June 06 2008 | posted by Andy Cassie | comments [0]

“We’re all doomed” as Private Fraser from Dad’s Army would have it. But we knew that this was never the case.

That’s the feeling you get currently as the economy goes to hell in a hand cart and panic begins to grip the professional marketer. Let’s face facts the next 18 months are going to be significantly more difficult than the previous 10 years, so what should we do ? 

When times ‘was ard’ last time, the first spending casualty (always the easy option and generally instigated by a bean counter who always knows better but no better) was the black art of marketing , often in all of its forms. Don’t forget, financially it comes straight off the bottom line, so its an easy target for the financial department of any organisation.
What is fundamentally different now from the past is that most organisations are marketing and sales lead and part of the gameplan is to maintain visibility and create leads for business. In 1990 it was easier to crawl into a hole and turn the lights off, this is no longer so and in case any of you weren’t around in that time, there was an undoubted correlation between those who cut their marketing presence and ran and those that took longest to recover from that bad period.

Prudence should be the watchword, not panic and now more than ever you will need to market your way out of a downturn. This isn’t a plea from a company making its living out of the topic, it is the reality of “out of sight, out of mind”, “if you’re not there somebody else will be”, “ lost visibility, lost opportunity” clichés but also the reality.

However every downturn has a bright side. Softer advertising rates will allow greater visibility at the same cost, you’ll get more bangs for your buck and by being more targeted and not doing the frivolous, there will be less waste. This should see you capable of marketing successfully and maintaining visibility probably on a smaller budget.

So how do you achieve less waste. Good advice from specialists who know the marketplace in which you operate and who use innovation in marketing to get your message across. There is a fine argument that you can increase market share on the same level of budget, increase your visibility and maintain the consistency that will get you noticed by those people who need your product or service. Those who market only in good times and cut and run, are quickly out of sight and out of mind when that next specification or contract comes about.

An example of how to succeed on a restricted budget, is a long established waterproofing client of ours who during the bad period between 1990 and 1993, continued to market albeit frugally but consistently. Their resultant recovery was quicker and better than their direct competition and many others in the construction industry. Be consistent, don’t cut and run, its not good for your corporate health.

The great Private Fraser summed it up well, the alternative to continue to market is to “muffle your rowlocks” and disappear into the deep, quietly and without a trace. Now we wouldn’t want that would we.