers?
Sharper Image - This is a store where you walk in and play with all the gadgets, which you can't do online. They're a relative newcomer to the e-commerce game, and their sales are dismal and stock price has suffered accordingly.
Cabela's is a long time catalog retailer spending gobs of money (often public money and not their own) on each new store they open. They seem to be struggling with their identity as a retailer. Just look at their owned-brand pricing strategy. How does the e-commerce hurt or help them long term?
Circuit City is a distant number two behind Best Buy. Their inventories are noticeably small. The in-store experience is pretty bad - they are short staffed all of the time. Recent remodels have left just one check-out lane in many stores, aside from customer service. What does e-commerce do for them?
Posted by: Matt | November 26, 2007 at 05:09 PM
The-Cerimonial-Kickoff-To-Doing-Less-Of-That-Thing-Called-Work-And-Spending-More-Of-What-I-Don't-Have-So-Come-January-I-Can-Do-More-Of-That-Work-Thing-Again-To-Pay-For-What-I-Didn’t-Have-A-Month-Ago Monday.
(Too Long?)
Posted by: Bill Gammell | November 26, 2007 at 05:15 PM
Matt ... I view online sales for a retailer as a convenience matter. Some people find it more convenient to buy stuff online than in-stores.
Something I say to businesses fits here: BE EVERYWHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT YOU TO BE. If your customers expect to be online selling stuff, then your business should be selling stuff online.
Question for you Matt, does the Cyber Monday name feel out-dated to you?
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 26, 2007 at 06:04 PM
How about 2nd Mortgage Monday
Posted by: Josh C | November 26, 2007 at 07:01 PM
What about "TMonday", or "Money-dot-day", or "Dot-Com-Day".
Oh, I have it, "Money-dot-com-day".
Or we could be hip and say, "Monday-3000".
Or, "suckers-cyber-Monday"
Posted by: Kenyatta | November 26, 2007 at 09:11 PM
Kenyatta ... Dot-Com Day. Brilliant. Perfect. Solved.
Wow. Thanks for the super-simple, yet perfect name change for "Cyber Monday."
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 26, 2007 at 09:33 PM
John - I feel like the party pooper, or at least the Monday morning quarter back, but there's a problem with this valiant exercise -- the current moniker has parallel structure with Black Friday.
Whatever you propose should have Monday in it to book end Black Friday. I suspect another color is out. New Order probably owns Blue Monday, UPS owns brown and Target owns red, right?
And again, not to deflate, but Dot Com is more recent than Cyber...but not by much!
If the Dot Com era added vowels like i or e onto words and Web 2.0 drops the vowels, maybe we just update the spelling to Cybr Monday? OK, that sucks too. But you see where I'm going with this.
Oh and just to complete my negative input, Rosebud was a sled and the Butler did it.
Posted by: Kevin Dugan | November 26, 2007 at 11:03 PM
Kevin ... I hear ya about the "parallel structure" with Black Friday. Dot-Com Day or Dot-Com Monday works for me though.
Cyber Monday is like calling your car a horseless carriage. Besides, Cyber has us thinking more about Cyborgs than online shopping.
Give me Dot-Com Day or Dot-Com Monday anyday over the antiquated Cyber Monday. Syllabic-wise, Dot-Com Day syncs with Black Friday. Errahh!
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 26, 2007 at 11:26 PM
per Seth Godin
"Black Monday"
Posted by: Matt Kern | November 27, 2007 at 02:09 AM
I don't have a problem with cyber monday because, as Kevin pointed out, it works well with Black Friday. As a PR guy, I need to embrace little language nuggets like that. As Kevin points out, the parellel structure works. When pitching stories the week before, it's a logical tie-in.
Also, - and I have ZERO data to back this up - I don't think it's all the Facebookers, YouTubers and MySpacers driving the sales here. Less than 1/4 of the total population is expected to buy online on Cyber Monday (approx 73 mil out of over 300 mil), and I'm willing to bet that the majority of those folks don't subscribe to Wired or check out CNET all that often. Perhaps the internet has different lingo for utility players and heavy users?
Posted by: Matt | November 27, 2007 at 09:24 AM
Question:
Does the name / term "Black Friday" Inspire you to shop? Does it say HUGE SALE Today?
Why do so many people think that "Shop Talk" is appropriate Marketing Copy?
Posted by: Dennis Ray Nestor Jr. | November 27, 2007 at 01:02 PM
Interesting thread. I see other problems with the crazy Cyber Monday talk (though I prefer Dot Com Day). It perpetuates the separation from "in store" and "online."
http://steckel.squarespace.com/steckelblog/2007/11/26/cyber-monday.html
Posted by: Mike Steckel | November 30, 2007 at 05:12 PM