Tips for Marketing Companies: Fortune Favors the Bold
Last month, the Association of National Advertisers met in Orlando for their 98th annual convention. Discussed at the convention, of course, was the current state of the economy and its effects on advertising and marketing companies. One conclusion was that the best strategy is not to cut marketing costs, but continue to reassure and comfort consumers regarding the value of your product or service.
Our Chicago marketing company is taking this advice to heart and focusing our strategic maneuvers on creative and bold moves during this market downturn. The same encouragement came from many of the country’s top marketers and advertisers, according to The New York Times.
Anne Saunders, brand and advertising executive at Bank of America, said that if her company made any marketing cost cuts at all in ‘09, “we don’t expect to see a substantial cut,” because “it would be a mistake to say you don’t need to continue to tend your brand, even in a challenging market like this.”
Similarly, the chief marketing officer of Hewlett-Packard reminded advertisers and marketers alike, “It’s incredibly important to be risk-takers in the economic climate we’re in [when] people have a tendency to pull back.” Drastically cutting marketing spending could also “intensify the recent sharp downturn in consumer spending” according to the article.
More advice included allowing your consumers to speak for you– American Express plans to do exactly that. Claire Bennett, senior vice president for marketing at AmEx, played to her company’s own strength by referencing it’s “legacy of trust and confidence.” She added, “We will be talking about that in the coming months, [and] our own card members can speak for us.” A crisis is the worst time to leave your consumers without a message, and sticking with an established image of your company will keep you stable in your consumers’ eyes through the recession.
Many of the attending companies survived the 1930s Depression with novel marketing and advertising– Read more about what the convention goers had to say about recession marketing in this article.
