Marketing budgets, often among the early casualties of a recession, are declining faster than at any time since 11 September 2001, according to the IPA's most recent Bellwether Report.
Yet, as Hugh Davidson, author of Offensive Marketing, points out: 'Studies show that brands that maintain or increase marketing spend in a recession tend to do better than their rivals in the long run.' However, to escape hatchet-wielding finance directors, marketers must take steps to make their spend more efficient in ways that don't harm demand.
Top Recession-proof Marketing tips by the experts:
- Do the maths - 'Most companies have a portfolio of brands, and if they know how big they are, their profit margins and so on, they can quickly get a rough idea of which ones are worth supporting and which aren't,' says Les Binet, European director of DDB Matrix and author of Marketing in the Era of Accountability. 'If more marketers did those sums, they would realize how much of what they do is uneconomic.'
- Worship your Customer - Make sure you have good enriched customer data so you can segment your customers by multiple criteria. The more targeted you get, the more effective your marketing dollars. Engage with the customer base more frequently and deeply than ever before - In times of economic uncertainty, when budgets are getting cut back, people buy from who they know.
- Creativity and emotion are powerful - Data2Decisions research shows that creative execution is the second-biggest determinant of an ad's profitability, after market size. Also, the financial payback from emotionally led ads is greater than that from more rational ones. People are motivated by how they feel, rather than what you tell them.
- Harness the power of integration - Integrated campaigns can increase efficiency by up to 100% because of interaction between different channels, claims Binet. 'Similarly, using one-stop shops for all your communications will presumably result in significant cost-savings, too,'
- Preferred internet marketing tactics - TopRanked Online Marketing recently ran a poll with the question “What three internet marketing tactics will you emphasize in the next 6 months? Here are the results: SEO (36%)
- Streamline your processes – “Research shows that most companies can make 10%-20% efficiency gains or more without harming demand, by overhauling inefficient systems & processes,' says Robert Shaw, professor of marketing metrics at Cass Business School.
- Manage agencies more tightly - Clients should push media agencies to justify their choice of media in financial terms, says Shaw. 'It's amazing how many brands still target difficult-to-reach markets through ad spots in
- Manage headcount - Don't cut marketing staff only to re-employ people on inflated salaries as 'consultants'. By creating more clarity about what people do and relating it to clearer marketing goals, with focus on target markets, you will find you need fewer people.
- Understand and practice ROMI, engage with your Finance director - Reduce your total marketing cost , improve the ROI for your solutions, and quantify these. Measure everything, know what works, what doesn’t, and stop what doesn’t. The finance director runs a business, so being able to engage with them is vital. 'You do that by talking in terms of investment, rather than spend,' says Andrew Challier, managing partner of media analytics specialist Billetts.
- Learn from what you do - Evaluate everything in business terms to identify what works, advises Binet. If you want to learn and improve, you have to recognize and admit to failure, rather than brushing mistakes under the carpet,' he says.
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