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To Advertise Or Not To Advertise?
Question: Should you continue to advertise in a slow economy?
According to a recent study about how advertising can impact your company during a slow economy, it may not be wise to reduce or eliminate your advertising during economically challenging times because this decision could harm your business.
The study showed that nearly half of U.S. adults felt that when certain business' cease to advertise it was a sign that those business' are experiencing difficulties and struggling.
The study notes the flip side of this is that when a business continues to advertise, consumers see this as a sign of stability and a commitment to do business.
"It is critical to advertise in the current economic climate, to maintain long-term positive consumer perception of your brand," said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. "Advertising not only assures consumers of a business' reliability in a soft economy, but it can influence where and what they buy, especially when the ads address concerns about value."
In addition the study also found that websites ranked second as the way consumers research products and shop online. Get Your Website Here
C. Abors-
What's interesting is that at the same time there are plenty of studies that show consumers were less responsive to ads targeting them during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period last year.
In Q1 09, global marketing and advertising efforts generated 21% less response than during Q1 08. Response in markets such as the U.S., Europe and Australia was hardest hit with falls of 28%.
Above information was gathered from articles written by Helen Leggatt.
C. Abors-
So what does this all mean?
It means don't cut back but expect less. Consider increasing your advertising budget if possble by advertising in areas a little further away if your willing to drive.
In other words, you have to start fishing in other ponds.
If your getting fewer phone calls with your current advertising, how many will you get if you cut back?
Chris Abraham of chrisabraham.com says:
"All Ad Men, PR Pros, Media Buyers, and Marketers know that this is the perfect time to get an advantage over your rivals because everyone is decimating their marketing, PR, and ad budgets and going “dark,” leaving many of the best ad placements available and at prices going back to circa 2005".
C. Abors-
Offer recession specials and be willing to give a little more if thats what it takes to get the job.
Now is not the time to shrink back but instead be more aggressive and stay on the offensive.
The customer base is out there, you just have to find them.
Are things going to get better any time soon, who knows but I can say on a positive note that I talk with hundreds of business owners every month and have been told that business is starting to pick up for many of them.
At the end of the day I think business' should be as aggressive as their budgets will allow them to be when it comes to advertising but also understand that less consumers are going to respond and that's just the way it is right now.
Many business owners have told me that they have created commission only sales positions in a effort to be more proactive in finding new business and are focusing more on providing greater value and better customer service.
Putting sales people out there that only get paid when the company gets paid carries almost no risk and the potential upside makes this well worth considering.
As far as greater value and better customer service goes, this to me might be one of the few good things we can take away from these tough times.
I hear that more and more business' are putting their customers first more today then ever before and admit this was one of the areas they allowed to take a back seat when they were booming because they were to busy and forgot one of the most important golden rules of business in that the customer must always come first.
What amazes me still today is that how some business' even in these tough economic times still do not answer their phones and when they do they do not answer in the professional manner one would expect.
I probably make at least 300-500 phone calls to business' every week and you would be surprised at some of the amazing ways people answer their phones.
In the past week alone I had several people answer their business phones like this, and I quote, " Hello"?
Not that this in itself is necessarily a bad thing but when I would ask, Is this such and such business? The response I would get is, Who's this?
I don't know, maybe I'm old fashioned but I remember the days when people would answer their phones and when they did they would say, "Joe's Place" or whatever the name might be.
That good first impression is one of the most important things you can offer and its even harder to do if consumers don't see your ads.
Lets face it, advertising is a life line for most business' and I personally would never advise to stop unless you absolutely have no choice.
Remember that some of the best types of advertising is still word of mouth.
This alone is usually never enough to sustain a business' but I can tell you that bad word of mouth will almost always force you to spend more on advertising because your repeat and referral business will cease to exist.
The following is a article written by Josh Gordon and offers some pretty compelling reasons why cutting back on your advertising may not be the best thing to do during slower economic times.
Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should maintain advertising during a recession. In the 1920’s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. After World War II, Buchen Advertising, Inc. decided to plot the sales of a large number of advertisers through successive recessions. In 1947, it began measuring the annual advertising expenditures of each company. When they correlated the figures with sales and profit trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising. Their studies also revealed that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to lag behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets. In 1979 another study by ABP/Meldrum & Fewsmith, covering the recession of 1974-75 and post-recession years, showed similar findings. They found that “companies which did not cut advertising expenditures during the recession years (1974-1975), experienced higher sales and net income during those two years and the two years following than companies which cut ad budgets in either or both recession years.”
The findings of six more recession studies to date by the group present formidable evidence that cutting advertising in times of economic downturns can result in both immediate and long-term negative effects on sales and profit levels. Meldrum & Fewsmith’s former Senior VP, J. Welsey Rosberg reports “ I have yet to see any study that proves timidity is the route to success. Studies consistently have proven that companies that have the intelligence and guts to maintain or increase their overall marketing and advertising efforts in times of business downturns will get the edge on their
There are many examples of businesses benefiting from increased ad budgeting in a recession. A MarketSense study during the 1989-91 recessionary period shows brands such as Jif Peanut Butter and Kraft Salad Dressing increased their advertising and experienced sales growth of 57% and 70% respectively. During that time, most of the beer industry cut budgets, but Coors Light and Bud Light increased theirs and saw sales jump 15% and 16% respectively. Among fast food chains, Pizza Hut sales rose 61% and Taco Bell's 40% thanks to strong advertising support, reducing McDonald's sales by some 28% MarketSense concluded the study by reporting. "The best strategy for coping with a recession is balanced exploitation of ad spending for long-term consumer motivation, plus promotion for short term sales boosts.
The Clark Company offers these action steps for marketers:
• 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.
• Keep your friends. You know who your loyal customers are. Keep in touch with them and let them know what you have to offer.
• Maintain continuity to sustain awareness. Advertising works cumulatively so you have to remind people frequently about your brand or they'll forget you.
• Step up public relations efforts. Be sure to maintain a media presence with smart, effective PR programs.
• 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.
I recommend you print this entire piece and share it with your sales staff.
Just some thoughts & articles I wanted to share.
C.Abors
HDYP
760-542-9231
Please share your thoughts with Chris at info@highdesertyellowpages.com
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