I found this little tidbit on the web:
October 15, 2008
What to do with the "R" Word?Unless you've been in a cave or bunker somewhere without the modern conveniences of television, radio or newspapers, we're hearing pundits and economists saying the dreaded "R" word. Could it be a recession is upon us? Even as I write this blog the weather is ugly, gray and it's raining. It seems to fit the economic climate and mood of Main Street (as both the candidates for president like to say).
The response to our current economic climate is all too evident everywhere I'm turning lately. People are hunkering down and scaling back. It was very clear last night as I attended a fund raising event for a cause called, Pathway Family Center (they exist to help youth and families overcome teen substance abuse and behavioral issues). It was during the live auction that an autographed jersey from the same famous athlete sold for less than half of what it sold at last years fund raiser. It seemed that this restrained mentality happened over and over during the auction. For me, this was a microcosm of people's attitude and response.This got me to wonder, is a "hunkering down" philosophy good for a business? It seems that many companies are responding in a like manner by becoming more conservative.
If you ask, Gary Lilien, professor of management science at Penn State, what a company should do during a recession, his answer would be "one of the things we say in our research is that when times get hard, that's a very good time to attack if you're strong." Lilien co-authored a 2005 study about proactive marketing during a recession. It was published in the International Journal for Research in Marketing.
The findings of Lilien's research highlighted three key qualities that are necessary to market proactively during a recession: the will, the skill, and the till. The will is the ability to resist the instinct to conserve; the skill is having a well-established and inventive marketing department (or let's say a partner like Fresh Fuel :-)); the till is to have company coffers ample enough to weather the tough times and increase the company's marketing at the same time. He emphasizes that not all companies will or should step up marketing during a recession; those that don't have the above three qualities are likely to actually lose more than they gain.
The research once again supports that the strategically-creative (skill) who take the opportunity (will) to be more aggressive (till) gain marketshare from competitors when the economy turns. I don't know about you, but I like this thought, now what's yours.
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Posted by Greg Williams on October 15, 2008 at 05:20 PM in Branding, Experiential Marketing, Traditional Advertising, Web Marketing
Source:
http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:kZ- ... d=34&gl=us
