Business today reflects our volatile economic environment. And while we don’t want to appear presumptuous, our years of marketing communications experience give us a perspective we’d like to share. We hope you’ll find it worth considering.
Pare expenses, but spare investments. When income declines and costs rise, the first reaction often is to cut back on everything not deemed immediately essential. But across-the-board cuts can be risky. Marketing communications are only a temporary drain on resources. Because they are investments in generating future business, they have the potential of ultimately bringing in several times their outlay. Now is a good time to invest in marketing. The more the economy declines and competitors retrench, the greater the impact and potential return on investment. Cutting your marketing activities now will make it more difficult – and costly – to regain market momentum and share later on.
Re-think strategies and tactics. This is the time for reviewing and modifying marketing communications plans and priorities to concentrate on short-term, hard objectives. Focus on retaining existing customers as well as on finding new ones by making sure you maintain, and improve, your share of existing markets. Recession customers tend to be less inclined to experiment with unfamiliar products or suppliers. Capitalize on this by ensuring your marketing materials accent familiarity, reliability, value and performance.
Maintain visibility. Two related points have increased significance during a business recession.
- It is less expensive to maintain awareness than to be forced to create it all over again later.
- Awareness is enhanced when materials are consistent in style and message across all media.
Learn from history. Companies that make too few or too late adjustments to their marketing communications activities in a recession squander already scarce resources. Those that drastically cut back end up paying a heavy price in lost market momentum and share when business returns to normal.
Organizations that modify their strategies and tactics while continuing promotional activity weather a recession with the least damage.
It is well documented that corporations which maintain promotional activity during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, get the highest return on their investment and stand to improve their market share when the recession ends. We suspect you would like your company to be in this category.
DAAKE can help you get there.
