campaigns and online ads, grows. Point-of-purchase marketing – promoting price cuts or generating in-store excitement –
also tends to pick up during recessions.
Internet advertising in particular is targeted and relatively
cheap, and its performance is easily measured. Despite a deepening recession, marketers spent 14% more on online ads over
the first three quarters of 2008 than they did over the same
time frame in the previous year. Another factor driving this
growth in digital-ad spending is consumers’ migration to online social media such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn,
which help people intensify networking efforts amid layoffs
and a tough job market. The new-member sign-up rate at
LinkedIn, a site that focuses on professional networking, has
doubled in the past year.
That said, broadcast media still remain important for building mass-market consumer brands. Although strong brands
can be carried for a period on the momentum of previous
brand-building investments, no brand can afford to coast solely
on earlier efforts. Brands that are out of sight on the television
screen will sooner or later be out of mind for a large percentage of consumers. Indeed, while advertising in newspapers
and magazines and on radio and local television all declined
in 2008, advertising on the four national broadcast television
networks in the United States remained steady.
Tailoring Your Tactics
Slam-on-
the-Brakes
Pained-but-
Patient
Comfortably
Well-Off
Live-for-
Today
ESSENTIALS
■
Emphasize price; hit
wallet-friendly retail
price points
■
Offer smaller pack
sizes for less money
■
Expand retailer
private labels
■
Promote low-cost
value products
■
Introduce fighter
brand
■
Offer a lower-priced
option
■
Hit retail price points
■
Promote bonus
packs to encourage
stockpiling
■
Emphasize dependability of branded
product or service
■
Continue awareness
advertising
■
Continue awareness
advertising
■
Remind consumers, “You can’t live
without it”
TREATS
■
Shrink sizes
■
Hold prices down
■
Advertise as a “you
deserve it” small
indulgence
■
Reward loyal consumers, even if they
consume less (for example, offer frequent-patron points)
■
Advertise products as
morale raisers
■
Advertise products as
affordable alternatives to more expensive luxuries
■
Emphasize outstanding quality
■
Advertise as a
product you deserve
because you are
successful
■
Offer convenient
automatic credit card
billing
■
Promote as opportunity to seize the
moment
POSTPONABLES
■
Offer layaway plans
■
Provide low-cost
financing
■
Promote exceptional
deals
■
Challenge penny-wise, pound-foolish
behavior (such as
dangerously postponing tire replacement)
■
Offer simpler models,
lower prices
■
Promote lower-
operation-cost
models
■
Promote repair
services
■
Promote savings from
buying now
■
Advise customers
they’re “missing out”
by postponing
■
Offer monthly
payment plans
■
Promote quality-of-life benefits of buying
now
EXPENDABLES
■
Offer do-it-yourself
alternatives to doing
without
■
Continue awareness advertising (for
instance, for future
vacations)
■
Continue awareness
advertising
■
Invest in core product
improvements that
will accelerate customers’ reentry into
the market
■
Enable discreet purchasing that avoids
the appearance of
flaunting in front of
less wealthy people
■
Advertise benefits of
impressing wealthy
friends
■
Offer exciting new
products and promote as “must have”
■
Advertise as products
you can aspire to buy
when your income
grows
