Maintaining your marketing campaigns is fundamental to any business. It doesn’t matter how busy you are or how tight your budget is, you should always have some degree of marketing within your company.
This is especially important as we are still not out of the recession. Many businesses will reduce their marketing budget when times are hard or completely cut it and try and maintain the clients they have already. However, many studies show that by cutting the budget on your marketing your business may not resume its normal sales figures for at least 18 months – 2 years. Can you afford to do this?
The businesses that survive recessions are the ones that continue business as normal. You should not increase your budget as this may prove self-destructive, but you should definitely maintain it.
A good example of this takes us back in time to 1920s America, where, after the Wall Street Crash many businesses were suffering. However, there were two businesses in particular who chose completely different ways to handle the imminent recession. One continued its marketing and started to explore new ways to build up its brand image and awareness, ensuring they stuck to their budget, which was fairly minimal. The other decided to cut back and completely scrap its marketing altogether. 80 years on and the company that continued its marketing is still around today and recognised worldwide. However, the company who gave up completely on their marketing are no longer around.
We are always reviewing our marketing campaigns and coming up with new ways we can increase our brand awareness without it costing the earth. There are so many different ways to market your company economically nowadays such as viral marketing; social media in all its forms.
You too could find different ways to maintain your marketing and in doing so ensure your company moves with the times and increases its brand awareness.
Oh and the company who survived the recession way back in the 1920s was…Kellogg’s!
