Reasons companies should not slash marketing budgets in 2009

Reasons companies should not slash marketing budgets in 2009


1. Perception is everything. Once the market alters its perception of you, your company, your brand it can be very difficult to get back to the original state. Suddenly cut back on attending exhibitions, running regular print ads, halting all campaigns or regular marketing activities and customers and prospects will ask why, and competitors will exploit the doubt this creates.

2. It is not marketing spend it is marketing investment. You wouldn’t halt all product development and decide to stop innovating and just agree to offer the same old product or service with no further improvements until the economy is in boom again would you? This mentality would allow every other competitor to gain more and more competitive advantage over you and when the economy recovered you would be left miles behind. It should be the same with marketing. This is your chance to increase your share of voice while others are losing theirs, your chance to gain exposure while others are losing it, and when the outlook improves you will be in the strongest position of all. (Think PG tips in the last recession – they kept investing and increased market share, Tetley and Typhoo didn’t and lost out in)

3. Pipeline. Consistently feeding the B2B sales pipeline is more important than ever. As companies get nervous about any spend or investment sales will need more leads entering the sales funnel, any drop in leads generated will impact at a time when organizations require more leads not less to hit target. Don’t reduce marketing spend now or reduction in subsequent leads could rapidly impact the bottom line.

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Business Darwinism - Survival of the fittest

I read an article recently about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and why some species survive and others perish.

According to Darwin 'fittest' does not always mean strongest or biggest. In the business world it doesn't mean richest, oldest or most established either. In recent years business has boomed and although sales and profits have been at record highs so many companies failed to acknowledge it was could never continue indefinitely and the slowdown was always going to come - it was just a matter of how soon and the speed that has taken many of us by surprise.

As changing environmental factors threaten many industries today, how can looking back to the natural world help us to ensure we survive the economic natural selection and maintain our market share, our service levels and our even our jobs?

Natures natural selection occurs when;

- Living things produce more offspring than the finite resources available to them can support.
Thus living things face a constant struggle for existence.

Before the crunch when everyone was spending and borrowing there were enough resources (customers and their budgets) to go around and keep us all fed. The current downturn has bought to the attention of many that, with diminishing resources (consumer credit), the food chain has been hit and the casualties have started. The struggle facing those who remain is to battle for the remaining resources (budgets, contracts, goodwill etc) in order to survive and eventually flourish.

- The individuals in a population vary in their phenotypes. Those variants best adapted to the conditions of their life are most likely to survive and reproduce themselves

Differentiation and adaptability become key. The ability to understand what has changed in your environment and what the real implications are for your business will help you move your organisation towards making the changes necessary for survival. If, more importantly, you can understand the real implications for your customers business you will be able to adapt your working practices to meet their changing needs and stand out from the competition.

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Marketing in a credit crunch

After a long time of being told that, as a B2B marketer my role is lead generation, lead generation, lead generation and if I have any time left a bit of branding, it was interesting to hear about a new push for educational marketing.

In a time of all marketing camapigns being focussed around the credit crunch, surviving the downturn and how to get through the economic doom and gloom it is refreshing to hear that some companies are still looking at value adds for the customer rather than trying to undercut / discount / offer BOGOF deals.

So how can a B2B company start up a programme of educational marketing?
And how will this benefit the bottom line?

• Become the expert you say you are

Do you really know as much as you think you do? Proclaiming yourself or your company as an expert in a particular field is all well and good but make sure you know your stuff. For example, as a professional services marketing expert you will be red faced if you can't answer questions on the recent Legal Services Bill.

• Offer you knowledge and expertise FOC

Obviously not unconditionally, but offering small tasters of help, advice and expertise to your potential marketplace is an incredibly strong way to build reputation. This can be done through events, speaker opportunities at industry events, industry or company newsletters or via your website or blog. This builds reputation, goodwill (when the advice is useful) and keeps your name in the mind of your key decision makers.

In summary this is a realtively low cost way to build reputation and increase your share of voice in the market place. And in the current market being remembered for your expertise rather than for short term give aways and promotional campaigns can only be a good thing.

Any way to differentiate from the crowd = competitive advantage

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