Back to basics

The flow of informative articles landing in the inbox has reached a torrent as discussions on whether or not to tweet, how to blog and speculation about the latest Google algorithm are joined by exhortations to keep on  marketing in the recession with offers of marketing webinars, free tools and white papers. During recessions the accountants assume more importance than in more prosperous times and demand cuts. Marketing is of course an easy target. Cutting budgets doesn't have the nastiness, legal repercussions and redundancy packages associated with cutting staff, not to mention the ugly scenes and bad press that inevitably follow. So stop advertising then. Next look at the underperforming products and discontinue those making the smallest contribution and while about it why not cut back on stock too. So we have a lean company, costs all trimmed back and ready to survive the recession. But what do customers and prospects see. A company that has lost visibility in the industry, offers a limited product range - probably the same as everyone else - have annoyingly stopped making the specialist products they require occasionally and to top it all they are expected to wait for delivery. So the customer loyalty is put to the test and it is time to shop around. The chairman of a company I worked for used to respond to accountants with cost cutting plans with an anecdote about the owner of a sweet shop. In those days a sweet shop kept sweets in jars behind the counter - several shelves of them - and the shop keeper weighed them out in scales, tipped them into a paper bag and tied it of with a flourish. His shop keeper decided to reduce stock, so each week he removed the jar that sold the least. Gradually the shelves lined with jars emptied and gradually his shop emptied of customers, because he had missed the point. Part of the shopping experience was the choice and even if most customers predictably bought wine gums or mints, they could spend a few happy moments debating a more exotic option before settling on the old favourite. Once the choice was gone, so were they - off to a shop where they could indulge in this harmless pleasure. So it is not so much about cutting marketing, but marketing smarter and that might even cost more.