> DOOM AND BOOM
Roger Moggs, Managing Director of Moggs Marketing Communications believes that recessions can be great for business growth.
Mention the word recession often enough and some businesses will soon start to batten down the hatches in readiness to ride the storm. For others, it’s an opportunity to grow. It is well documented that brands that maintain marketing communications during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.
Of course, any professional marketing consultant will endorse that view, because it’s a fact. However, what is critical to appreciate is the likelihood that any company who reacts by cutting their marketing spend probably doesn’t understand what it’s doing for them in the first place and therefore can’t put an accurate value on its contribution to their business growth.
Too many businesses invest in marketing techniques only to be disappointed with the results. This often happens because the ground- work, the planning, has not been completed thoroughly. They ‘pull the plug’ on marketing investment in the good times, not to mention the bad.
So, here are some guidelines that are proven strategies to help you get the best out of your marketing communications investment whatever the economic climate. And remember that there is no substitute for doing the basics properly; if you take short cuts you’ll seriously reduce the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Invest in Research.
You need to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession. How do they see your brand, your products and services? It’s a fact that trusted brands are especially valued and they can still launch new products successfully, but interest in new brands and new categories fades.
Know your competitors.
Get to know what your competitors are doing – intimately. What are their strengths and weaknesses? What can you do better? Spend time finding their Achilles Heel and then exploit it. Remember there are leadership brands and challenger brands…a challenger brand can learn so much from the market leader!
Know your market.
Most businesses know their customers well but have little more than top picture knowledge of prospects. Invest time and resources in building knowledge of where your next conquest sale could be coming from. Critically, make sure your database does what it says on the tin; all too often databases are neglected and at times of recession the sales team have little idea where to refocus their efforts.
Adjust product portfolios.
What products or services are critical to your business growth?
Prioritise those that will deliver higher volume or margin. This is a time to be focused and expert not a generalist. Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not necessarily have to cut list prices, but you may need to offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts or extend credit to long-standing customers.
Plan your campaigns carefully.
Moggs uses a proven formula to help focus on what the key campaign objectives are. This is based on "Where are we now? Why are we there?
Where do we want to be? What happens when we get there? formula. This plays a fundamental role in determining the message, the media and indeed the payback.
Communicate with impact.
Once you have planned the strategy, then in our book, the creative idea is King. If you haven’t got a big creative idea your dead in the water; your prospects will not even know you exist. Be brave. Be bold. Be exciting. Be noticed!
So, doom and gloom ahead or doom and boom? With so many companies currently marketing their businesses poorly there’s a great opportunity for others to capitalise on the current climate simply by doing their marketing properly.