Article: Marketing during a recession

Author: Samantha Olea

It is a scary time for many individuals, but even more scary for the many business owners feeling blind sided by the economic changes that have affected all of us. In a time when we are seeing monster sized corporations disappear over night and for sale signs in the windows of businesses we've passed and visited hundreds of times, it is easy to be confused by what exactly to do next?

Do you scale down all marketing efforts and concentrate on nurturing the existing consumer relationships you have? Do you scale back your hours, your products, your services in order to streamline your focus and white knuckle it through the storm? Do you keep your brand with in the confines of last year's message in order to save on the cash flowing out of your business?

The real question is an old one…Fight or Flight?

In an economy that has essentially been turned completely on its head, last year's message probably no longer makes sense. By cutting your hours, your products and your services you may save some on operational costs, but what is the new inconvenience costing you in sales? Further, what is the scaling back saying to your customer base? Trouble ahead?

Building and maintaining any business is an act of balances and intuition.

You need to understand that using last year's mantra of more more more will only come across as out of touch and arrogant in today's market. You need to be sensitive to how cutting back your operational hours may cause some of your most loyal and regular customers to find another company who's hours and offerings fit into their schedule. Finally, you should be very careful in how your company is perceived to be dealing with the economic turmoil because, truthfully, so many Americans have lost out on contracts, warranties, leases, investments, returns and more because a business they were working with was unable to weather the storm. Once burned, twice shy, so those same customers will be hyper sensitive to any change that signals cut backs and loss.

What can you do, then, to increase consumer confidence, investor interest and overall brand perception? First take a long and honest look at what you are putting out there-your logo, your packaging, your web site, your marketing efforts, your staff, your office. Take a step out side of yourself and view all of these things as a customer would. Are you polished-regardless of your style, is the idea and design behind your company well executed? If not, fix it. Is your web site riddled with old information and broken links? Has your web site design been overhauled in the last 2-3 years? If not, this is something that you may want to address ASAP. Remember, it is so much easier for someone to visit your site, form an opinion and click else where than to come to your place of business and for that reason you do not want to neglect your web site.

Poor design, old information and broken links on your web site are a huge deterrent to the online community even if you do not actually sell anything online. You may think that you can not afford to have your site overhauled but the truth is that you can not afford to leave it in a bad condition.

Now look at your brochures, your business cards, your printed materials-are they showing their age? Are you using a design that you know is past its prime in order to save a few dollars? Think about how your business has changed since your last marketing campaign began. Many companies have began implementing “Green Strategies” in effort to help our environment, save money and appeal to their customer base. Has yours? Many businesses have raised their safety standards and privacy protection procedures-all of which are appealing to today's consumer but if you are using old print materials there is a high likelihood that your next potential customer has no idea of your green efforts or security changes and that can make or break a sale.

Do not let the recession scare you into failure. Do not let what you hear everyday on the news influence you into making business decisions that can ultimately hurt your brand and your bottom line. If you plan on making it in this economy, then fight-make sure that your web site, your printed materials, your staff, your business is the very best it can be. Am I saying through caution to the wind and simply re-design your entire brand? Absolutely not, what I am saying is adapt your message, update your message and figure out ways to make your business's message-today's message-clear, appealing and reassuring to the bleary eyed consumer. Realize that economists and broadcasters are good at their jobs respectively, but they are not marketing experts and their words of doom should not force you into regurgitating last year's message to today's consumer.