A prime opportunity – marketing in a tough economy

Stop – and think about everyone else in your category. Are they playing it safe? Have they dialed back their marketing communications efforts completely? Have they stopped softening the beaches for their salespeople?

In other words, are they giving YOU a huge opportunity, wrapped up all nice and pretty, with a bow? Why yes, yes they are.

So you've identified this opportunity. And this, in combination with the cautiously optimistic idea that the economy is crawling back (evvvvvvverrrrrr so slowly) means that NOW is not the time to chicken out. NOW is not the time to dial it all back. NOW is not the time to resist the opportunity for greatness.

NOW is the time to push it a bit more than your competition. NOW is the time to get creative. NOW is the time to get the word out.

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is to be cautious-to-a-fault during tough economic periods. So they disappear from the public discourse, from the playing field, from the marketplace. They lose ground. They wither away only to have to mount a resurgence in brand equity later (unfortunately, this happens all too often). And hitting the restart button is expensive in branding. We all know that.

Instead, maintain your presence in the marketplace even during tough times. NOW is the time to demonstrate that your brand is healthy, a player and part of the dialogue. You brand diagnosis, following a pretty brutal recession, will be all the better for it.