The Marketing Secrets To Surviving The Recession

Read More About Marketing

The economic downturn is still going full tilt. What strategies can be implemented to survive this downturn you ask?

Five factors to keep in mind when creating a marketing plan for 2010:

1. Continue spending on selling. This isn't the time to chop advertising. It is publicly known that brands that increase marketing during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and investment return at lower cost than during good commercial times. Uncertain buyers need the reassurance of known brands, and more customers at home watching TV can deliver higher than predicted audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. Brands with deep pockets may be able to negotiate favorable advertising rates and lock them in for several years. If you've got to cut promoting spending, try to maintain the frequency of adverts by shifting from 30-second to 15-second adverts, replacing radio for TV advertising, or skyrocketing the use of direct marketing, which gives more immediate sales impact.

2. Focus on share of the market. In all but some technology classes where growth prospects are powerful, companies are in a battle for share of the market and, in a number of cases, survival. Knowing your cost structure can ensure that any cuts or consolidation initiatives will save the most cash with minimum purchaser impact. Corporations like Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines, with robust positions and the most productive cost structures in their industries, can expect to gain market share. Other companies with healthy balance sheets can do so by taking puny competitors.

3. Make sure you research the customer. Instead of cutting the market research budget, you want to know more and more how consumers are changing price and replying to the recession. Price flexibility curves are changing. Consumers take more time hunting for sturdy products and barter harder at the point of sale. They are more prepared to defer purchases, trade down, or buy less. Must-have features of yesterday are today's can-live-withouts. Trusted brands are particularly valued and they can still launch new products successfully, but interest in new brands and new classes fades. Wasteful consumption becomes less prevalent.

4. Look over your pricing methods. Customers will be window shopping for the best deals. You don't necessarily have to chop list prices, but you might need to supply more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity deductions extend credit to long-standing patrons, and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively. In tricky times, price cuts attract more consumer support than promotions such as sweepstakes and mail-in offers.

5. Take a look at your product range. Marketers must reforecast requirement for each item in their product lines as patrons trade down to models that stress good worth, for example cars with less options. Tricky times favor multi-purpose products over specialized products, and weaker items in product lines should be pruned. In grocery-products categories, good-quality own-brands gain at the cost of state brands. Commercial shoppers like to see products and services unbundled and priced separately. Trustworthiness, durability, safety, and performance are in. New releases, particularly those that address the new consumer reality and thus put pressures on rivals, may still be introduced, but advertising should stress superior price performance, not company image.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

E King
SEO Specialist

For more visit our website promotion blog or get website promotion from the experts today

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Marketing Articles Via RSS!

Additional Articles From - Home | Marketing

Our other websites
All about SEO
Beauty Tips Forum

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email to Friends
	Ezine Ready

Submit Articles
Member Login
Link Us
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Sitemap

New Stuff
About Us
Developer
Good shopping portal
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service