INVESTMENT MARKETING – A RECESSION MUST
No…the sky isn’t falling! Don’t abandon your advertising campaign, don’t re-think a new product launch and most importantly don’t go following the masses – lead them! Yes, we’re in an economic crisis – companies are cutting jobs, clients are slashing their expenses – but marketing is still a must in order to grow your business.
THE NEW CONSUMER
The most important factor at the end of the day is your customer. Get to know the new way that your clients buy and the new “recessionary sales cycle.” Have an outside, unbiased firm conduct a comprehensive marketing and sales audit and learn who is buying your product/service, where are they buying, how are they buying and why are they buying?
Today’s consumers are looking to make educated decisions before buying. They are researching prices, shopping around, negotiating harder, postponing purchases, sticking to trusted brands, becoming more family focused – retreating to the heart-and-home and, most of all, focusing on products/services that offer what they perceive as good value.
RECESSIONARY MARKETING CAN EQUAL GREATER MARKET SHARE
Historically, it is well documented that brands that increase marketing activities during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. In a study of US recessions, McGraw-Hill Research found that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth than those that eliminated or decreased advertising. In fact, by 1985 companies that were aggressive recession advertisers grew their revenue over 2.5X faster than those that reduced their advertising. Market share growth can be obtained by shifting your marketing strategies in response to a recession so don’t abandon them all together. Remember, during recessions strong companies increase market share at the expense of weaker ones.
MARKETING STRATEGY SHIFTS
All marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, cut costs not investments.
- Focus on the strategic value of good marketing and look at the return on investment from each of your marketing strategies. Marketing must be considered as a profit centre and not a cost centre.
- Shift marketing dollars to areas which immediately benefit your customers and ensure that any cost cuts have a minimum impact on them.
- Adjust your pricing strategy. For example, offer temporary price promotions, reduce threshold for quantity discounts, extend credit to long term customers, offer product bundles or separate bundled products and sell them separately, sell smaller pack sizes, etc.
- Look at new marketing programs including direct mail, email, interactive and social media marketing. Online marketing has lower deployment costs, offer the ability to accurately measure performance and can be easily and quickly adapted to new or modified marketing strategies.
- By turning consumers into brand advocates and building market awareness in an exponential manner, social media marketing can be a cost-effective way for a company to achieve some of its key marketing objectives. In fact, a Benchmark Report by the AberdeenGroup found that 91% of Best-in-Class companies indicate that search engine marketing has higher priority now than before the recession.1
FINAL THOUGHTS
- Know your customer, they are increasingly risk adverse and price sensitive - focus on reaching them via direct and online marketing strategies.
- Stick to core values – maintain quality rather than cutting corners, provide exceptional service to existing customers.
- Measure your marketing strategies and adjust strategies to maximize your ROMI – Return on Marketing Investment
1 AberdeenGroup, Benchmark Report: Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies are Weathering the Storm, Jeff Zabin, January 2009
Tags: communications, marcomm, market share, Marketing, marketing montreal, marketing quebec, marketing strategy, marketing toronto, recession, zenergy
