ZDO Blog
The "Old Tried and True" isn't working so well this year. Is it? Part 1
In an economic downturn, and especially this current trend—the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades—companies are cutting costs haphazardly to better enable themselves to squirrel a little away for that inevitable rainy day. Of the things to hit the proverbial chopping block when budgets are being axed, marketing, advertising and media expenditures top the list. From an investment standpoint, companies that cut these budgets are acting in a knee-jerk, short-sighted manner—much like pulling your mutual funds in a down year, when you well know that mutuals perform at their best over a ten-year term with all of the peaks and valleys a decade can dish out. Those peaks and valleys are healthy. They give your investments the opportunity to grow, thrive, struggle and get stronger as they compete to survive.
The unfortunate result in cutting back on marketing your brand is often the brand’s fall from recognition at top-of-mind to bottom of the heap, along with the has-beens of every other scared-to-death brand manager who chose to take their brands on hiatus until this thing shakes out.
In its simplest form, I want this to be a wake-up call to marketing directors and brand managers who are or have been tempted, or have already made substantial cuts to their marketing and advertising plans for the year. Here’s why.
You yanked those mutual funds before they were mature. You got nervous. Probably broke into a cold sweat, tossed and turned a bit in your sleep, and got the shakes. You even had a nightmare about your desk being moved down the hall to the janitor’s closet for your obvious lack of economic sensitivity. And if that isn’t enough, none of your peers have slop sinks in their offices. But the truth of the matter is that in so doing, you are imposing on your company, your brand, your image an injustice of mammoth proportion! In the next couple of installments of this blog, I’ll uncover the reasons to ramp up advertising and marketing efforts BECAUSE it’s a soft economy, but offer perhaps more interesting options that will appeal to a broader cross-section of the population. But be prepared. There are a lot of avenues that are garnering amazing results, but they’re not “the old tried and true.” Please, if you’re interested in getting lots of mileage on your marketing plan, don’t miss the next couple of installments of this blog! And as always, I’m prepared to learn from you.
Bryon D. Zimmerman, CEO
24.03.2009. 12:17
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