Marketing and Advertising During A Recession

You might think that during a recession your main concerns should be cutbacks, holding onto all your income, and in general pulling back from the activities you were doing before the recession. This is actuaily the OPPOSITE of what you should be doing.

A Coca-Cola marketing executive said the following regarding 2009:

“Importantly we have sustained our overall direct marketing spend in 2009, while also increasing our overall marketing effectiveness. We can confidently state that we continue to invest heavily in building our brands with consumers.”

This is just as true in our current recession as it was in the 1920’s, when advertising executive, Roland S. Vaile, tracked the revenues of 200 companies before, during and after the 1923 recession. In April 1927, Vaile reported that the companies that had advertised the most had the biggest sales increases throughout the period.

This study was repeated in 1970 by the American Business Press and Meldrum & Fewsmith, who discovered that ““sales and profits can be maintained and increased in recession years and [in the years] immediately following by those who are willing to maintain an aggressive marketing posture, while others adopt the philosophy of cutting back on promotional efforts when sales appear to be harder to get.”

The upshot of the whole thing is this:

During a recession, you need to maintain your advertising budget. PROMOTE, MARKET and ADVERTISE. This will get you through the recession successfully and you’ll reap those rewards for a long time after the recession is over as well. Don’t follow your instincts, follow history.

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