HIT THE BRAKE OR THE GAS?

 

When you're cruising the interstate, and you head up a hill or have to pass an 18-wheeler, do you hit the brake or the gas?  Do you put the bucket out when it rains or when it's sunny?  When you go fishing, do you head to where the sonar says there is a school or to some point where they were yesterday?

 

The same applies in today's roller coaster, unpredictable economy when you consider strategic planning and budgeting for marketing communications expenditures:  Spending marketing dollars when the economy slows makes sense in both the short term and the long term.

 

If you can get by the fact that this is a marketing guy telling you to spend marketing dollars, then read on.

 

From an economic standpoint, the reasons for spending are simple:  You buy share of mind and market share points at a lower cost.  Your marketing is more effective because there is less noise and clutter in the media.  You can buy more efficiently because the deals are there.  And your clients and prospects (members, stockholders and stakeholders), as well as your employees and the media, see you as a leader -- an aggressive, prosperous and successful enterprise.

 

You increase business because fewer are out there asking for the order.

 

Remember, tough times call for tough decisions...recessions reward the aggressive and punish the timid.  It is easier and cheaper to maintain momentum then to start all over.

 

In dozens of studies over the past 50+ years and nine recessions, the same fact comes through:  If you spend when things are slow, you generate immediate business, get through the tunnel quicker and come out the other end stronger and in a better position to further hammer the competition.

 

This is true whether you are selling a product or service or creating and building a brand.

 

This is not just cheerleading.  As in good times, the money has to be invested wisely.  And in fact, the strategies might be different today then they will be a year from now.  The important point is to be aggressive and spend. 

 

And to consider marketing communications dollars an investment not an expense.

 

 

Joseph F. Schramm is president of Schramm & Associates, a leading branding, marketing, advertising, public relations and communications firm based in Washington, DC, serving local, regional, national and international clients.