Marketing: Surviving the Economic Downturn
Sunday July 27, 2008
It is true it's getting harder to market during these economic times. Truth is a recession affects three major areas when it comes to marketing. Learn how to handle the economic slow down by having a deeper understanding of these three areas and what you can do that your competitor isn't.
Laura, Trying to put out a fire after it has started is far more difficult than doing the things that prevent the fire or that it will cost less damage. The latter is done by not being complacent when times are good by constantly looking over one’s shoulder to see who is gainging on you . . . and if one has been successful, there are others that want to go after one’s market.
Even before times get rough, but also in rough times, looking at what one sells in a different light can help. For example:
* Selling new products/services to new customers
* Selling new products/services to current and past customers.
* Selling current products/services to new customers,
* Selling current products/services to current and past customers.
The idea in business, both when times are good and when they are not, is to sell to more new customers and sell more to current and past customers.
Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling, Attitudes for Selling
I was wondering what you thought of this effort of using cool prizes to drive consumers to spend money on this service
http://www.gowindowslive.com/summergames/?ocid=TXT_IM
I have had many business owners ask me lately if I think the recession will hurt them. I ask them if they have seen a drop-off in sales, and if so, why. Usually, these owners pinpoint the recession as the reason, but more times than not, they are using that as an excuse to not do better CRM.
In times like these, when people are watching their money a “little” closer, business owners need to dig deep into customer loyalty and retention. Treat customers better and build better relationships!
Laura
There are two problems assocaited with the economic downturn. The first is that some businesses are facing real problems due to increased consumer resistance, lack of finance etc.
The second is the perception that we are facing a problem and are all going to suffer. This creates a state of mind where failure is near certain – a self fufilling prophesy.
In both cases we need to get out there are market effectively. One way of doing this is via PR …. the story I circulated on the “Economic Downturn is good For Business” -see http://www.stefandrew.com/news/Recession.htm -is an example of how this can be done without cost. This story has been covered in the media on both sides of the Atlantic and has brought me dozens of enquiries .. the principle can be used by any business!
I looked at Stefan’s PR and it contained a number of grammatical errors. It was also clearly self-promotion. I would not have taken it seriously, and wonder why (and if) “dozens” of other people did.
I came across an excellent blog which identifies and discusses string traces of market collaboration between arch rivals and competitors during this slowdown. If this is indeed true then this downturn might have unknowingly shown competitors the benefit of working together to combat external threats. Have a look
http://strategygcs.blogspot.com/2009/03/economic-downturn-brotherhood.html