Black Friday 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 ...
Thomas Jackermeier
Member
After reading all the feedback about our Black Friday 2019 offers, I thought about what could explain the negativity of some posts.
In the lead-up to the holiday season, and we all make wish lists, and if we don't get what we want, it can be disappointing. I think many of us know that feeling if you look under the Christmas tree and the thing you dreamed about is not there. Perhaps this is a similar situation.
What did we do differently compared to recent years? Not much. We always offered just a few products with a decent discount and even announced limited editions (Formula 2018) or new products (McLaren). We don’t encourage customers to wait for Black Friday because we prefer continuous sales and not big peaks.
Where we clearly failed was to manage expectations. And this is the reason for this post; I want to manage the expectations for future Black Fridays.
Future sales will be based on these basic rules:
- Fanatec usually does not run sales or special prices throughout the year. There is one day per year when we sell products at a discount, and this is Black Friday.
- There will be only one or two products (bundles or individual products) on discount. There will never be a general discount of X% on all products or free shipping. This would just accumulate most sales to this one day and create massive handling and logistic problems.
- The discounted products will be popular sellers, but unlikely to be newly launched products or products we’ve had on sale before.
- The discount will be significant and in the range of 20% to 30%.
- On top of the discounted products, we might sell a limited edition with special colours or better materials like the Shifter with Carbon Fibre knobs this year which als has a price advantage of about 30%.
- We might also use Black Friday to launch a new product without discount.
This is how we did it in the past and this is how we want to do it in the future.
Fanatec products usually have a very long life cycle; products like the BMW steering wheel have remained in our portfolio for over eight years. The prices on our products usually only go up over time (due to manufacturing costs and inflation), which means strong used value too. We are not fans of stimulating sales with discounts and we prefer to convince customers with quality, features, functionality, and a strong price-performance ratio. Our general pricing already represents good value due to the fact that we sell directly from our own website instead of retail.
I don't believe in cheap. I believe in value. The craziness around Black Friday does not change our principles.
And please don't get hyped nor disappointed. Buy the things you really enjoy and nothing more.
Comments
Hello Thomas,
Thank you for the clarification from your end. Before I want to comment on it, first a small intro.
I was/am looking for a DD wheel. I have been using my CSL Elite PS4 for 1.5 years now, and am looking to upgrade. So, I waited for Black Friday to see what kind of offers came up. No DD, so a bit disappointed, but nothing more. I'll survive ;-)
Now, to one of your remarks that triggered me. The discount range of 20% - 30%. This is what triggered a lot of people, and let me give an example.
I have bought my CSL Elite for PS4 in a bundle, including the normal pedals. This bundle was 520 euro back then. I added the LC pedals for, I believe, 130 euro later on. Fine, this was 1,5 years ago, but the CSL Elite bundle (without the LC) was available far longer. It has been removed from the shop in the last few months (if I'm not mistaken). This means that the set you now have on offer for 699, used to be 650 without being on offer.
Yes, prices have been changed/increased during the last year as you also state in your post, but due to the fact that the original bundle was removed, and the prices for the single products have increased, this doesn't 'feel' like a 20 or even 30% discount.
With kind regards.
Hello Thomas,
Your principle to believe in value, not in cheap, is 100% shareable. And indeed the base for strong marketing policy.
Just a simple point: Black Friday is meant to make BOTH buyers happy and sellers happy.
Companies may reach their happiness in many ways: basically with profit, or attracting new buyers, or to build customers loyalty. Reading at the many disappointed people out there, it really seems like Fanatec failed these last two missions.
If as you said, you don't want to encourage buyers to wait for Black Friday, then just don't do Black Friday at all. But if you do BF, do it in a way to make buyers happy. I'm not here to suggest how, I guess Fanatec has a Marketing Department - they failed this year, but they could do better the next ones.
Last: not finding what you wish under the Christmas tree is indeed disappointing: but finding only a few peanuts in a well decorated and promising box is definitively worse.
I'm pleased to see you admit fault with managing expectations, but I would like to ask you something Thomas.
I mentioned on the other post a few times my disappointment in the lack of entry level bundle purely focused on PC. Again, there seems to be extra costs with security chips for consoles which could make for a significant saving for someone only using a PC. Even if there was the option to buy the PS4 CSL Elite steering wheel for €100 alone that would be helpful.
Is Fanatec considering an option like this in the future? Would it be possible to contact the sales team and make an arrangement to do something like this for me? Right now the difference in price would be the difference in being able to stay within budget to make a purchase, and if there is anyone else I could discuss this with I'd be really grateful if you could direct me towards them.
Thank you.
Hey Thomas,
I think your justification here is perfectly valid. Discounting causes supply chain and fulfilment issues for smaller companies like Fanatec (been there!) so it's completely understandable to limit that to small product sets. Personally, I was hoping for a discount on the CSL Elite for PS4 like last year, but I'll be buying it at full price now and will be happy to do so (along with those sweet V3 pedals that are on special ;-) ).
Strive for quality and consistency, and demonstrate that in your company actions and ethos.
I think this is sensible. :-)
it's pretty crazy that you got so much negative feedback that you felt like you had to justify your methodology. i personally think your products are fantastic and well worth the regular asking price. to date i think the only thing ive bought on a black friday sale is the 2018 F1 rim, but always check in to see if i can find a cheeky deal or new product that i wasn't expecting to pick up.
cheers!
Hi Thomas,
my expectations were made by previous Black Fridays from Fanatec in the past and I ( maybe others as well) expected similar discounts as it were before. Don't get me wrong, but introduce new items is nice (new podium porsche 911 looks amazing), but during Black Friday discount is the main thing we are praying for.
So who created expectactions for BF 2019?We or Fanatec? We all shoud know that it is not possible to please everyone, but one or two (random) products per BF with this discount(not few %) and most of us will be satified. Otherwise I think it is better to stop BF next year.
Totally agree with you Milan.
I think we all know about the good quality and the professionality about Fanatec Gear.
That is the reason why we are all here.
You are talking about "The discount will be significant and in the range of 20% to 30%."
Please correct me if i am wrong, the offer #1 CSL Elite Pro Kit costs. 699,95 €. (BF)
Without any discount we are talking about 729,85 €
I have got a good job and a lovely family and i am not able to pay 2.000 € for racing equipment,
thats the reason why i was waiting for month for Black friday.
i was hoping to find a discount on Fanatec Starter gear. I am not disappointed, i think it is a great pity.
regards,
Maik
Exactly this! See you next year Black Friday Fanatec! Keeping my €€ in my pocket for this year.
Thank you. You put words on feelings. I think the current offer on the csl pack with. 30€ discount) is more a joke than a deal
Hello Thomas,
We all know your good quality and fiability of your sim that why we are here.
As many people said on the social network the deal of this year of 30€ looks like a joke.
We all expected something like the past years and you said you want to do it like the past years too. But there nothing similar to it !
I Still hope you will do a real Black Friday for this year !
Thanks for you answer !
Hello Thomas,
Please reconsider I waited for 3 months so I could rip you off on Black Friday with my order. Please offer the cls base at 75.245% off with the BMW rim at 31% discount and just the load cell brake at 54% off because I already have the elite pedals, just need the load cell and make it so if you buy 3 items you get the side brackets for a penny. If you did this I would be willing to buy now!
You idiots that are requesting real specific items be discounted because it falls into what you need are really insane!
Biggest thing I was hoping for was the Universal Hub in an offer when configured with any rim.
Since I am looking to buy universal hub with the Porsche Cup rim
I am a new registered user here because i want to purchase yr bundle F1 set that would be my very first Fanatec gear and this despite that I am living hard times but currently, the thing + shipping is +700€ I never spent that much for a wheel or game gear.... I hoped your bundle price would decrease on black friday. In addition I sent you email you don't bother to reply. Why ? Did my email reach you ? I know you changed site but does your form work??? or what is your email contact ??? Can't you do special offer for newcomers or make a price for this bundle, like you did last year, thinking to the huge success of F1 2019 game ?
Most of these complaints are ridiculous and reek of self-entitlement. How is it Fanatec or Thomas fault that you guys cannot afford their gear? So Fanatec should deeply discount things just so you can afford to buy exactly what you want? I'm sorry, but I genuinely don't understand why people feel they are owed things like this. So what if they had bigger sales in the past years? That doesn't mean they are obligated to do the same thing every season. The fact that Thomas even had to apologize for "setting expectations" is absurd IMO. I understand being disappointed. Sure, I was bummed that some of the things I wanted were not on sale on Black Friday but that's all it was....disappointing....I didn't need a therapy session to be able to deal with the massive disappointment. So I pay full price if I want one of those items. That's life.
The way I look at it, Fanatec are doing a good thing by offering ANYTHING on Black Friday. They don't need to discount any of their gear to sell it and so they don't normally do so. I've purchased almost all of my Fanatec gear (over $2k worth by now, probably) at their retail non-sale prices. I love to get a sale when I can, but I am not going to complain to Fanatec when I don't. Sorry to be harsh, but I just do not understand this self-entitled mentality I see so often online these days. It's embarrassing.
Exactly !
He is totally outside the track when he try to convince himself that they did the same kind of black friday this year like other past years.
One of the things I find so disturbing about the whole 'Black Friday' concept is that, thanks to some American maketing person's idea concocted a few years ago (and probably just to shift outdated or surplus stock), everyone now seems to think that all consumer and electronics companies are utterly obliged to offer masssive discounts on all their products for this one 'event'.
Even the most basic form of logic would tell you this would be financial suicide for many companies, as people would only buy their products one day a year while their profit margins are slashed. That means they'd soon be out of business, or have to put off staff and overwork those who remained. And they'd never have money to develop new products, etc, etc.
Oh, but I forgot... "I can't afford it, but I want it NOW. And if I can't, it's your fault." 🤮
One thing I forgot to mention in my post is that we might give some higher discounts on items which are discontinued (Like the CSL Elite bundle) or where have temporary overstock (like the ClubSport inverted). Both were popular products but there was a specific reason to give a greater discount. I will certainly not promise if that will ever happen again as we are trying to avoid those situations.
I would like to thank Fanatec for the products that they make and also thank Thomas for being someone who cares enough to directly follow, respond and be involved in a forum like this. I can't think of another company where this actually happens. It's obvious that the team at Fanatec love what they do, as it translates into the quality of products they continue to produce.
I've been following and purchasing Fanatec products for over 7 years and I am amazed at how far they have come (licensed by F1 now) and so excited about where they are going.
To the Fanatec team.... Thank You. Great job. Can't wait to see what comes next.
Thank you very much :)
I can't wait to show what comes next as well ;)
Dear Thomas,
in spite of my previous comment on the former post in which I stated that this blackfriday sale is joke and that a bigger sale on the CSL ELITE boudle would be nice, I would like to thank you and the Fanatec team for the great discount on the fanatec Clubsport pedals v3. I think that 70% of the negative comments on this years blackfriday are because people want to enter the Fanatec ecosystem, but they dont want to spend thousands of dollars, which in my opinion is completely understandable. I am coming from the Thrustmaster ecosystem so a 20% discount on the CSL elite pro kit would have had me buy it instantaneously. Personally, this blackfriday, I will purchase a CSL elite together with a set of clubsport pedals. Anyway... thanks again for at least offering some deals this blackfriday!
Best regards,
Costin!
I'd second this. My experience is slightly different in that I got into sim racing less than a year ago so I'm not so familiar with the journey but it is really clear that Fanatec really are sim racing fanatics. 😚 I've already committed to the ecosystem (DD was ordered yesterday and is arriving tomorrow - great service, new Porsche endurance is ordered too) as I would much rather deal with these sort of people than boring business men - Thomas, you don't seem boring! 😊
I think managing expectations is important and Thomas has wisely done this above - thank you.
I can't wait to see what comes next too. Feel free to tease us with these new product hints - I'm really curious to see the trajectory you are heading in. I want a rally focussed wheel as I'm really loving Dirt 2.0 at the moment.
Hello Thomas,
After much deliberation, I will give my order tomorrow. Because I am convinced of the quality of your products. However, I am very disappointed that I waited until Black Friday. Because I hoped to get the whole thing with a small "deal". Now I get the CSW 2.5, two wheels and the magnetic pedals at the regular price, and a shifter in a color that does not match my black rig, but hey, with a carbon knob! Not bad either!
I can understand the people who were hoping for a little bit more "deal" and are now disappointed. Then I prefer to do without the BF in the coming year, because with this marketing Fanatec has lost in many people in reputation.
Thank you, agree 100%
finally somone that makes sense
Hello Thomas, yeah, I get the steady sales throughout the year. I've bought the ClubSport pedals V3 and the Brake Performance Kit on 3rd November. This discount is a tough pill to swallow for me right now.
I know I'm on the other side of the matter than others.
Anyway, good luck.
Z.
I was more interested in potential new products than discounts. I think that the delays on the DD bases, followed by the development cycle on the Porsche wheel, have had an impact on the product pipeline. There are parts of my setup that could definitely go for an upgrade, that just aren't offered even at full price.
I placed an order at 1am Mountain Standard Time for the Black Friday special on the pedals, and noticed when my order was actually placed that I did not receive the discounted Black Friday price. Please update the price to the $299 price indicated on your Black Friday special on order #101019850 immediately, as you indicated to message here if there was an issue with my order due to your site having technical issues. If I'm unable to get the discounted price, please cancel my order immediately. Thank you