An Opportunistic Marketing Mindset During a Poor Economy

A Big Opportunity for Your Business Mind-Set

Marketing plan budgets are often the first thing cut during the fear and scarcity mentality mode of  economic hard times. Many businesses think cutting out marketing dollars will help them to survive the rough road ahead, but did you realize marketing is the one thing which can actually save your business during this time?

Many marketers over the last months have reduced their budgets significantly. $600 million will be cut on advertising and promotional budgets by U.S. automakers in the next four years. A survey by Anderson Analytics shows more than half of marketers surveyed will cut their budgets this year. Many companies are going under including: Linens and Things, Sharper Image, KB Toys and even Circuit City closed hundreds of stores in 2008. Starbucks even made plans to close 600 stores in 2008.

Chicken little marketers and businesses are running around crying the “sky is falling”. The sky is in fact falling I will not even debate this, but out of chaos there may be a much larger opportunity for your company. During recessions like this there have always been even greater chances for advertisers to take on a new marketing strategy.

There is opportunity in the eye of the hurricane and the most obvious opportunity is to pick up the slack for companies which are failing. Yes they may have failed because there is not as much money being spent in markets, but if you are still alive as a company you may find an opening to service part of the void left empty by the collapse of others.

While chicken little companies are panicking it can be a perfect time for online marketing companies to go into a market  or to pick up the slack where there is a void of service and competition has left. It is your job as a marketing consultant while this storm is happening to keep your clients calm and present to them opportunities open during a disturbed market such as is the case in 2009.

Here are some great sensible points to use with your clients if you are servicing clients as I am during this fallout in order to keep them focusing ahead:

• Consumers Are Cost Cutting And Sedentary

Consumers are spending less and cutting back on all of their unnecessary behaviors like: traveling, shopping, eating out, entertainment and purchasing higher-cost products. This has caused consumers to spend more time indoors and on things which cost less. This is a point of opportunity for advertisers. More people will: watch television, watch dvd movies, use the Internet, play video games, and use hand held devices.

Your big advertising opportunity then stems from the fact that people are more relaxed and more receptive when at home versus running around outside. Consumers at home are away from so many distracting elements that make it harder to gain mind share. As marketers we are after all looking to gain mind share aren’t we? A less-distracting platform like television, magazines, podcasts and multiple web formats will have more chance of mind share now than ever.

Also any marketing communications you can present now positioning your company and services as money saving will hugely benefit your prospects. This can be coupons, additional value adding features and services which add more value per dollar and anything which can help people save money on unavoidable necessities.

My wife used to own a hair salon and she once told me that it is always good to be selling products which are needed even during hardship. She said the economy never much affected their salon, and when it did they would just add more value to their existing product line.

• Less Competition Now

Companies are as I mentioned now cutting back on advertising spending so how will this benefit you? Well I’m sure you see the obvious answer is there are less ads for specific markets appearing and there is less competition. If your company is one of the surviving advertisers you will have a better chance of being noticed.

We can see then that there will be more ad space than ever at less cost than ever. Advertising companies will even have to reduce the rates of ads in many cases do to less demand. Here again is your chance as a marketer to automatically upgrade existing clients for no extra cost. Upgrade your existing clients and save them by covet means. You are a lion and must act accordingly and protect your last meal until summer comes again … or something like that. Sorry let’s say a bear then.

This new environment is perfect for marketers to try and find advertising channels and partner companies, because there is going to be space available for new players since so many are dropping like flies. Your competition is relinquishing ad space and contracts which is leaving spots open in the market of unbelievable opportunity which were all closed off previously due to exclusive agreements.

Let us also not forget that this applies to all marketing advertising channels especially paid ones like: Adwords, Pay Per Click, Face Book, Media Buying and any paid advertising platform. This economic downturn we are experiencing may provide an opening for your company in places you previously thought to be too competitive.

The soft advertising market means large media advertising outlets must reduce newly vacated ad inventory to meet company revenue projections. The advantage then is purely on the buyer side of the equation. This doesn’t mean that you simply buy more advertising because it is available, but it means you will have more attractive spots to advertise that were previously too expensive.

Go out and research your marketing channels which were clogged previously and you will most likely find old over priced channels to have come down in many cases. You now have more options available than ever so take advantage of them and provide new benefits and features to your existing product and I believe you will be in a better position than you were prior to this economic hardship.

• Companies That Survive Gain Mind Share

Profit is the bottom line for most marketers, but during tough economic times, it is important to remember that there is a lot to be gained by surviving to fight another day. The only problem is most companies forfeit and live on life support. The thing to be aware of now more than ever is that less companies will be filling the void in your market.

Keeping your marketing investment flowing during hard economic times will increase people’s awareness of your company more than ever. Less choices make you stand out and makes you look more viable. Surviving alone can put a new stream of clients in your lap and when the economy recovers they will continue using you since they will see you as a strong business. Stormy economic times give you a chance to increase mind share in your market.

An Opportunistic Marketing Mindset Can Make Sense

Author: Scott Holden – TrafficEraBlog