Recession Themed Marketing

Economic value is not just about bargains.

Maintaining brand awareness and image are important keys to staying strong in a recession period. While a consistent image is central to a focused branding campaign, it may be smart marketing to adjust your brand message for the current world of a tight economy.

A couple examples of this seen recently:
Allstate - "After the fears subside, a funny thing happens: People start enjoying the small things in life. It's back to basics, and the basics are good."
Hyundai - "We're all in this together. And we'll all get through it together."

By thoughtfully reframing or redefining your value potential to your target customers or clients you can stay relevant in a shrinking market. Focus not just on the bargains that you can offer but on the economic value that you can deliver when everyone is focused on what they are spending and where. Meeting hard times head-on may be the best business strategy right now.

The Opportunity in a Slow Market

Focus and strengthen your marketing message.

Spending money to make money is not a difficult concept for business people to accept. However, increasing a marketing budget when business slows is a much harder concept to grasp. When the entire market slows, the first budget that often gets cut or completely eliminated is marketing. This is the worst thing to do, for two reasons.

First, a business's exposure to potential customers will decrease with a cut in marketing, generating even less business. The second, and most important reason not to slash your marketing expenses is because your competitors are probably cutting theirs. If many of your competitors cut back on marketing and you increase yours, guess whose business will continue to grow despite the economy.

An economic downturn forces a company to evaluate the most efficient target audiences and the most effective marketing tools. Be smart and consistent. Look for ways to send a stronger and more focused message to hit your target markets effectively and gain the narrowing market share. Polishing your image and focusing your brand message makes good business sense now and will establish your footing as the market improves.

Good Design Equals Good Value

How does a business justify the cost of good design?

Businesses facing challenging decisions to cut budgets are also tasked with making smarter choices in their marketing budget.  Good marketing involves the ability to identify and understand what a customer wants and communicate in a way that will increase their desire for a product and lead to sales.

Good design in your marketing and branding message will get you there faster and more efficiently.

Almost any purchase involves weighing the cost of the product against its perceived value. At times the value is just practical. Other times it may be a combination of social, emotional or other factors. The value of good design simply may be just to bridge the brand message with the consumers need and their willingness to start using it — if the product looks questionable, you do not even want to try. However, if it looks good, you want to give it a chance. Good design that reliably embeds the value of a product is greatly appreciated by consumers. In addition to better business results, good design is a good value.

Blogsites vs Websites

Do you need both? Which is better?
The web has changed fast. Social media, loosely referred to as Web 2.0, is everywhere. Web tools such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other portals are multiplying rapidly. So what is the right first move to get your web presence current and up-to-date?

For any business, social media is a very effective tool used to market your website products or services. Today, social media is equally as important to the success of a website as search engine optimization has always been. The beauty of social media is that anyone can do it — you do not need to be technical, just social.  In fact, you can start at any time, and you should.

With all these new web tools, how important is a website? For many people, a blog is easy to launch and easy to update, some may even suggest that a blog is all that is needed. However the truth is, that currently, most businesses still require a primary website location that can thoroughly convey a brand or business story. Blogs, Facebook and other social tools are methods to engage and drive visitors to your website – to purchase a product, join an email list or download information. Known as conversions, these visitor actions lead to customer interaction and ultimately a sale. Commonly, most new websites are being built on CMS (content management systems). These provide a much more adaptable framework than most blogging platforms. A properly planned and developed CMS website is prepared to expand and grow more readily and visually ordered, than a blog site.

So yes blog, and link to your updated website, and perhaps if it seems right, even tweet. Just remember even though every business is different, finding the right mix isn't difficult, although it should require a bit of planning and as always — a strategy for your brand.