Posts tagged "Recession Marketing"

You’ve seen articles in plenty of places (including this blog) on how to survive the economic downturn. And the advice is interesting, with the messages that different sages are delivering. It seems you should:

See? The answer is simple.

But permit me to throw one more thought on the pile. The fact is, some brands and companies do well during tough times. And B2B marketers might learn a few things if they looked more closely at the sometimes less-than-obvious reasons why. (more…)

Napoleon once said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.” Many marketers have been told that to retract and retrench during economic downturns is a mistake that will not only affect their own opportunities, but also significantly increase opportunities for enlightened marketers to seize (even at the risk of “interrupting” the blissfully proceeding enemy). However, that seizing doesn’t come without cost, and sometimes a reminder of the bounty to be gained (beyond just short term sales) is needed to provide the proper stimulus to move forward aggressively.

Studies (among them the CARR Report) have shown that (1) a minimum threshold of awareness must be reached before a brand will begin to see the upgrade conversion to preference, (2) once higher levels of awareness are reached, the conversion to preference occurs more rapidly, and (3) awareness (and subsequently preference) will decay over time if awareness-building activities decline. In a TNS Intersearch study, it was also determined that “discontinuing advertising not only reduces a brand’s presence before the consumer, but actively helps the competition, which then gains a greater share of voice without increasing advertising expenditures.” Or the more aggressive marketer can even elect to increase expenditures and gain an even greater share-of-voice (including a greater distance between their share and those of competitors) by striking when the iron is hot—and the misguided, reluctant competitors are not. (more…)