Major shopping occasions: winning with identity, not discounts.
When the entire industry competes on price, having a properly standardized campaign visual system is what helps you be remembered, not just chosen for being cheaper.
Major shopping occasions like Valentine's Day, Black Friday, or year-end holidays are when all competitors lower their prices and use red. Therefore, distinctive identity is more important than just deeper discounts. A reasonable approach is to create a core campaign visual system for each occasion, then quickly replicate it across multiple platforms, channels, and touchpoints using an adaptive set of rules, rather than letting each channel create its own. You should prepare early enough to produce sufficient variations. Maintaining identity assets across occasions will gradually increase recognition over time.
- Choose a strong campaign identity direction, not just the discount percentage, when you want to maintain brand value.
- Choose a framework system, allowing for quick variations when needing to cover multiple platforms and formats in a short time.
- Prepare the visual system early enough before the occasion to produce point-of-sale materials and advertising variations in time.
- Only competing on price, with banners similar to all competitors, means no one remembers which brand it was.
- create images close to the date, not enough time to distribute widely and produce
During major shopping occasions, retail advertising is almost uniform: red backgrounds, yellow text, and large percentage signs. When everything looks the same, shoppers do not remember any brand; they only recall who has the biggest discount. This is a strategic issue, not merely a creative one. You need a visual system that can be recognized immediately in that crowd, not just chosen because it is the cheapest that week.
Why distinctive identity is more important than deep discounts
Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, specifically Jenni Romaniuk's work on distinctive brand assets (the visual elements, colors, and shapes that help recognize a brand instantly), shows that when buyers are ready to purchase, distinctive identity assets trigger brand recall in their minds. Major shopping occasions are the peak of this moment, when buyers are ready to spend.
The issue is that if your campaign visuals are no different from your competitors', the identity assets will not be effective. They will be drowned out by the common colors and imagery of the entire industry. Slightly deeper discounts cannot compensate for being forgotten immediately after the occasion.
Factors to consider when planning the event imagery
- The annual event schedule is busy: even-numbered days (10/10, 11/11, 12/12), Black Friday, Online Friday, year-end holidays, and Tet. Each occasion has different consumer psychology characteristics.
- Many channels must be covered simultaneously: e-commerce platforms, social media, paid ads, email, and physical retail locations. Each channel has its own formatting standards.
- The speed of producing variations must be quick in the short time before and during the occasion.
- Sales pressure during major events can easily cause the entire visual budget to be funneled into discount messaging, eroding long-term brand positioning.
Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow emphasizes that reaching a broad audience in the category (category reach) and linking the brand to purchase triggers (category entry points) is more effective than just targeting a small group of loyal customers. Major shopping occasions are when those triggers are at their highest. Therefore, broad reach is more important than ever.
When to choose which direction
Option A: Strong identity campaign, discount message as a supporting role. Suitable when the brand already has clear identity assets and wants to maintain positioning without being dragged down to a low-cost brand. The campaign imagery stands out through the brand's distinctive elements, with the discount appearing but not being the only thing the viewer remembers.
Direction B: Quick variant framework, prioritizing channel coverage speed. Suitable when needing to cover multiple platforms and formats in a very short time. There is a set of original campaign images and a clear adaptation guideline for the content team to create variants without needing to review each one from scratch.
In practice, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. A well-executed core campaign allows for quick variations without losing identity. Companies with a strong in-house design team can create the core system themselves; outsourcing is appropriate when there are staffing shortages, time constraints, or a need for an independent perspective.
Common mistakes during the campaign season
- Creating visuals close to the event date, without enough time to produce point-of-sale materials, and not having time to approve ads on platforms.
- Each channel and platform operates in its own way due to the lack of a standard system, resulting in customers seeing many different versions of the same brand at the same time.
- Sacrificing the entire identity asset to chase the visual language of the occasion, for example, changing the brand color to red and black for Black Friday. After the event, recognition does not accumulate because viewers do not know which brand it is.
- Only optimize for desktop while most traffic comes from mobile, according to the best practices of Meta for Business and TikTok for Business.
Shoppers remember brands through consistent elements repeated over time and space, not because of a discount banner that appears once and then disappears.
Practical experience.
Decision checklist
Topic: Retail images for major shopping events of the year. Sinh Vũ guide, sinhvu.com
Tick each item that applies or that you can already answer, then print or save as PDF to take with you.
If you have marked most of the signs above, this is the time to discuss in more detail. Sinh Vũ can help you review and propose a direction.
References
Jenni Romaniuk, Building Distinctive Brand Assets (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute); Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (Ehrenberg-Bass); Les Binet & Peter Field, IPA Databank; TikTok for Business, Creative Best Practices; Meta for Business. Practical experience from Sinh Vũ Studio.
Frequently asked questions
How long in advance should images be prepared for shopping events?
There is no standard number applicable to all businesses. The practical principle is to have a core visual system ready early enough to allow time for review, revisions, and production of point-of-sale materials. For campaigns with physical points of sale, more time is needed because printing and shipping cannot be done close to the date. The complexity of each project determines the starting point.
Does each occasion require completely new images or can existing ones be reused?
There is no need to completely refresh each occasion, and doing so can actually backfire because recognition does not accumulate. Core identity assets such as primary colors, fonts, and distinctive elements should be maintained across occasions, while adding seasonal visual language on top. This approach saves production costs and helps customers recognize the brand even when they quickly scroll past.
Is it necessary to differentiate for each e-commerce platform?
Necessary, because each platform has different formatting standards and user behaviors, but adapting content for each platform does not mean creating it from scratch. The correct approach is to build a set of original campaign visuals and then establish clear guidelines on which elements to keep unchanged and which to adjust for each platform and format. This way, the content team can produce variations quickly while remaining consistent, without having to guess each time.
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