Time to outsource marketing

We find ourselves trading in extra ordinary financial times. This global recession is no ordinary recession such as many of us have experienced a few times before. Neither is the great Wall Street crash back in 1929 an indicator except it too followed a period of prosperity in America at least. No, this time it is the banking system after years of imprudent lending that has precipitated the crisis and caused governments to inject trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into propping up the banks. Where did these vast sums of money actually come from? Could it be just  another side of the fantasy of the original bad loans. Whatever the cause and solutions the lack of credit is causing businesses to make economies and guess what - marketing is once again the soft target. 

Research by Harvard Business School has shown that it is essential to maintain marketing spending, even more so in a recession and to emphasise core values. “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain customers need the reassurance of known brands.” ... “Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director's balance sheet over the marketing manager's income statement. Managing working capital can easily dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.”

Tough times call for tough decisions and that may start with a review of the whole business  before making cuts. Think about the options. A business that has grown in prosperous times may have added personnel, facilities, plant, assets etc ad hoc. Simply making cuts across the board will result in a scaled back company no longer operating at an optimal level because all departments are now under strength. Or another approach is to cut the soft targets like marketing, expenses etc and retain all the staff because labour legislation and complexities of actually dismissing people is a tough option. But what are all these people to do when the enquiries start to dry up? 

The assumption that when the recession ends things just return to the previous happy state is dangerous. Smart companies reorganise, focus on what customers need and set up the business to do this effectively. It may need radically changing the way the business works, some product lines and services may have to go for the business to emerge revitalised and even gain market share. So how will customers and prospects know about this? Marketing. Marketing can help too with the strategic planning issues, taking the new business plan forward and implementing a realistic marketing plan. Waiting for the recession to end and then going back to do some marketing is going to disappoint - for the companies that take this route it is they that will end, not the recession. Better to call in marketing expertise that can bring an independent perspective to provide fresh thinking. Outsourcing is also a lower risk option allowing greater and more predictable control over expenditure .. it is worth a try.