The importance of continuing to market your business in this trickiest of times
In this uniquely challenging time for us all, it is understandable that we consider our budgets and how we will manage them up until it ends – and it will end. Thus, it follows that businesses will look at how they can cut back in certain areas – marketing spend often being top of the list. And that’s common sense obviously – or so you might think.
History only points one way
There are in fact countless studies on this exact subject which go back over 100 years now, each of which analyses advertising spend during difficult periods (in these cases, global recessions) through the 1920’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s 70’s, 80’s 90’s and in the 00’s and they all reach the exact same conclusion – those who maintained and (in some cases, increased) their marketing spend, increased sales and market share both during and after drops in consumer spending. You will be hard pushed to find any study suggesting that being submissive in such times resulted in great success. This is for several reasons:
People still want to buy
Firstly, during even this unprecedented environment, there will be people who are looking to buy – those who are comfortably well off and those whose attitude is ‘live for today’. They are a smaller share of the market of course, but they are there and they will buy. If you reduce advertising spend, you have less chance of capturing them, if you stop it altogether, the odds go down even further – unless your brand is omnipotent of course.
Your competitors will stop advertising
Secondly, the noise level in product categories drops when your competitors cut back – and they will – so your presence becomes much clearer and more noticeable – your share of voice goes up and so does your share of the market. If you stop communicating with your consumer, you lose that share of voice and the vital share of mind that goes with it.
You will gain brand-trust
Finally, advertising at times of difficulty projects an image of corporate stability to customers, so even if they delay, when they are ready to make a purchase they feel more comfortable to do it with you, and if you’re really clever, they may well already be integrated into the process, raring to go.
Nike, Toyota, Pizza Hut, Kelloggs and Amazon are just a few of the companies who have profited massively from this specific strategy when demand for their product category fell sharply. That’s good company to keep.
If you have to cut, do it with a scalpel
Naturally, there must be pragmatism with the financial needs of the business and, therefore, no reductions at all in marketing spend may be unrealistic; this is not a time to be gung-ho. But generally, it is better to cut with a scalpel and not a meat cleaver or you run the risk of emerging from these testing times at a significant competitive disadvantage and the pain of it will last longer than needed.
A change in message might be needed. It’s sensible to assume that those who are tempted into seemingly fallow categories will expect a good deal – so promotions can become of greater importance, as can a focus on standard products rather than those with more lavish options. Channels and tactics might change too depending on your category and your position within it, but that’s the easy bit. The harder bit is to choose to keep the lines of communication open in the first place – but it is the right thing to do, as much as you can afford to.
Talking to customers just became a lot easier
I appreciate that we face exceptional circumstances. The immediacy with which demand for multiple categories has singularly dropped had never been witnessed until now, but just because the onset has been rapid and the effect similarly instantaneous, does not mean that the rules of marketing do not endure. Your customers are in fact even easier to talk to now they must spend most of their time in one place – there are less distractions and fewer channels available for them to hang out in; online, TV, radio, apps – that’s pretty much it.
One of the best quotes we’ve ever heard about marketing in trickier times came from Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. When asked, “What do you think about a recession?” he said, “I thought about it and decided not to participate.” We can’t all afford to be as bold as Sam but he nailed the sentiment.
