A Time for Marketing
February 24th, 2009 by Jeb Foster
In a bad economy, people tend to play it safe. They double down on the tried and true. Problem is, as Seth Godin says, safe is incredibly risky.
Small businesses often slash advertising in bad economies. The irony is that ad space is cheaper in bad times (which is why the Snuggie is everywhere these days) and consumers are typically choosier, which means that the companies that can get their message out will stake an even better position relative to their competitors. (That’s why Denny’s has been on an advertising spree.)
David Chase, a marketer for Altus Alliance, blogged recently about the lessons from the Great Depression—the lesson being, Don’t abandon your marketing efforts.
“It was a time when several companies benefited from aggressive marketing while their rivals cut back,” Chase wrote. “A good example of that would be Kellogg besting C.W. Post during that time. Consumers didn’t stop spending during the Depression; most just looked for better deals, and the companies providing those better deals came out stronger after the Depression ended. When spending picked up, consumer loyalty to those companies remained.”
We at InsureMe aren’t immune to the recession jitters. We were sitting around a conference table recently trying to decide whether to attend a conference. A few expressed reluctantance to go because none of our competitors were going. Seeing the foolishness of the situation, one person chimed in, “Doesn’t that mean it’s a good idea to go? We won’t have any competition!”
There’s a certain amount of toxic groupthink that characterizes recessions. You see and hear of people battening down the hatches, cutting staff and ad budgets, canceling travel plans. The temptation is to do the same, to keep up with the Joneses, but in reverse.
Resist!
