Hullut Päivät - Crazy Days

It seems that American marketing techniques have infiltrated Finland.  This week, Finland's largest department store, Stockmann had their "Hullut Päivät" or "Crazy days" store promotions.  And crazy it was, it brought hordes of maniacal shoppers to the stores.  They had massive amounts of signs and promotions to lure in customers in, like pieces of metal being sucked into one giant magnet.  


Since I have lived in Finland, I have not seen many American style marketing tactics being used, with most stores just doing some basic newspaper promotions, etc.  The recent event at Stockmann was like experiencing the day after Thanksgiving's "Black Friday" in America all over again.  The parking lots were full early and the stores were buzzing with energy.  The stores even featured people dressed in costumes and they were having canned conversations with each other to create more fervor.  It went something like this "Hey, did you know about the great deal in electronics", "No, can you show me" and then they would proceed to the electronics department trying to lure more suckers along with them.

The irony of these crazy days is that there aren't really any crazy good sales going on.  They are simply sucking you in and then giving a few good deals, but most of the items are not really at bargain basement prices.  They had many items in bins just outside the store to get your attention and then the shoppers would walk into the store and unload half their wallets.   I never thought the Finns were very good at marketing, but Stockmann has it down to a science.  Finnish businesses should take note, but is this a good thing?  Let me now your opinion on the American marketization of Finnish products.    Who knows before long Black Friday will invade Finland, but I sure hope not anytime soon.