The normal strategy in a downturn is to hunker down, focus on cost cutting and short-term revenue generation, and ride out the storm until the good times return. Marketers often talk a good game about recessions being great times to invest in marketing because costs are lower, your competitors are scaling back, and you can lay a much stronger foundation for the future. But the reality is that few companies are bold enough to actually do that (if you're working for one of those exceptions, congrats!). As one friend who runs interactive marketing for a large services firm told me, "If my budget next year is flat, I'll be jumping for joy."
Most often, the hunkering down approach for marketing translates into cutting back on "brand building" and pouring whatever resources are available into lead generation and sales support. This tendency is exacerbated by the fact that relatively few heads of marketing can quantify the value of brand, as noted in a new study by ANA and Interbrand (see BtoB's writeup here). If you can't quantify it, it's a lot harder to justify spending.
The shift to short-term sales is understandable enough, but I see two big problems here, even leaving aside the larger question of investing more in a downturn.
First, for companies selling high value services and solutions, your buyers are finding you much more than you're finding them. If you're not keeping up a steady pace of thought leadership, influencer relations, and general issues-based conversation in the market, you're losing out on critical channels for building interest, inquiries, and referrals that can turn quickly into leads.
Second, your sales people increasingly depend on the company's awareness, reputation, and differentiation for the credibility they need even to get into a preliminary conversation with time-starved prospects. This is especially true when times are tough. Recessions typically accentuate market bifurcation: Business buyers flock either to the lowest price providers or the (perceived) most reliable quality brands. Unless you're willing to go the commodity pricing route, cutting back on brand building can leave you stuck in the uncomfortable middle.
So, looking ahead to 2009 (and even the rest of this quarter), certainly look to minimize unnecessary costs, improve lead generation and sales support activities, and focus that much more on those activities with the biggest return. But please don't equate this with putting brand building aside. A more balanced approach is critical even to shorter-term results, and it will of course put you in better shape when the good times do return. And if you're one of the fortunate few that really can increase investment to take advantage of the downturn, I'd love to hear your story!
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