All this Black Friday talk is not going to help the retailers. The early Black Friday buzz and "leaks" are only signaling that retailers are hurting. These current actions by retailers are not going to help the bottom line. Pricing matching Amazon being just one of these actions.

By talking about Black Friday on Halloween, many consumers put buying on hold to see what the sales would be. This is like Groupon - it trains consumers to wait for a coupon or sale before buying. The consumers are learning to price shop (even via smartphone apps) for everything and not pay retail. That is the first step in destruction of the brick-and-mortar pricing structure.

With all the early hype of Black Friday and Christmas shopping, consumers will be burnt out before 12/24. It will take bigger deals to get them to spend, too.

What can you take away from this?

Don't get into a pricing war. Do you see Porsche on sale? How about Nordstrom's?

Explain your value - clearly and concisely.

Have a unique sales proposition.

Design a different bundle.

Solve real business pain. Saving money should be a last resort. With layoffs and scared business owners, all the marketing and sales talk should center around business process improvement, efficiency, productivity and doing more with less. Those outcomes will be the winner.