Marketing your way through an economic downturn

2009 will remain in the mind of marketers around the world by the economic recession they went through. Despite the challenges, some companies will emerge stronger from the crisis and this article presents a series of findings that might help their marketers.

Marketing practitioners and academics all agree that marketing expenditures should be maintained during the crisis, aiming at long term benefits. Unfortunately, the reality will be that marketers might be forced to cut in their expenditures, pressurised by the shareholders demand of profitability. Although new media might represent a range of brand new opportunities, savvy marketers will focus on and master a small range of media during well executed, integrated campaigns, rather than experimenting all the existing media. Hence, if it has recently been shown that digital media offers fantastic opportunities for a brand to engage with its customers, P&G proved that radio campaigns could be just as effective. Therefore, it shall not be assumed that media will add to each other to increase the effectiveness of a campaign; Rather, the best marketers will know how to make the most of each media in order to reach their target.

But knowing what customers want won't be easy: over the last year, consumers significantly modified their mindset and the economic crisis has made them more than ever worried about price and value. Purchasing the biggest items might be delayed and a number of companies already advertise "anti-crisis" solution. However, smart marketers will know that focusing on price only will not build long-term success. Thus, they will need to find new ways to connect with consumers. Bringing back past slogans or celebrities from the 80's has been a way to comfort consumers, using nostalgic feelings at a time particularly hard and instable for consumers. But whatever the decisions, the instability of this environment will mean that any choice previously made will need to be reviewed in order to take these radical shifts into account.

Furthermore, companies will need to build upon their specific knowledge of their customers and to show confidence to inspire customers. So did Apple in 2001 when it released the iPod, using successfully print and billboards media campaigns at a time where competitors were struggling to engage with customers. During economic downturns, advertisers' margin for errors is even smaller than usual, and recovery even harder. However, brilliant ideas can still win the market, as did Intel with the "Intel inside" campaign, sharing the costs of advertising with PC manufacturers. This initiative shown the world that even in tough times, the best ideas will succeed.