Archive for February, 2009
Friday, February 27th, 2009
How do boutique companies maintain maneuverability to help avoid economic disaster?
- Lower overhead costs
- Lower rates
- More flexibility to accommodate clients looking to cut costs
- Little to no major debt
What are the advantages to working with smaller firms?
- Fewer clients = more attention
- Often the owner or president ensures quality work
- No layers of administration, account managers and lower level employees
These are questions we get asked often. Have a query of your own? Leave a comment here in the next week, we’ll answer it in a new post and give you a free Intake Studio hat just for your curiosity.
The question must be related to Get Your Budget Back or Intake Studio. First 10 comments with valid e-mail addresses: a baseball cap in the mail to you by March 6th!
Friday, February 27th, 2009
International advertising agency Oglivy offers 7 points of advice based on their experience in guiding brands through previous recessions, mixed with some of the latest academic thinking.
Here are the first 3:
1. Guard High-Value Customers
In a severe recession, share protection through retention of a brand’s most profitable customers should be the first priority. Losing loyal customers can be very costly. On average, loyal customers who are “bonded” to a brand spend up to 20 times more than the average customer. The key is to identify who they are and what their concerns are. Then you can consider whether a special initiative is needed.
2. Harvest Customers Who are Ready to Buy
The second most valuable target, after existing customers, is those who are about to purchase. Research into the decision-making process can illuminate what barriers people have. With this knowledge, there are two areas in particular where marketers can focus attention: search and shopper activation.
We often say that the first dollar a marketer spends should be on search. This is never truer than in a recession. Customers who have raised their hands declaring interest in your product deserve special attention. Marketers can improve “organic” search by tracking existing search capabilities, understanding key words and then developing strategies for content development, page tagging and linking to ensure that as many active shoppers as possible are directed to the brand’s site. (more…)
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. To paraphrase, tough economic times call for creativity in promotion.
Essentially, you have two choices when it comes to marketing and promotion: find creative, cost-effective methods or crawl under a rock. For most of us, there’s no in-between.
The general idea is to balance reach, frequency and impact with cost. And now, more than ever, the value quotient is driven by cost.
But there are some possible avenues for small businesses to pursue. Here are a few that have worked for us, our clients and our peers:
- Speak whenever possible: Seek out speaking engagements with groups, associations and companies, and create your own opportunities to get in front of people. You shouldn’t necessarily demand payment. Put yourself in front of lead-rich groups. That’s your compensation.
- Get some ink: Whether you do it yourself or hire a low-cost provider, you owe it to yourself to try and get your business written up in the newspaper and industry publications. Give us a call and we’ll show you how. It’s not that difficult and it’s not as expensive as you might think.
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
The current media and advertising recession will be more severe and more transformative than any one of the last 80 years. This will be a time when it won’t be just about how far down ad spending goes, but also about what media entities and even business sectors will survive.
Historically, advertising recessions have been 1-2 years in length and have been about a contraction in ad spending on measured media. Everyone hunkered down, altered pricing strategies, leaned on relationships and waited until the inevitable spending upsurge occurred. The advertising recession of 2008 - 2010 will be different. This time, entire structures on both the buy and sell side will collapse. The institutions that were developed and rigidified in the 20th century are clearly not mirroring the dynamic changes of the media marketplace in this new century. The advertising agency constructed in the second half of the last century no longer reflects the media reality of today. The same can be said of the hierarchical distribution channel specific media sales organizations. There are agencies and media properties that exist today that will either cease to exist or will survive in substantially altered forms by 2011.
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Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Unsure what to cut and what to keep? This smart, 4-point checklist is your guide to recession-era advertising.
When money’s tight, the knee-jerk reaction for many is to cut back on advertising. Unfortunately, the businesses that stop advertising simply drop out of sight, taking them from slow sales to no sales–fast. It’s a risky move many may not recover from. Rather than eliminate your advertising in a recession, cut the fat from your campaign, and focus on the right media choices for the highest ROI.
- Advertise where prospects look first.
Where will your customers look when they’ve decided to buy what you sell? A vast majority of Americans research purchases on the internet before buying online or in a brick-and-mortar store. Placing advertising on search engines may be an important part of your scaled down campaign. Other search media include trade and industrial directories, both online and in print, newspaper circulars, classified ads, and shopper sections of specialty magazines. By advertising where prospective customers look, you’ll shorten your sales cycle and lower your cost per sale.
- Use media that touch prospects often.
Even when your customers aren’t in search mode, they still interact with other important media. Discover which media touch your best prospects throughout the day. Do they read a particular newspaper? Which TV and radio programs do they enjoy and at what times of the day? If you’re targeting B2B prospects, zero in on the industry publications they rely on for information. Both business and consumer prospects have favorite websites they frequent. Armed with this vital information, you can strategically place ads in media you know play central roles in their daily lives.
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Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Here are some strategies you can use to help your business thrive in recession economy:
- Don’t cut your advertising budget, increase it. Let your competition cut theirs.
When you increase your spending, you increase your share of voice. If your competitors cut back, your message grows even stronger.
- Develop a strategic marketing plan so you don’t waste money advertising the wrong message in the wrong place to the wrong audience.
- Reassure your customers. Implement marketing strategies that allow buyers to feel they are minimizing risk by doing business with you.
- Achieve greater media efficiency by taking advantage of softer rates and special promotions.
- Start sponsoring. This type of awareness advertising gives your business valuable exposure to targeted, core audiences.
- Maintain continuity to sustain awareness. Advertising works cumulatively so you have to remind people frequently about your brand or they’ll forget you.
- Don’t “cheapen” your advertising by trying to save on creative or production costs. Your customers will notice and worry about quality. This is a time to stress quality and value.
Originally posted on clarkadspr.com
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
It’s all over the news – our country is either headed for or is now into an economic recession. What does this mean for business? Less corporate spending, clients becoming more wary of pricing, and fewer transactions being done?
Perhaps so, but we happen to believe that a recession can be good – even great – for a business that knows how to handle it.
While it’s true that it could be more difficult to source clients and land projects, there are also silver linings to look for. Here are a few things to think about as you prepare to position your company for slower times:
1.) Renewed Focus.
During times of economic success, it becomes very easy to set the company on cruise control, letting the clients simply fall into your lap. You didn’t have to have a sharp, clear corporate focus in order to succeed. As things slow down, you’ll have to go out and find your clients – and sharpen your message. Now is the time to do the business planning you’ve been putting off, because it will make it easier to target new clients, and set your business up for success in the long runs.
2.) Less Competition.
During the first phase of an economic slowdown, your competition will also be scrambling for clients. You may find the marketplace getting more crowded, not less. But the longer a recession lasts, the more likely it is your competitors will not be able to make it, and one by one doors will begin to close. Not you – you’re doing your planning and research, sharpening your message, and exploiting new marketing opportunities (see #3). The barriers to entry for new competition will also be higher. It will be easier than ever to push ahead of your competitors and take command of the marketplace.
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
Recession—it’s the inescapable word these days, isn’t it? Well, it doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Recession can be a savvy marketer’s best opportunity to get noticed.
There are several well-know examples of this. A recent cover story in Advertising Age boasts various brands which were birthed as a result of recession. These include the IBM personal computer in 1981 and the iPod twenty years later. One of my personal favorites is the story of the Kellogg’s brand because it illustrates how a small company can make it big through smart marketing. The story goes something like this…
During the Great Depression, Post was the leading cereal brand. In fact it was the only cereal brand people would have thought of at the time. Butt due to the Depression, money was tight and sales were falling. Post figured they did not need to continue advertising because they “owned” the cereal market and they needed to cut expenses. Cereal was considered a luxury anyway.
Kellogg’s, on the other hand, took advantage of the economy that was suffering. They created a positive ad campaign featuring Tony the Tiger and the very positive and enthusiastic Kellogg’s slogan “They’re GREAT!” They doubled their ad budget, and bought spots in newspapers and radio time across the nation. Americans loved Tony the Tiger and the message he sent during a very negative time. Kellogg’s brand bucked the trend, and grew quickly, in a time when money was tight by keeping their brand top-of-mind.
Today, Kellogg’s remains a top cereal company in the US—perhaps even the #1 cereal company. Why? Because they unleashed the power of advertising.
Written by Kelly Kleiner; originally posted on inetinteractive.com