The world has changed. Not necessarily for the worst…yet hard to imagine for the better. No, I think the world has merely changed.
You can blame the cost of fuel. Blame the mortgage meltdown. Blame the Republicans, the Democrats…heck, blame your dog. The fact remains that the world has changed and so has your business and your life. Since this little blog centers on marketing and advertising, I’ll stick to what I know and leave the rest of this fine mess to George Bush, Ben Bernanke, McCain and Obama.
For the last six years, we have all enjoyed “Marketplace Momentum”. Basically, when times are good, you can do any type of marketing and find success. But what happens when the overabundance most of us have enjoyed shrinks and our focus goes form “what do I want” to “what do I need”?
Three points:
- Don’t give up! I challenge you to look up any newspaper from October 30th, 1929. For those of you that don’t know, October 29th, 1929 is known as Black Tuesday; the day the stock market crashed and began the ten year period known as The Great Depression. I found these following clients in The Dallas Morning News: Coca Cola, Heinz Ketchup, Simmons Mattresses, Neiman Marcus. I’m guessing you heard of these businesses? Okay, I’ll play devil’s advocate…maybe they didn’t react in time to pull their ads. Let’s look at The Dallas Morning News a month later on November 30th, 1929; Folgers Coffee, Imperial Sugar, Neiman Marcus (again). How about a year later? October 30th, 1930; Colgate, Saks 5th Avenue, Lucky Strikes, Goodyear Tire, Neiman Marcus (still going strong…).
Do you see my point? In easily one of the darkest times in American history, the businesses that stayed the course not only survived…they thrived! History also shows that these businesses were successful prior to 1929, but were not yet market leaders. This holds true for periods following Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and 9-11. Now is the time to dig in and steal share. - Your creative message must change. Shelve the feel good, ‘you deserve a break today’ fluff. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of alternatives to what you offer and you had better be relevant and competitive. Align your creative to what is keeping your target consumers awake at night. Calm their fears and offer them solutions to ease your pain. And in case you didn’t know it…offering $5000 off a car they can’t afford is not easing pain. Showing them how buying a gas sipper that will cut their monthly fuel cost in half does.
- Pull, don’t push, the consumer late in the sales cycle. Consumers are more precise in their purchases today. This doesn’t mean you can’t re-convince them to choose your product before they buy…quite the contrary. Brand loyalty becomes negotiable when times get tough. Don’t believe me…go talk to the GM dealer down the road from the Toyota store. Consumers are open to new buying habits, and if you can showcase how your company can do a better job offering a similar product you may have an opportunity you wouldn’t have had a year ago. Important note: don’t misunderstand this to mean that it is okay to use stupid clichés in your ad copy…saying you have “great customer service” or “the lowest price” makes me puke, just like it makes your customers puke too!
Not every business will survive this so-called ‘recession’; some will close their doors. Make sure it’s not yours!
